So I am currently working my way thought my first batch of homebrew and I have noticed that the beer varies bottle to bottle quite a bit. I brewed a hefeweisen and the first two bottles I had (1 week after bottling) were really good and well carbonated, but I think they weren't fully carbed yet. The next few I opened were way over carbonated, but still tasted pretty good (If I opened a bottle and left it on the counter it would just foam out the top of the bottle until there is only an inch or so of beer left in the bottle). I will note that I picked these bottles to open because the caps that should have been indented were crowned. I have since opened a number of bottles that has almost no carbonation and little taste, were almost perfectly clear as opposed to the previous bottle which were quite cloudy, and they were quite watery. The last bottle I had was just about perfect, not over carbed or under carbed, pretty tasty, and again cloudy. So my question is what is going on here? My guess is that the beer "separated" during fermentation and I didn't mix it back together prior to bottling. I read somewhere that the circulation caused by syphoning the beer would provide enough mixing so I didn't stir after I syphoned into the bottling bucket. Is there anything else that could have caused this? I don't think its an infection because there aren't any off flavors, it just seems like some bottles are much less concentrated then others.
Yes...welcome to the world of homebrewing (and priming)...I think your observations are fairly accurate...carbonation levels can really affect taste. Don't be afraid to stir gently before bottling.
My guess is that you're real issue was during priming. That is, your priming sugar didn't get mixed in well. So, some bottles got more sugar than others. This would make sense if you consider that your beer is cloudy because the yeast multiplied while eating the priming sugar, and if there wasn't much sugar in some of the bottles, you didn't get any yeast growth...and consequently no cloudy beer or carbonation. It would also explain why some of the bottles were over-carbed.
Yes, what JohnSnowNW said. I had a similar experience with one of my first batches of home brew. Now, I gently stir my beer when priming making sure not to splash, and I haven't had a problem since.
This. Some articles and even books warn against stirring in the bottling bucket because of oxidation but, to put it politely, those articles are full of poopy. It is absolutely necessary if you want a consistent product. Just stir gently and ensure you don't splash around your beer when pulling the spoon in and out, and you should be able to avoid this in the future. Welcome to homebrewing!
How much water did you mix your priming sugar with? I usually use about a pint or so. If you used only a cup or so, that could make it harder for the sugar to mix evenly in the bottling bucket.
Good point. I always measure my beer to be slightly less than 5 gallons in the bottling bucket, then I use a quart of water to mix the priming sugar and heat it to get the sugar well dissolved, and that brings the beer up to 5 gallons.
I boil 2 cups of water plus the sugar for 15 minutes. Chill it to the temp of the beer. Then pour it in the bucket first and then rack on top of it. I stir with a sanitzed spoon a few times and it is good to go. I had some bottle variation before I started stirring also.
A 1:1 ratio is generally accepted per volume of water to sugar for 'simple syrup.' I usually cook this down a touch and add it to my racking process after I get the first gallon out of the primary. I too, gently stir the beer before bottling.
I had uneven carbonation on a couple of early batches, too. Stirring the contents of the bottling bucket gently has seemed to make that problem go away ever since.
