Under carbonated beer

[Outeniqua]

Hi All,

I'm relatively new to the home brewing scene and have recently made my 4th batch. I bottled the batch on 24 March (6 weeks ago).

Only after I bottled the batch I realised that I only put 1 carbonisation drop in each 750ml bottle instead of 2. After 4 weeks I tried the beer and while there was a small "hissing" when I opened the bottle, the beer was definitely not carbonised enough.

The beer has a very nice flavour, so I'm keen to try and save it. I did open one bottles and put another carbonisation drop in, but ended up with beer spraying all over the kitchen - bad idea!

Any ideas? Would transferring it into a kegging system work? I've been looking for a reason to switch to a keg....

Cheers

[Grant R Baker]

"ended up with beer spraying all over the kitchen" yep you will... but you could just try a pinch of sugar in yer glass before you pour but you will sweeten the beer doing so.

With some beers (better explanation: "some yeasts" like WLP023) the beer will become even more carbonated over a longer store but if you really want a good excuse to keg then 'why not'. Force carbonating the brew will work.

[Outeniqua]

Hi Grant, thanks for your reply. This batch used Safale US56 yeast. I also thought I'll wait a bit to see if carbonisation improve over time, but I could not detect an improvement between weeks 4 and 6.

[Grant R Baker]

Hmm, I had to look that one up.... seems US56 was renamed US-05 back in 2007. (not sure how old the one you have is, obviously it worked okay).

 

Yeah it might not really get any better.

 

If you have the cash and really have thought through all the keg'ing related hardware requirements (mostly CO2 bottle and a good way to cool your kegged beers) then go for it.

[MrC]

Was the beer cold when you added the second carbonation drop?

I've added sugar successfully to undercarbonated beer.  Get the beer as cold as possible, add the carbonation drop and get the lid on ASAFP.  Worked for me.

[Outeniqua]

Hi, the beer was not chilled, so will try a chilled one as well - thanks. Hopefully the yeast will still be active enough after 6 weeks to process the added sugar?

[MrC]

There will definitely be enough active yeast to carbonate the beer.  Even if you loose some beer during the process you will still be better off.  Good luck!

[Outeniqua]

Thanks for the advice guys, will give the chilled beer suggestion a go before investing in a kegging system.

[Des Ross]

hi. I would not keg simply because of the serious risk of oxygen pickup resulting in possible oxidation...I cannot see how you could avoid this when pouring bottles into a bulk container. As already suggested, chill hard and add more priming. Good luck!

[Outeniqua]

Thanks Des, the beer is now in the fridge and I will try it tomorrow. As some gas will escape when I open the bottle, do I put one or two drops into each 750ml bottle?

[Des Ross]

If you get the beer REAL cold (but not frozen! ) most CO2 will remain in solution and you should only need the 1 extra drop. Only do one bottle at a time ( remove cap, drop in the sugar and recap ASAP) When finished, place bottles in an 18-20C environment to re-carbonate for a couple of weeks.

[Adam Barnes]

I had a batch that I bottled half into glass the other half into 1.25 PET bottles. The glass carbonated fine, but the PET bottles must have leaked the CO2 as they didn't fully carbonate. The ones in the bottles were tasting great (they also got a silver medal and won the best malt inspired beer at last years NHC) so I didn't want to waste any. They just sat under the house for a month or so whilst I was getting into kegging. Once sorted I just poured the PET bottles into the keg and force carbonated. I didn't notice any off flavours but I guess it is a risk.

Carbonation drops would be the cheapest way to go, but if that doesn't work and you do get the kegs then I'd say give force carbonation a go.