| |
Main
Date: 31 Aug 2006 21:37:49
From: Digiears
Subject: Big beer needs to carbonate
|
Hey fellers.
I brewed the BYO Groundskeeper Willy's Wee Heavy a few months ago. OG
1.100, 3 weeks later 1.030 and the taste is awesome! It sat i nthe
secondary for another 2 months, I bottled with 3/4 cup corn sugar and
some new Nottingham stirred into the carboy. It tasted great even when
young.
Here I am 6 weeks after bottling and I'm finding it's not carbonated.
I am a patient man but this beer has a purpose. My best friend is
getting married in 5 weeks and it's a present. I don't want to give
him a "Gift card" for a future carbonated beverage!
Question: I've got a pack of Lalvin K1-V1116 wine yeast I'm itching
to pitch. Would that be a "bad" thing? Should I give it more sugar?
I plan on opening all the bottles, adding what's needed and recapping.
Advice, please.
Geoff
|
|
| |
Date: 01 Sep 2006 14:33:29
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Big beer needs to carbonate
|
On 31 Aug 2006 21:37:49 -0700, <digiears@gmail.com > wrote:
> Hey fellers.
>
> I brewed the BYO Groundskeeper Willy's Wee Heavy a few months ago. OG
> 1.100, 3 weeks later 1.030 and the taste is awesome! It sat i nthe
> secondary for another 2 months, I bottled with 3/4 cup corn sugar and
> some new Nottingham stirred into the carboy. It tasted great even when
> young.
>
> Here I am 6 weeks after bottling and I'm finding it's not carbonated.
> I am a patient man but this beer has a purpose. My best friend is
> getting married in 5 weeks and it's a present. I don't want to give
> him a "Gift card" for a future carbonated beverage!
What temp has it been stored at while carbonating?
John.
|
| |
Date: 01 Sep 2006 10:09:54
From: Dick Adams
Subject: Re: Big beer needs to carbonate
|
Digiears <digiears@gmail.com > wrote:
> I brewed the BYO Groundskeeper Willy's Wee Heavy a few months ago. OG
> 1.100, 3 weeks later 1.030 and the taste is awesome! It sat i nthe
> secondary for another 2 months, I bottled with 3/4 cup corn sugar and
> some new Nottingham stirred into the carboy. It tasted great even when
> young.
>
> Here I am 6 weeks after bottling and I'm finding it's not carbonated.
> I am a patient man but this beer has a purpose. My best friend is
> getting married in 5 weeks and it's a present. I don't want to give
> him a "Gift card" for a future carbonated beverage!
>
> Question: I've got a pack of Lalvin K1-V1116 wine yeast I'm itching
> to pitch. Would that be a "bad" thing? Should I give it more sugar?
>
> I plan on opening all the bottles, adding what's needed and recapping.
> Advice, please.
I have the reverse problem. My beers tend to over-carbonate when
bottled (which I do rarely). I keep them at room temperature for
two weeks after filling. Someone suggested I keep them at room
temp for only one wekk and then refrigerate them. I have not tried
that yet. So maybe you need to keep them at room temperature.
Dick
|
| |
Date: 01 Sep 2006 06:43:37
From: Steve/Aus
Subject: Re: Big beer needs to carbonate
|
"Digiears" <digiears@gmail.com > wrote in message
news:1157085469.078240.180670@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Hey fellers.
>
> I brewed the BYO Groundskeeper Willy's Wee Heavy a few months ago. OG
> 1.100, 3 weeks later 1.030 and the taste is awesome! It sat i nthe
> secondary for another 2 months, I bottled with 3/4 cup corn sugar and
> some new Nottingham stirred into the carboy. It tasted great even when
> young.
>
> Here I am 6 weeks after bottling and I'm finding it's not carbonated.
> I am a patient man but this beer has a purpose. My best friend is
> getting married in 5 weeks and it's a present. I don't want to give
> him a "Gift card" for a future carbonated beverage!
>
> Question: I've got a pack of Lalvin K1-V1116 wine yeast I'm itching
> to pitch. Would that be a "bad" thing? Should I give it more sugar?
>
> I plan on opening all the bottles, adding what's needed and recapping.
> Advice, please.
>
> Geoff
>
My advice is to warm the beer to room temp and invert the bottles every
second day or so. That should speed things up a bit.
Steve W (in Aus)
|
| |
Date: 01 Sep 2006 05:36:49
From: Adam Preble
Subject: Re: Big beer needs to carbonate
|
Digiears wrote:
> Hey fellers.
>
> I brewed the BYO Groundskeeper Willy's Wee Heavy a few months ago. OG
> 1.100, 3 weeks later 1.030 and the taste is awesome! It sat i nthe
> secondary for another 2 months, I bottled with 3/4 cup corn sugar and
> some new Nottingham stirred into the carboy. It tasted great even when
> young.
