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Author Topic: recarbonating  (Read 2580 times)

Offline travjohn92

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recarbonating
« on: February 22, 2013, 02:09:43 pm »
I bottled an american wheat beer and before I bottled I had cold crashed it for about a week.  I used a carbonation guide that asked me for the temperature of the beer at bottling, which was 40, but I input 45 to account for any heat gained in the process.  This was right on because when I finished I was at 46 degrees.  Anyway the carbonation guide using told me to use a significantly less amount of priming sugar to achieve  a 2.7 carb level.  I went with the amount it indicated and after 3 weeks at 66 degrees there is minimal carbonation.

Is there a safe way to recarbonate or increase the carbonation? I know I will have to open bottles, but didn't know if carb tablets would help or add a small amount of priming sugar to each bottle would do it.

Just for reference I used the beer recipator carbonation guide and used wyeast american wheat yeast.
 
Primary: Belgian Wheat IPA, Vlad the IPAler
Secondary:  Iced Oatmeal Dunkelweizen
Kegged:  Baron Von IPWEIZEN, Dunkelweizen
Bottled: De Perverse Monnik Tripel
Next Up: Bog Nog Black IPA, Wake N Bake Clone, Breadbasket Wheat

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: recarbonating
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2013, 03:09:50 pm »
That temperature on carb calculators can be confusing. You always want to put the HIGHEST temp the beer was at AFTER active fermetation subsides. That is the temp that will determine how much residual disolved CO2 is present.

That being said, you can open, add carb tabs or boiled cooled sugar syrup (in known dosage) to each bottle and recap. I would ignore the first sugar addition at this point and recalculate using 66 as your temp.
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Offline hubie

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Re: recarbonating
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2013, 03:28:02 pm »
Out of curiosity, what was the highest temp it saw before you cold crashed it?

Offline travjohn92

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Re: recarbonating
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2013, 03:44:18 pm »
Out of curiosity, what was the highest temp it saw before you cold crashed it?

66
Primary: Belgian Wheat IPA, Vlad the IPAler
Secondary:  Iced Oatmeal Dunkelweizen
Kegged:  Baron Von IPWEIZEN, Dunkelweizen
Bottled: De Perverse Monnik Tripel
Next Up: Bog Nog Black IPA, Wake N Bake Clone, Breadbasket Wheat

Offline euge

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Re: recarbonating
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2013, 05:21:30 am »
You could use carb-drops or tabs but sugar cubes are cheaper and also of a defined weight. Easy to calculate what each bottle will need.

I also like the idea of adding sugar syrup in doses but most folks don't have access to syringes; you'd need a 30 or 60cc unit for ease of use.

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Offline travjohn92

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Re: recarbonating
« Reply #5 on: February 23, 2013, 06:06:29 am »
At this point I think I am going to use carb tabs.  I have them already.
Primary: Belgian Wheat IPA, Vlad the IPAler
Secondary:  Iced Oatmeal Dunkelweizen
Kegged:  Baron Von IPWEIZEN, Dunkelweizen
Bottled: De Perverse Monnik Tripel
Next Up: Bog Nog Black IPA, Wake N Bake Clone, Breadbasket Wheat