DGRadio: 02.12.2013
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February 26th, 2013 at 1:30 pm
Great show, as always!
Wanted to quickly mention that I’ve had a few of my homebrew batches go uncarbonated on me. I usually don’t have a problem with it, but the two times I’ve had it occur, I racked the beer into a secondary fermenter (both of these were IPAs). It’s recommended in the literature that you do this if you intend on letting the beer sit in the primary fermenter for a month or more, but I’ve found that the level of carbonation in my final product is pretty good if you leave it in the primary for 3 weeks, then bottle-condition it for the rest of the aging. If you let it go longer than 3-4 weeks, it seems like the yeast are more likely to die or sink to the bottom, meaning you don’t have any remaining when you’re ready to bottle and prime the brew (leading to that “sweet” flavor, as the priming sugar you added wasn’t converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide). I usually have plenty of active yeast in the fermenter when I bottle at 3 weeks.
The downside to this is that your beer will end up being “cloudier” than it otherwise would be. Personally, I’d much rather have a cloudy carbonated beer over a flat clear beer, though. Of course, if you just rely on kegging, this is all kinda moot, as you don’t have to prime it and carbonate it using the yeast.
In short: if you’re going to bottle, I’d try doing it between 3 and 4 weeks, but no later, unless you’re going to add carbonation tabs to do it artificially!
February 26th, 2013 at 10:28 pm
Thanks for the info. This is all very helpful and I’m hoping will make the next round a little more delicious.