Low Carbonation

[DrewCarey82]

Hey guys.

Some of the kit beers that I do come out with great carbonation and some dont.

Good are....

Morgans Pilsener, Wheat. All Coopers range, all wanderers range, and all tooheys range.

But for some reason.

Morgans Old & Blue mountain lager die within 20 seconds of being poured.

I brew them in exact the same way and prime them exactly the same way.

Age shouldnt be a problem as I leave all my beers for atleast 6 weeks before opening.....

 

[Bobby]

is it carbonation or head retention thats the problem drew?

 

[DrewCarey82]

Seems to be both to be honest mate, with some you can see the bubbles still streaming just very slowly and not near as many as there should be ie - not continuos stream but random bubbles every half a second or so.

If I was answering question the first thing I'd blame would be the glasses but I always wash with water thats hot enough to burn after using a schooner glass, and have enough that they are very cold when I go back to it.....

Plus some beers come out great but others..... Do not! - They taste pretty good but just ********* carbonation.

 

[jayse]

Are you talking beer or lemonade? :blink: , continuos streams of bubbles?
Even high carbonated beers don't require 'streams of bubbles' if there are bubbles streaming out then the co2 is coming out of solution because the beers to warm, the glass has imperfections or is dirty. Even beers like comercial swill at high carbonation should still appear relatively still in the glass if the glass is in good order and the carbonation is not way to high to start with and like that of lemonade bubbles.

While excessive amounts of bubbles coming out of solution would indicate the beer does have a huge volume of co2 your not really after this your after the co2 to stay in the beer and should judge the carbonation by the feel of it in your mouth and so forth.
High carbonation shouldn't be as high as that of lemonade either, it should be a moderate tingly fizz not huge gassy bubbles.


Personally it sounds like what your idea of what highly carbonated beer should be is possibly to high, even budweiser poured into a glass will still be reasonbly still and will not be overly 'gassy'.

Get a medium level carbonated lager such as budvar and try then a commercial highly carbonated beer and try, there shouldn't be a huge huge huge leap in the carbonation level between them.

Anyway thats what i think the case here may be, your simple misunderstanding of carbonation.

 

[DrewCarey82]

Maybe I did have carbonation mixed up but why no head?

It isnt the glasses they are spotless!

 

[jayse]

That would be too hard to answer really given we only have the names of a couple cans to go by, no real idea whats in the cans to start with or how its made. Would need to try the beer and see the beer and preferably know what else you added to the cans to make your beer plus lots of other varribles. Without the beer to actually judge ourselves with the limited info given brewers can only really suggest ways to improve the foam formation and retention we can't really say whats wrong with the beer as such as is.


Jayse

 

[DrewCarey82]

Blue Mountain Lager
500g dextrose, 250g maltodextrin, 250 light malt
Kit yeast.
21ltrs
18degree ferment, 5 day primary, 7 day secondary.
Primed with white sugar

Morgans old
500g dark malt, 500g light malt
21ltrs
18degree ferment, 5 day primary, 7 day secondary.
Primed with white sugar

 

[Stuster]

How much sugar, Drew? Bulk primed or bottle primed?

Perhaps you could try cleaning the glasses and see if that makes a difference to the head. Either use some commercial glass cleaner or have a look at this link where Batz gives a simple easy way to clean them. Hope that does the trick.

 

[DrewCarey82]

I was just thinking do you reckon that soaking them in sodium precarbonate - homebrand nappisan, once a week would do the trick?

 

[AngelTearsOnMyTongue]

............but why no head?

[post="129257"][/post]​

An oft asked questiond Drewcarey82.

 

[AngelTearsOnMyTongue]

Dont take the following as me presenting you with knowledge as much as thinking aloud .......or at least on paper.......or screen.

Just some ideas I had thinking this over.

Troubleshooting is what I like to do.

I was just thinking do you reckon that soaking them in sodium precarbonate - homebrand nappisan, once a week would do the trick?

[post="129267"][/post]​

Doesnt make sense though. As you say, some are OK, some are not.

You need to troubleshoot this. Ask seperate questions;

Is it the Glasses?
If it is the odd glass then you will get the occasional flat one (If it is indeed flat) regardles of batch or make.

Is it the Brew?
If its the brew you wouldnt have made the association with Make unless your basing it on one or two brews.

Is it the brands?
If it was the make then we would expect other users to have experienced similar low carbonation.

I guess then we run into all the additional possible problems suggested by Jayse...
Could be a bad batch of caps?
Could be a bad Can of Kit.
Could have been bad technique on a batch.
I dont know if this could be an issue but Could it be where they were stored???

Im sure others can add to this.

good luck,

ATOMT

 

[DrewCarey82]

Thanks for the idea's guys.

Will try aves suggested.

 

[Uncle Fester]

I always thought that poor head retention was pretty much attibuted to either

1. Unclean Glass
2. Green (not mature) beer, or
3. Really high alcohol content due to a truckload of fermentables.

So far, you have discounted 1 and 3. Could you be being a little too eager to taste your results?

Some wheat malt or maltodextrin also helps with head retention.


Yet another 2c worth

M