Carbonation question

[rhycher]

First time poster so bear with me.

I have 4 or 5 batches under my belt and most have been
nice beers including a 3 stage piece I did with green
chilli which has a nice flavor.

Biggie question....... the last few batches have been
on the flat side with very little carb to it. I do the
general run of the mill brew and use 3/4 cup of sugar
in the secondary and let it sit for 3-7 days. Sometimes
I have used hops which seems to have made it flatter but
I am sure this not it. Even tried adding half a tsp of
sugar to some experiment bottles but they went acidic of
course. That was a neat project to say the least.Yosemite!

The one true batch of good beer I made was on accident. As
I was transferring to the first carboy I added 3/4 cup of
sugar to the primary. That was a sudsy and very refresing
beer.

So what is the secret to a good carbonation?

I use Muntons since I like the results along with their yeast.
Light and dry extract - 3 lbs
3/4 cup sugar.
Room temp is about 75-82 degrees
Wort chiller

I know I will get some kegger responses which seems to be a
great method but I feel I need to get this one licked first.

Thanks guys

[John 'Shaggy' Kolesar]

On 2 Oct 2002 17:11:06 -0500, <bif...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Biggie question....... the last few batches have been
> on the flat side with very little carb to it. I do the
> general run of the mill brew and use 3/4 cup of sugar
> in the secondary and let it sit for 3-7 days. Sometimes
> I have used hops which seems to have made it flatter but
> I am sure this not it. Even tried adding half a tsp of
> sugar to some experiment bottles but they went acidic of
> course. That was a neat project to say the least.Yosemite!
>
> The one true batch of good beer I made was on accident. As
> I was transferring to the first carboy I added 3/4 cup of
> sugar to the primary. That was a sudsy and very refresing
> beer.

I have a question or two to clarify your post. When you say you are
adding 3/4 cup of sugar in the secondary and them let sit for 3-7
days... I'm assuming what you mean is that you stir the sugar into the
secondary, bottle the beer, and then let it sit in bottles for 3-7 days.
However, when you then mentioned that you added 3/4 cup of sugar to the
primary I started to wonder what you were meaning.

So that I understand better, are you adding the sugar immediately (a
couple minutes) before bottling, or are you adding the sugar and then
bottling at a later time.

John.

--
*** John P. Kolesar ***
*** sp...@shagg.net --- http://www.shagg.net/ ***
*** Head Administrator, Monty Python's Flying Talker ***
**************************************************************

[Bob]

I think you have some of the basic steps a bit confused.

Primary ~1 week
- no additions

Secondary ~1 week
- no additions except maybe hops

Bottling Bucket ~ 1 hour
- add 3/4 cup Corn Sugar (pre boiled in a cup or so of water) to bottling
bucket
-add beer from Secondary
-fill your bottles

The issue as I read it lies in your timing of adding the Priming sugar. By
adding the sugar to the Secondary and letting it sit the yeast are eating it
up there. You want the yeast to eat it in the bottles with the caps on to
trap the CO2 and carbonate your beer. Very generalized but I think the
point comes across.

I'm a kegger but I'll never forget those horrid bottle filling days.

Brew On!!!
Bob
Roanoke, VA

"rhycher" <bif...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns929BAE749C2A6...@64.152.81.184...

[Bill Lucas]

I have no idea if this could be it or not, but I have a wing capper
and on some of my bottles it doesn't seem to make a good seal (gotr
rid of those). Actually when one of my friends was helping me cap a
batch about 1/4 of them came out completely flat. He was too hasty
with the capping and the capper (It is a hand me down) just didn't
make a good seal. Don't know if this might help but I thought I would
pass it along.

There are other possibilities, and I'm sure you'll get more info, but
once I learned you really needed to lean on my capper I hadn't really
had a problem.

Have fun,
Bill Lucas

"rhycher" <bif...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns929BAE749C2A6...@64.152.81.184...

[rhycher]

I did mess up a little and realized it after I sent it.
The directions I had when I started brewing called for
the sugar to be added to the secondary and let it set a
week. Makes sense to add the sugar right before bottling.

I will give that a whirl and see how all works out. Funny
how one simple typo in a instruction sheet can hose ya.

Thanks John and Bob.

I have a fridge in my garage and would love to get into the
kegging. Just have to come up with a few more recipes I can
be happy with.

[rhycher]

Bought a new capper and instructed my 11 year old to be
sure that she saw a small dent in the cap. Thanks for the
great suggestion though.