Did you do the primary fermentation with Nottingham yeast?
>
> Here I am 6 weeks after bottling and I'm finding it's not carbonated.
> I am a patient man but this beer has a purpose. My best friend is
> getting married in 5 weeks and it's a present. I don't want to give
> him a "Gift card" for a future carbonated beverage!
Is it not completely carbonated or not carbonated at all?
>
> Question: I've got a pack of Lalvin K1-V1116 wine yeast I'm itching
> to pitch. Would that be a "bad" thing? Should I give it more sugar?
I've changed yeast strains for bottling in the past and it's led to
bottle bombs. I had used a yeast with a lower attenuation than
Nottingham yeast, and then switched to that yeast for bottling. This
created bottle bombs. There could have been other factors though.
I would particularly recommend against pitching a wine yeast into your
bottles. Wine yeasts were meant for wine musts with the gravity of big
beers, and they manage to pull down past 1.000 sometimes. I think
you'll find it'll gleefully overcarbonate.
Some things you can do is leave them out at 75F or higher, and shake
them a bit as well. When I made a wee heavy, it was slow on the uptake.
At two months, it had finally reached a carbonation I considered
suitable, though I don't think it's still complete. At two weeks, it
was next to flat, but I could look very closely and see very small bubbles.
If you're chilling the beer before having it, whatever carbonation is
there will disguise itself because of the reduction in pressure. You
won't get that satisfying hiss opening the bottle.
|
| | |
Date: 01 Sep 2006 14:41:02
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Big beer needs to carbonate
|
On Fri, 01 Sep 2006 05:36:49 GMT, <rockobonaparte@hotmail.com > wrote:
>> Question: I've got a pack of Lalvin K1-V1116 wine yeast I'm itching
>> to pitch. Would that be a "bad" thing? Should I give it more sugar?
>
> I've changed yeast strains for bottling in the past and it's led to
> bottle bombs. I had used a yeast with a lower attenuation than
> Nottingham yeast, and then switched to that yeast for bottling. This
> created bottle bombs. There could have been other factors though.
>
> I would particularly recommend against pitching a wine yeast into your
> bottles. Wine yeasts were meant for wine musts with the gravity of big
> beers, and they manage to pull down past 1.000 sometimes. I think
> you'll find it'll gleefully overcarbonate.
I definitely agree with Adam. Anytime you add a different yeast to the
bottles, especially something totally different like a wine yeast, you risk
the yeast consuming sugars in the original wort that Nottingham left behind.
If/When that happens, you'll end up with overcarbonation and probably bottle
bombs.
Since you added fresh yeast at bottling time already, I don't think your
problem is yeast based. 1.100 is a relatively high OG, but I do not believe
you have hit the alcohol tolerance of the ale yeast. I would look
elsewhere. Storage temp during carbonation would be my first guess. You
want to keep the bottles warm while they are carbonating. Some brewers
will bottle and immediately put them in the fridge. This is a mistake,
especially on a "big" beer that can require longer carbonation times anyway.
Let the beer carbonate at room temp (around 70F) for several weeks and then
chill it.
John.
|
| |
Date: 01 Sep 2006 12:36:23
From: Digiears
Subject: Re: Big beer needs to carbonate
|
I guess I should have also said:
-I used the Wyeast Scottish ale for Primary, 1.030 was the target FG.
-It's been at 75 deg since I bottled it. Can't afford to keep the
house too cool here in TN.
I'll try rousing/shaking it and see what happens. I don't want a lot
of carbonation, but it's not even gotten enough to get a head on top.
Maybe if I sample a few more...
Geoff
|
| | |
Date: 01 Sep 2006 19:41:31
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Big beer needs to carbonate
|
On 1 Sep 2006 12:36:23 -0700, <digiears@gmail.com > wrote:
> I guess I should have also said:
>
> -I used the Wyeast Scottish ale for Primary, 1.030 was the target FG.
> -It's been at 75 deg since I bottled it. Can't afford to keep the
> house too cool here in TN.
75F is fine, no need to try and get it cooler.
> I'll try rousing/shaking it and see what happens. I don't want a lot
> of carbonation, but it's not even gotten enough to get a head on top.
>
> Maybe if I sample a few more...
I can't figure out what the problem is. It sounds like you've done
everything you need to. You've got priming sugar, fresh yeast, temps are
fine, you've waited long enough...
The only other thing I can think of is, how did you mix in the priming
sugar? Is it possible that it wasn't distributed evenly and you've got
bottles with uneven amounts? Maybe you just sampled bottles so far that
got too little sugar?
John.
|
|
