Cold Crash, Bottling, Carbing

[Lab Cat]

4 minutes ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

It was not over carbed, but not under carbed either.  Just about right really.

So you called it Goldilocks Stout? Beer names are important you know, I spend far too much time coming up with crap names...

[Shamus O'Sean]

1 minute ago, Lab Cat said:

So you called it Goldilocks Stout? Beer names are important you know, I spend far too much time coming up with crap names...

I need you as my ideas-man.  My brew names are not the least bit inspirational.

[Lab Cat]

I've also got some jousting sticks if you're interested?

You've come up with one already. Inspirational Ale. 

[Titan]

There is another method of priming not widely used. That is to save a portion of your unfermented wort to add back into the finished beer. Calculation is volume/og (drop the 1) x 3 should give the required amount of wort to save. For example 23l at 1.047 gives 23/47*3 = 1.47 of wort for priming. Which will give around 2 volumes co2.

[Goldcoast Crow]

Interesting what everyone has remarked about putting an extra drop in a pet bottle mid bottle aging, I had two cerveza pets that had no carbonation after about 7 days, I did the drop test with one in one and two in the other, they formed up instantly, have been in the cupboard for about 9 days, but that’s about 18 from original bottling date.

[Goldcoast Crow]

Got my delivery of 72 brown glass todayJust in time for a bottling session for a real ale and a draught brew that’s been bubbling away for about 5 days....

[Goldcoast Crow]

So I have never cold crashed but I may try it over the next 2 nights before bottling......(tongue-in-cheek)

[ChristinaS1]

On 5/17/2020 at 6:32 AM, Goldcoast Crow said:

This may answer my lack of carbonation in my cerveza, just not leaving it long enough, let’s go another week, as nice as the beer is it’s just not the same with out a nice fizz to it

If you used the kit yeast for your cervesa, it is half lager yeast, half ale yeast (as is the case with the APA kit as well). The lager portion of it will get the job of carbonating done in the cooler months of the year. 

One thing that has not been mentioned is that if you don't have a brew fridge you may have to adjust your priming level on a seasonal basis. Before getting a brew fridge I was using more primitive methods of temperature control, involving ice packs etc. I did my best to keep the temp of the FV 18-20C during the first three days of active fermentation, which was long enough to prevent temp related off flavours, but then allowed the temp to rise to ambient until bottling time. I noticed a marked difference in the amount of priming sugar needed to attain the same level of carbonation: about 180gm of bulk priming sugar in summer vs 140gm in winter.  The warmer the temp, the less residual CO2 is left in solution....It is important to change the temp in the bulk priming calculator to whatever the highest temp was that the beer reached prior to bottling.

That being said, the beer carbs up faster in the summer than in the winter. Personally I find that at a stable 21C, two weeks is good, but if the temp is lower than that, three weeks is required, or even four. I have had Coopers dry ale yeast (comes with the Original Series, Blonde, and English Bitter kits) stall on me and fail to carbonate at 16C. 

Cheers,

Christina.

Edited May 22, 2020 by ChristinaS1

[ChristinaS1]

4 hours ago, Goldcoast Crow said:

So I have never cold crashed but I may try it over the next 2 nights before bottling......(tongue-in-cheek)

Those temps are too cold for any ale yeast, even Nottingham. 

The small volume in a bottle cools off quickly and does not warm up again easily.  Highly doubtful the beer will get anywhere near 23C during the day. Recommend putting the beer in the warmest spot in you house and protecting it from temperature fluctuations with a sleeping bag. Yeast do best with stable temps.

Cheers,

Christina.

[Otto Von Blotto]

That's exactly why a small pale ale batch failed to carbonate around this time of year back around 2012 or 13. Yeast was us05 so not gonna do much under 16. And I began brewing lagers because they did carbonate at the low temperature. 

Nowadays with kegs it doesn't matter because every one of them gets carbonated in the fridge through a gas cylinder, but with bottles you either need to keep them warm or use a yeast that works at cold temperatures.