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Author Topic: Pliny the Elder  (Read 4819 times)

Offline LouBru

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Pliny the Elder
« on: July 06, 2012, 06:26:53 am »
Hey all, New to the AHA.  Just finished Bottling my Pliny the Elder Clone. I Primed with DME before bottling and OG was spot on for this recipe. Clarity was great too. Its been in bottle for 3 weeks now and I have tested 2 bottles over the past week. It has not carbonated very well at all.

Has anyone else had this happen or does the Pliny just need to really become and Elder for Carbonation?  All my brews have come out really well but this is the first time I have run into this problem. 

Thanks for the help.

Lou

Primary- none
Secondary- American Watermelon Wheat
Bottle- Pliny the Elder
Drinking- Garage Fog Amber Ale, Stone IPA
Primary- SS minow brown
Secondary- Drumpkin dark rum pumpkin ale.
Secondary- Brugse Tripel
Keg Holiday spiced Red
Bottle- Drumpkin / Dude RyePa / Oakwood bourbon porter/ Dark Cherry Van bourbon porter

Offline madscientist

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Re: Pliny the Elder
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2012, 06:36:59 am »
I've never used DME to carb my beer, so I can't really say anything about it, but what temp are the bottles at?  I had a batch that wouldn't carb up and then I realized the ambient temp in the closet was only about 60F.  Moved them to 72F living room and they carbed up no problem.
Homebrewed since 2010

Offline jeffy

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  • Tampa, Fl
Re: Pliny the Elder
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2012, 06:57:33 am »
It's been my experience that DME takes a bit longer than corn sugar to prime.
Really big beers take longer also, so you have two things telling you to be patient.
Jeff Gladish, Tampa (989.3, 175.1 Apparent Rennarian)
Homebrewing since 1990
AHA member since 1991, now a lifetime member
BJCP judge since 1995

Offline LouBru

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Re: Pliny the Elder
« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2012, 06:58:42 am »
It is in the same place as all my beers at a constant 70-72 degrees. What do you use to carbonate in the bottle? I guess it was just priming sugar but it looks like DME. Either way, Im nervous to lose this batch.  Taste is great but no carb really lacks the full experience.  Im on the East coast so we don't get Pliny out here but I have heard great things about it.  Thats why I brewed it. 

Primary- SS minow brown
Secondary- Drumpkin dark rum pumpkin ale.
Secondary- Brugse Tripel
Keg Holiday spiced Red
Bottle- Drumpkin / Dude RyePa / Oakwood bourbon porter/ Dark Cherry Van bourbon porter

Offline LouBru

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  • Posts: 15
Re: Pliny the Elder
« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2012, 07:00:16 am »
Jeffy,
Thanks for the info.  My plan is exactly that.  let it sit for a few more weeks and test as needed. Worst case, it becomes a shelter for a while and I enjoy very slowly.  Ill keep you posted. 

Thanks
Lou
Primary- SS minow brown
Secondary- Drumpkin dark rum pumpkin ale.
Secondary- Brugse Tripel
Keg Holiday spiced Red
Bottle- Drumpkin / Dude RyePa / Oakwood bourbon porter/ Dark Cherry Van bourbon porter

Offline hubie

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Re: Pliny the Elder
« Reply #5 on: July 06, 2012, 10:59:15 am »
What do you use to carbonate in the bottle?

All you really need is just simple table sugar for priming.  If you've only used priming sugar before you'll need to adjust down a bit for table sugar.  John Palmer has a great section on all of this (http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-4.html), and his nomograph is very easy to use and very useful (I keep a copy taped to the inside of my brew log book).

You need to use more DME vs corn sugar to prime, so if you really used DME to prime thinking it was corn sugar, then you also might end up with lower carbonation than you were expecting.  Even if that was the case, I wouldn't worry about ruining the batch because it should still turn out to be tasty.

Offline ynotbrusum

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Re: Pliny the Elder
« Reply #6 on: July 06, 2012, 11:45:06 am »
Worst case scenario, you may need to reyeast with some dry yeast and a little more sugar.  Don't go that route unless you have to, though. 
Hodge Garage Brewing: "Brew with a glad heart!"

Offline tomsawyer

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Re: Pliny the Elder
« Reply #7 on: July 06, 2012, 12:24:54 pm »
High hopping levels are another challenge to yeast, and I'm sure a Pliney clone qualifies on that count.

If it is starting to carbonate, everything will be fine and you just have to wait another few weeks.
Lennie
Hannibal, MO