Carbonation

[floody_lager]

First off, Merry Xmas to everyone. Hope the day was good. It was extra special for me as I proposed to my girl friend and she accepted. WOO HOO!!

Back to the serious matter.
I have had my first batch in bottles for nearly two weeks now. I tried one after a week and it was flat(obviously) then over the last few days i have been giving them a little shake to wake it up a bit. I felt the pet bottles yesterday and they were really really hard. I thought maybe too hard so i stuck one in the freezer for an hour to chill it, then poured it. there was no head and barely any bubbles. the taste was really really nice but it had no fizz. would this be due to the freezer. i think it was in there too long cos there was a bit of ice.
just a bit worried coz the bottles are really hard but still flat
please help asap

 

[buttersd70]

Floody
The pet bottles can get surprisingly hard, it doesn't mean there is necessarily a problem. It doesn't take a lot of pressure inside them to get hard.

The colder the beer gets, the harder it is for co2 to break out of solution. The good carb and the head on the beer when poured is basically some of the co2 breaking away, so if (a properly) carbonated beer is chilled too cold, it may have the appearance of being undercarbonated and have little head, because the gas is remaining in the beer instead of breaking out.

I wouldnt worry too much about the pet being hard, but if it is still a concern, chill one down (in the fridge this time :lol: ) to proper serving temperature. When it's cold, give the pet a bit of a sqeeze. If it is softer than it was when it was warm, all should be well. If it's still hard, then open it up and check it.

 

[Gavo]

First off, Merry Xmas to everyone. Hope the day was good. It was extra special for me as I proposed to my girl friend and she accepted. WOO HOO!!

Wouldn't that be Fiance? (with the little squiggle above the e) Congrats and good luck.

i stuck one in the freezer for an hour to chill it, then poured it. there was no head and barely any bubbles. the taste was really really nice but it had no fizz. would this be due to the freezer. i think it was in there too long cos there was a bit of ice.

I usually find that a better fizz/Head is to be found after the bottle has been chilled in the fridge for a couple of days, at least overnight.

Cheers
Gavo.

 

[Bribie G]

As Butters correctly stated, the hardness of the bottle is not a good guide unless you do a hot and then cold squeeze test. I am currently weeding out some of my PET collection (I don't need so many now that I am going heavily into UK AG ales that are best drunk young) and It's surprising how a rock hard feeling bottle can be almost floppy when chilled. These ones get the X mark of death texta'd onto them and into the recycling - after drinking of course, I get a bit of a head on them using the pocket sparkler system. B)

 

[floody_lager]

i have one in the fridge now which i will open tomorrow. it has softened up already. wat do i do if it is still flat

 

[buttersd70]

wat do i do if it is still flat

Give them more time to properly carb.

In fact, if the one in the fridge is noticably soft now, you can sit back and relax, as I said in my prior post. The concerns you had of overcarbonation due to the pet being so hard is now shown to be of no concern. So give your yeasties time to do their thing, and come back to them in a week or 2.

 

[floody_lager]

ok cool. should i give them a little wake up every day.
and should the temp stay at 23 or should i change it

 

[floody_lager]

help

 

[pint of lager]

To carbonate, leave your bottled beers at the correct fermentation temp for your yeast for two weeks. Ales, 20 deg. Lagers 10-12 deg.

23 deg is a bit high.

On the 26th, you said you had one in the fridge and that you were going to try it. What was the result?

If the brew is still flat after two weeks, post back in this thread, otherwise, RDWHAHB. Stop shaking the bottles.

 

[buttersd70]

Should be no need to have to give them a wake up. Just leave them be, preferably at temp 18-25, but temp isn't crucial. If its 23, fine and well. If not, it doesn't really matter, as long as it's not one extreme or the other.
Just be patient with them, leave them alone, and try another one once its been in the bottle for 4 weeks. If its been 4 weeks >20C and its still not carbed, thats when you can start to get a little concerned, but at this point, it's only been 2.....so the only problem is impatience.