No Carbonation In Some Bottles...

[marca85]

Hi all,

I recently just made my first batch out of the coopers DIY kit. It has been about 2 weeks since i bottled it and some of the bottles have come out more carbonated than others. These ones taste ok but the less carbonated bottles have an off taste to them. I have heard that there needs to be about 1.5 inches gap between the beer and the top of the bottle otherwise the beer wont carbonate. I have noticed the bottles that have carbonated well are less full then the others. Could this be the reason for the less carbonation and off taste??

Cheers

marca85

 

[barls]

wait till at least 4 weeks when carbing before worrying about levels

 

[kelbygreen]

2 weeks in this weather (depending where you live) is not long enough some bottles might of been warmer then other so they carbed faster. never heard of the 1.5" gap before, I would think that if bottled to the top it would still carb only prob I see if not bulk priming is that bottle would be a little less carbed prob not much to worry about though. the ones that are less full might just be that the yeast have gotten threw the sugars faster but thats more a guess then anything

 

[felten]

I have read that the gap makes a difference in a few places as well, but not why it would.

 

[michael_aussie]

Hi all,

I recently just made my first batch out of the coopers DIY kit. It has been about 2 weeks since i bottled it and some of the bottles have come out more carbonated than others. These ones taste ok but the less carbonated bottles have an off taste to them. I have heard that there needs to be about 1.5 inches gap between the beer and the top of the bottle otherwise the beer wont carbonate. I have noticed the bottles that have carbonated well are less full then the others. Could this be the reason for the less carbonation and off taste??

Cheers

marca85

Did you bulk prime?
If you did, the priming sugar may not have been evenly distributed.

You need to wait a bit more before getting too concerned.

If you open a bottle, and it's under-primed, you can always add some more sugar and recap.... I've done this quite a few times. Although, I only used PET, so no risk of bottle bombs.

I never had any problems with "over-full" right to the top, or low (3/4 full) bottles... all seemed to carb fine for me.

 

[mwd]

If you use a bottling wand you will get a consistent gap of about 0.5" which is about the same as commercial brews.

You don't mention what way you used to prime, drops, sugar, bulk priming etc. the method you used may have a bearing on why some are carbonated and some not also the method and type of sanitising used on the bottles.

 

[marca85]

Hi guys thanks for the speedy replies..


I used carbonation drops.

Will probably just leave it for another couple of weeks and see how we go.

Cheers

 

[brendanox]

Wondering how these ended up?
Having similar problem after two weeks.
Though logic says to wait another two weeks before worrying too much B)
So jst wondering how these turned out?

 

[dcx3]

This happened to me once,i couldnt work out what happened then i remembered i had the kids running around and ended up missing a couple of lollies in the bottles!

 

[michael_aussie]

....... I have heard that there needs to be about 1.5 inches gap between the beer and the top of the bottle otherwise the beer wont carbonate. ....

when bottling i've filled to all sorts of levels .. i've had bottles 1/2 full (end of run) .. and bottles nearly completely to the top lip (5 mm off the top) .. and never had carbonation problems.

 

[Ryan WABC]

Sort of off topic...

When bulk priming, do you add the sugar to the bottling drum before or after the beer? I would think that if you added it to the bottling drum before the beer, the tap would get a potent hit of sugar and the first beer would become a grenade. Any logic to that thinking?

I've always added the priming sugar to the bottling drum after the beer.

 

[michael_aussie]

Sort of off topic...

When bulk priming, do you add the sugar to the bottling drum before or after the beer? I would think that if you added it to the bottling drum before the beer, the tap would get a potent hit of sugar and the first beer would become a grenade. Any logic to that thinking?

I've always added the priming sugar to the bottling drum after the beer.

the key is to make sure the priming sugar is uniformly mixed throughout the beer.
if it isn't uniform .. then you will get some bottles over-carbonated (and maybe even enough to be bottle bombs) and other bottles under-carbonated.

therefore as long as you completely mix, it shouldn't really matter if you add the priming mix before the beer or after...

in saying that, i'm sure that adding before .. and then letting the large volume of the beer mix with the small volume of the prime .. will mix the twp better then adding the prime mix second.... however you still will need to stir.... i get a whirl-pool going .... and then after a minute or so... it runs quite a while by itself .. i then reverse the whirlpool.. but at the same time try to not disturb the surface too much.. to try to avoid oxidisation.

 

[CosmicBertie]

Hi guys thanks for the speedy replies..


I used carbonation drops.

Will probably just leave it for another couple of weeks and see how we go.

Cheers

Do you use a bottling wand? Its basically a piece of rigid tubing with a push valve on the bottom about 12" long. You slide the wand into the bottle and open the valve by pressing it on the bottom inside the bottle, then fill the bottle to the top. When you remove the wand from the bottle you end up with the same amount of space as a commerical beer. Drop in a carbonation drop and cap. Then put the bottles somewhere warmish (24 deg) for a couple of weeks to carb up. After a couple of weeks, whack them in the fridge and enjoy

 

[MaltyHops]

Sort of off topic...

When bulk priming, do you add the sugar to the bottling drum before or after the beer? I would think that if you added it to the bottling drum before the beer, the tap would get a potent hit of sugar and the first beer would become a grenade. Any logic to that thinking?

I've always added the priming sugar to the bottling drum after the beer.

Just to make sure we're all on the same page, can we confirm
that bulk priming involves boiling the appropriate amount of
cane sugar/glucose/malt/etc in a cup or two of water, cooling
that to 25C-25C and then mixed in with the beer to be bottled?
[i.e. not just dumping sugar grains into the beer]

T.