My most recent brew has been bottled for just short of 2 weeks now. I just opened one to give it a test and it seems to have very low levels of carbonation, not enough to form a head. I used a priming sugar calculator to calculate enough sugar for 2 volumes of CO2 (somewhere around 90g for 20L). I added the solution to my bottling bucket before racking and then left to diffuse for a little while before bottling. The beer is meant to be a pale bitter and had an OG of 1.038 and FG of 1.010, it was in primary for 3 weeks before bottling. The beer now seems to have a little sweetness to it that wasn't there when I tasted it before priming, which suggests to me the priming sugar hasn't been fully fermented.
The room it's in has been around 20 degrees, not sure how consistent this is but the weather has been reasonably warm recently. Should I just leave it another couple of weeks or could it help to rouse the yeast a bit? I'd really like it to finish fermenting out the sugar as it tasted good before but now there's just this underlying sweetness to it which ruins the character of the beer. Also would you guys say 2 volumes of CO2 is a sensible amount for a bottled bitter/British pale ale? Obviously I don't want it to be really fizzy but would like it to at least form a head and not taste flat... I went with 2 based on what I'd read about carbonation levels of different beer styles.
Cheers.
Low carbonation after 2 weeks
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Jocky
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Re: Low carbonation after 2 weeks
2.0 is fairly low, although right for an English ale, it's lower than many ales appear (to my senses at least) appear to be bottled at. Equally 2 weeks isn't all that long to finish carbonation. 3 weeks is a minimum, and I don't find some beers hit their stride until 5/6.
Unless you've done something drastic after fermentation/before bottling there will be loads of yeast left in the beer to carbonate it.
I do get occasions where the combination of yeast and alcohol mean that the carbonation just doesn't get going (Double IPAs are a problem at 8%+). I know for those to add some more next time I brew that recipe.
So give it time, see what happens.
Unless you've done something drastic after fermentation/before bottling there will be loads of yeast left in the beer to carbonate it.
I do get occasions where the combination of yeast and alcohol mean that the carbonation just doesn't get going (Double IPAs are a problem at 8%+). I know for those to add some more next time I brew that recipe.
So give it time, see what happens.
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.
Re: Low carbonation after 2 weeks
Is it ever worth swirling the bottles or doing anything else to bring the yeast back into suspension? The bottles are definitely forming a layer of sediment on the bottom but I don't know if this means the yeast is still working or not.