Carbonating AG versus Extract

[Weizguy]

No. Just take fermentation and conditioning temperature into account when calculating priming level. It's to do with the amount of carbon dioxide already in the beer.

Exactly. The idea is to add the right amount of carbon dioxide into the beer, via priming, to achieve the right carbonation for the style.
It all relies on knowing the max temp the beer has reached prior to bottling.

I hope you bulk prime. It's so much easier to get consistent carbonation

 

[superstock]

The temp in the nomograph I provided is the TEMP OF FERMENTATION, thereby taking into acccount the co2 dissolved in the beer.
I've never had a bottle bomb with 8gms even with lager temps. The worst problem was difficulty pouring dark ales because of the extreme head.
You could crack the caps, let them go flat, reprime with carb drops and see if they will recarb.

 

[ianh]

If you use a calculator as suggested. The temperature input is the highest temperature the beer has reached after the beer has finished fermenting. A beer that has reached 23C after fermentation requires 10% more sugar than one that has only reached 18C maximum for the same CO2 level.

Have you thought of using PET bottles, then you can tell by squeezing them whether they have carbonated. Plus no bottle bombs.

Edit Beaten

 

[superstock]

If you use a calculator as suggested. The temperature input is the highest temperature the beer has reached after the beer has finished fermenting. A beer that has reached 23C after fermentation requires 10% more sugar than one that has only reached 18C maximum for the same CO2 level.

Have you thought of using PET bottles, then you can tell by squeezing them whether they have carbonated. Plus no bottle bombs.

Edit Beaten

If you use ianh's spreadsheet it has a calculator for priming. When I bottle I always do 1 PET bottle to sqeeze as a carbing indicator.

 

[kaiserben]

1. Can they be rescued, resuscitated in some manner ... drinking flat beer blows ... I just opened one I had made for my wife tonight, who said it was spot on to what she wanted, in fact it was expletive-ly marvellous, but she said she couldn't drink it without bubbles... Back to the man cave...

After doing a fair bit of searching for info about deliberately lowly carbonated beers (ie English Bitters, ESB etc) I grabbed myself a syringe from a chemist (just a syringe, no need for a needle) for 70 cents.

I've managed to under-carb all my all grain batches so far (3 and counting, an APA, Schwarzbier and an ESB). None of them had any head whatsoever to begin with. But all were rescued by the syringe.

I simply pour the beer into a glass, but not quite fill it. I draw some beer from the glass into the syringe until it's full, and then squirt it back into the beer as fast as possible. It forms a beautiful head that is then retained nicely.

I'm guessing this will work for any beer that's slightly under-carbed.

 

[Dunkelbrau]

After doing a fair bit of searching for info about deliberately lowly carbonated beers (ie English Bitters, ESB etc) I grabbed myself a syringe from a chemist (just a syringe, no need for a needle) for 70 cents.

I've managed to under-carb all my all grain batches so far (3 and counting, an APA, Schwarzbier and an ESB). None of them had any head whatsoever to begin with. But all were rescued by the syringe.

I simply pour the beer into a glass, but not quite fill it. I draw some beer from the glass into the syringe until it's full, and then squirt it back into the beer as fast as possible. It forms a beautiful head that is then retained nicely.

I'm guessing this will work for any beer that's slightly under-carbed.

The pre widget Guinness method!

This is not going to rescue the beer in terms of carbonation, all you are doing is throwing oxygen (therefore nitrogen) in to the beer and getting a similar result to that of a nitro pour, awesome I agree! I use it on a lot of my beers that I deliberately low carb!

 

[kaiserben]

It's a bit annoying. I can't really serve up a head-less beer (even a deliberately low-carbed ESB) to someone and say: "Hang on a sec ...", whip out the syringe etc etc.

Hopefully I'll get my carbing right soon. Like the OP I never had issues with carbing kit brews (but that was always simply just a teaspoon of sugar, whereas now I'm bulk priming).

 

[brewinski]

You could crack the caps, let them go flat, reprime with carb drops and see if they will recarb.

Has anyone ever pulled this off ....

The syringe trick is good, it's sort of what I have been doing, by pouring my lower carbed beers from ever increasing distance from the glass ... but it ain't fooling me or anyone I know