Bottle Carbing in Winter?

[SlugTrap]

I'm in one of those old Dublin brick rowhouses with high ceilings + poor insulation. Even with the heating on most rooms won't get over 17C in winter.

That's a great ambient temp for primary, but not so good for secondary fermentation in the bottle.
Opened one yesterday that was 3 weeks in the bottle and it was flat as a pancake.

Hot press is a bit awkward (in the bathroom) but could probably fit a crate.
It gets up to 23C, though - that seems high.

Any thoughts?

[oblivious]

Similar issue too , but had them in the shed!. Is 23c really to high?

[irish_goat]

I think 23c is grand for the amount of fermenting the yeast will do in the bottle anyway.

Did you put the bottles in the fridge for a while? They need a bit of time in cold storage for the CO2 to go into solution as well.

[Simon_]

I'd say 23° is fine for conditioning.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

23C is fine for anything top fermenting. I probably wouldn't bottle condition a lager that way though.

An alternative solution is to make a dedicated conditioning chamber. If you could source one of those tall insulated flexible boxes that fast food couriers use, you could store in that with a tube heater or heat pad.

[Bazza]

+1

If you can't get hold of an insulated box, you could get a regular wooden/plastic box or crate and line the inside and lid with that silver foil bubble wrap stuff they sell in B&Q to line the backs of radiators. 10-15 quid a roll, which is all you'll need. A roll of that silver foil sticking tape they sell along with the foil wrap is pretty handy too.

-Barry