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Author Topic: Not enough carbonation  (Read 1222 times)

Offline hschleef

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Not enough carbonation
« on: November 23, 2013, 10:11:57 pm »
Hello,
 I've been having problems getting the carbonation level that I want when I bottle my beer. I've done both all-grain and extract brewing. The recipes that I follow are from The Joy of Homebrewing which say to use 3/4 cup of priming sugar for a 5 gal batch. I've gone up to 1 cup per 5 gal batch and the level of carbonation has not gone up significantly. When I first started brewing I didn't have a problem but for some reason my beers are not fully carbonating anymore. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Offline Jimmy K

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Re: Not enough carbonation
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2013, 10:19:03 pm »
Some sugars are quite light and fluffy, so 3/4 cup may only be 3oz. Are all bottles in every batch undercarbonated?
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Offline klickitat jim

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Re: Not enough carbonation
« Reply #2 on: November 23, 2013, 10:28:50 pm »
Ya first thought is weight not volume. Always weight sugar.
Next is how you get the sugar into the beer. I use two cups water. Boil then rack beer to it. Then gently stir with sanitized spoon.

Have you changed anything in your process? Such as filtering out too much yeast? Sanitation change?

What temp do you bottle condition at and for how long?

Offline bboy9000

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Re: Not enough carbonation
« Reply #3 on: November 23, 2013, 10:58:35 pm »
What are your yeast pitching and fermentation practices?  Do you use yeast pitching calculators (Mr. Malty, Brewer's Friend)?  How long do you ferment?   Do you use priming calculators (Brewer's Friend, Northern Brewer, Tasty Brew)?  On the calculators you should enter the highest temperature your beer reached during fermentation, not the current temp.  What are your bottle conditioning temps? If the bottles are in a cool area try moving  them to a warmer part of your house.  As others indicated, measuring the priming sugar by weight is preferred.
Brian
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