Carbonation questions with bottling

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by highvoltage415, Apr 21, 2019.

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  1. highvoltage415

    highvoltage415 Initiate (0) Dec 11, 2018 Maryland

    I've been brewing for less than a year. I started with standard 5 gallon extract kits. No issues with carbonation in my bottles. Lately I've been brewing I gallon all grain batches. With these batches I don't get an even carbonation in the bottles. For instance, last night I opened three bottles from a batch. The first was a little heady, the second volcanoed on opening, and the third had little to no carbonation. What could be causing this?
     
    #1 highvoltage415, Apr 21, 2019
  2. Maestro0708

    Maestro0708 Initiate (0) Feb 27, 2015 Kentucky

    Are you gently stirring after racking the beer onto your priming solution to ensure an even mix? Someone on this forum suggested i do that when I was having some carbonation consistency issues and i have had no problems since.
     
    #2 Maestro0708, Apr 21, 2019
    GormBrewhouse, JackHorzempa, minderbender and 2 others like this.
  3. highvoltage415

    highvoltage415 Initiate (0) Dec 11, 2018 Maryland

    No i don"t stir after racking into the beer. I was afraid that would add oxygen. But I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the advice
     
    #3 highvoltage415, Apr 21, 2019
  4. frozyn

    frozyn Maven (1,435) May 16, 2015 New York
    Trader

    Good advice. The fact that OP had a mix of carbonation between the bottles and not uniform over/undercarbonation indicates the priming solution is not evenly distributed through the beer before/during bottling.
     
    #4 frozyn, Apr 22, 2019
    GormBrewhouse and PapaGoose03 like this.
  5. PapaGoose03

    PapaGoose03 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,057) May 30, 2005 Michigan
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah

    Just stir gently without creating bubbles. If you boil your priming sugar with water into a solution it will dissolve better into your wort. For the 5-gallon batches that I brew, I plan on being a quart short with my wort so that I can then use a quart of top-off water to make my priming solution, thus it is thin and mixes easily into the beer. You can plan accordingly with your smaller batch.
     
    #5 PapaGoose03, Apr 22, 2019
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  6. barleyhead

    barleyhead Devotee (329) Jun 5, 2008 New Jersey

    +1 for gently stirring and using boiled priming sugar. I boil about 1 cup of water with sugar measured by weight. Pour into the bottling bucket, then rack the fermented beer into that bucket which mixes pretty well. I also gently stir periodically during the bottling process.
     
    #6 barleyhead, Apr 28, 2019
    GormBrewhouse likes this.
  7. GormBrewhouse

    GormBrewhouse Pooh-Bah (2,111) Jun 24, 2015 Vermont
    Pooh-Bah

    +2 to maxing sugar solution and stiring.
     
    #7 GormBrewhouse, Apr 29, 2019
    PapaGoose03 likes this.
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