Hi all,
I've been sniffing around the forum for a while and thought it was about time that I signed up and put my money where my mouse clicks!
I'm brewing on a BIAB system at the moment and have a few brews under my belt. I'm a relatively old dog but can still manage some new tricks, so hope to pick up a few tips here. I've had moderate success with brewing so far but have had a few issues with carbonation. (I'm still bottling at the moment ...)
I am aware of some of the members here via Beoir and Twitter, but haven't met many in person.
Er ... well ... that's it for now.
Welcome. What part of the country are you in at all? We always say come to a meet and you'll be amazed at what you pick up, plus it's a great night out.
Thanks,
I'm living in Carlow town, but willing to travel ... as they say!
Can't believe you didn't tell us all what your day job is, we'll forgive you ;)
Welcome aboard and don't be afraid to ask the experts, they are around here somewhere
Welcome Liam, I brew on a similar system and I bottle my brew also. I had problems with carbonation levels. Different styles require different levels.
I use brewersfriend carb calculator and batch prime my beer. I then leave the bottles at room temp 19 to 21 degrees to finish out. I used to leave them in a cold room after i bottled and that is what was giving me poor levels..
http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/.
Thanks Darren,
I've used 3 different calculators (including that one) and averaged out what they came up with for 3 batches ... and each time the carb level was too low. I think your right and it's the temperature is the issue ... although on one batch I monitored the temp and kept it up and still didn't get the carbonation I hoped.
(Having said all that I might have erred on the side of caution on the first batch or two as I wished to avoid bottle bombs and getting my brewing privileges taken away! :()
The fact that I'm an impatient person doesn't help of course!
I am getting closer to what I want with each new batch btw.
Would it be possible that not enough yeast was carried through to bottling? I'd imagine it's unlikely as I don't use a secondary fermentor.
It'd be unlikely that there wasn't enough yeast (especially if you didn't use a secondary). I use this carboanation calculator (http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html) myself. Once you've added the bottling sugar the yeast needs time to eat it and create the C02 so if you're putting your bottles straight into the fridge or out in the shed the yeast will probably end up going to sleep before it can carbonate the beer. If you did monitor the temp though then it probably would have to be not enough sugar causing the issue.
It's not all that difficult really after primary has finished a week, transferred into a bucket that has your priming sugar dissolved boiled and cooled for dispersion, how much sugar did you use?
Gentle swirl at the end of fill to ensure mixed.
The transfer reactivates the yeast, then into your bottles and 18-20 degrees for 3-4 weeks to finish out put some into a coopers or lucozade bottle and give it a squeeze every week and that will tell you progress.
Common fault is that folks don't cap properly, are you using glass bottles and caps or coopers?
Or too long on primary or secondary with highly attenuative yeast and it all fallen out in which case you could reseed, which is tomorrow's lesson.
I'm sure you'll get round to Cornys at some point ;)
Thanks for the replies.
Right...
irish-goat:
Bottles were at room temperature, albeit in a not very warm house. The second to last batch I put in a water bath with a heater in a demijohn keeping the temp steady (20C) for about 10 days and then out to room temp at 16-18C. Carbonation is still half what I expected after a month. I put in 80g of sugar for 17L, that calculator says 75.8g for 2.0 CO2 volume. I didn't use that calculator. but others I used threw out figures of 76,82,79,83 and 67g.
I'm wondering have I missed out on something crucial ...
CH:
Did all that exactly as you say ... temp might be a tad lower than what you say but close enough. Caps are sound, as I've used crowns and flip-tops with same issue. And yes kegging is next on my agenda!
I used US-05 Safale dried yeast btw and I am leaving it maybe 1 week in the fermentor after fermentation has stopped.
Anyway, thanks both of you for the input. I might post more details on a separate thread so as not to clog this one up.
This might seem like a silly question so forgive me. Did you pour the sugar straight in,as in the granuals?
Nope, did pretty much as CH said...
Dissolved it, let it cool a little, added it to bottling bucket and poured the beer from fermentor on to it. Bottled, capped and waited.
Must be a temp problem then, those heat pads for dogs are the biz for a few bottles.