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Munton Carb Tabs
Hey everybody,
Recently I made a batch of Spicy winter ale. For whatever reason it failed to carbonate. It's been in a bottle for about six weeks now with no sign of any carbonation whatsoever. I'm not sure of the reason whereas I followed the same procedure of 3/4 c. corn sugar in a pint of boiled water at bottling that I've used with almost every beer I've ever made. Not sure if spices (orange, cinnamon, ginger) or a pretty high gravity reading may have attributed to this. Regardless I'm pretty sure additional aging isn't going to fix this so I'm probably going to try using carb tabs in the bottles. I was wondering if anyone has had a similar problem and if anyone has tried these tabs and has any comments on them. Thanks a lot guys appreciate any comments or advice.
You know, I was actually just about to post a comment regarding something very similar. My winter ale with cinnamon, honey, orange, and ginger had VERY little carbonation in it. I let it carbonate in the bottle for 10 days before I started to drink it. The taste really came together about 3 weeks after bottling, but the carbonation still was minimal. It has been bottled for about 5 weeks now and, with just three bottled left, I popped one open last night and the pour was great. A full head and great carbonation.
Sounds like you aren't as lucky since you got NO carbonation. I primed the same way you did. So, like you, I ask: why does it take so long for this type of ale to carbonate? Is there something in the ingredients?
The boiling the corn sugar is the part that gets me. I just read where Palmer does it, but I have no idea why. I never once did, and none of my homebrew shop owners said to do it. When I used to bottle, I just mixed the sugar into the bottling bucket.
As for why there is no carbonation, assuming the sugar wasn't 20 years old, the only things left would be not enough live yeast left in the bottles, or not letting them sit long enough.
The carbonation drops still rely on that yeast at the bottom. Chances are, if there wasn't enough for your corn sugar, there probably isn't enough for those drops. If you do use them, I would only use 1/2 of a drop per bottle. I have some Cooper's brand and I used a full cube per bottle, as recommended, and it was total overkill.
I gave one of my cube bottles to a friend. It was a little warm, and like a retard he put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Once he opened it, he lost about half the bottle to foam. Reject. Letting beer go to waste that way should be a felony.
I have had the same problem with my higher gravity beers. The only conclusion that i have come up with is that with the higher gravity beers, less live yeast ends up in the bottles because of the longer primaries and secondaries. I have talked to a few people who have added yeast to the secondary or a little bit of yeast before bottling or kegging.
One other thing that I thought of and remember doing, after a long secondary (5 weeks) when I was racking into my bottling bucket, I gave my racking cane a little stir when i got to the bottom to stir up the trub a littlle bit. i was concerned that not enough yeast was going to end up making it throught the racking process. it seemed to work out alright and didn't cloud the beer up any, because it all settled out in the bottle.
Thanks for the advice guys. I've heard of adding additional yeast at bottling for certain types of beers (usually high gravity fruit beers.) This may just be the best bet in the future. As far as boiling the corn sugar the obvius reasons are to kill any possible wild yeasts or bacteria that may be present in the corn sugar and to help it dissolve better. I'm sure that it's not required, however it is recommended in Papazian's books and I've always (until now) had very good success doing it this way. It also insures better distribution of an even amount of sugar throughout the beer.
I think if I use the carb tabs I will take your advice cubx and use less than recommended as I was worried about over foaming as well, hopefully there is enough yeast sediment to activate these. I guess thats one of the fun parts of this hobby is the trial and error. What fun would it be if everything went as planned every time!
After seven weeks in a bottle finally have carbonation; actually had a decent head on it as well. Not much head retention but I'm so relieved not to have a batch of spicy flat ale that I don't mind at all! I'm still guessing the length of time it took to carbonate had to do with the spices and high OG.
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