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Date: 10 Jul 2006 22:33:07
From: Scott Alfter
Subject: Fixing carbonation in a bottled beer
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Earlier this year, I bottled a wee heavy that had been sitting in secondary
for a good long time. Knowing the yeast had most likely fallen out, I put a
sprinkle of dry yeast in each bottle along with a carbonation drop.
One month after bottling, the wee heavy was still flat. Figuring that it's
a big beer, I gave it some more time.
A few days ago, I popped another wee heavy. It's still flat.
This morning, I had a brain-fart that might be a possible fix, and I figured
I'd run it by the people here to see if it's reasonable or if I should try
something else:
1) Flush a sanitized corny keg with carbon dioxide.
2) Empty each bottle into the keg, keeping the mouth of the bottle inside
the keg.
3) Close up the keg, throw it in the kegerator, and force-carbonate it.
4) Bottle with a counter-pressure filler (optional).
I'm thinking that carbon dioxide, being heavier than air, will sit in the
keg as long as it's level. This should maintain an oxygen-free environment
inside the keg. If the mouth of the bottle is held inside the keg, exposure
to oxygen should be minimized. Therefore, it shouldn't matter if the beer
splashes on the way to the bottom of the keg. As the keg fills up, the
carbon dioxide will float on top and will be pushed out the top.
Does the above sound reasonable, or should I try something else? I've fixed
carbonation problems before by just adding more yeast, but since that's
already not worked, I don't know if it's worth giving that another shot.
_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( http://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ rm -rf /bin/laden >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?
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Date: 11 Jul 2006 01:04:45
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Fixing carbonation in a bottled beer
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On 10 Jul 2006 22:33:07 GMT, <scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us > wrote:
>
> Earlier this year, I bottled a wee heavy that had been sitting in secondary
> for a good long time. Knowing the yeast had most likely fallen out, I put a
> sprinkle of dry yeast in each bottle along with a carbonation drop.
>
> One month after bottling, the wee heavy was still flat. Figuring that it's
> a big beer, I gave it some more time.
>
> A few days ago, I popped another wee heavy. It's still flat.
You're sure you remembered the priming sugar? ;)
I haven't used carbonation drops before, but aren't you usually supposed to
use a couple of them per bottle? I didn't think they were meant to be used
one per bottle. I'm not sure though.
> This morning, I had a brain-fart that might be a possible fix, and I figured
> I'd run it by the people here to see if it's reasonable or if I should try
> something else:
>
> 1) Flush a sanitized corny keg with carbon dioxide.
> 2) Empty each bottle into the keg, keeping the mouth of the bottle inside
> the keg.
> 3) Close up the keg, throw it in the kegerator, and force-carbonate it.
> 4) Bottle with a counter-pressure filler (optional).
>
> I'm thinking that carbon dioxide, being heavier than air, will sit in the
> keg as long as it's level. This should maintain an oxygen-free environment
> inside the keg. If the mouth of the bottle is held inside the keg, exposure
> to oxygen should be minimized. Therefore, it shouldn't matter if the beer
> splashes on the way to the bottom of the keg. As the keg fills up, the
> carbon dioxide will float on top and will be pushed out the top.
It doesn't really work that way. The CO2 will initially push out the oxygen
as the keg fills with gas, but it's not going to do much to hold the oxygen
out, especially if you leave the keg open while you're pouring bottles in.
I don't think I'd count on this to prevent oxidation.
> Does the above sound reasonable, or should I try something else? I've fixed
> carbonation problems before by just adding more yeast, but since that's
> already not worked, I don't know if it's worth giving that another shot.
Pouring the bottles into a keg isn't a bad idea, but IMO, you'd probably
be better off taking the time/care to gently pour the bottles into the keg
rather than expect that just initially purging it with CO2 will give you
any protection. You're still probably going to get some oxidation this way
though.
Some extra yeast and/or some extra priming sugar in the bottles at this point
might be a better bet.
John.
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