Bottle conditioning & Carbonation

Does throwing a bottle into the fridge completely stop its ability to carbonate further, or will it just take longer? I’ve got a few bottles that arn’t quite carbonated yet and I have to send them off to compeition today. They throw them into the fridge when they get them. Judging isn’t until Feb 18, so they will be in the cold box for roughly 15 days.

It will just slow it down.

But it will probably slow it down enough that it will not pick up much carbonation over the next couple of weeks.  It depends on the yeast.  I don’t suppose this was a lager?

Nope, it was a porter. WLP002. I don’t suppose WLP002’s “very high” floccuation characteristic will work in my favor either.

If it’s any consolation my last two bottled batches with wlp002 were fully carbonated within one week at 65F.

On the other hand, you can invert the bottles a few times to rouse the yeast and still be sure it will settle out within two weeks. :wink:

Awesome, good suggestions. Thanks everyone!

I don’t know where these are shipping from/to, but you could throw a hand warmer in to the box to keep it warmer and carbonating while it’s shipped.  Some of them last 12 hours, and if the box is well insulated it could keep it warm for a while.  As long as it doesn’t get too hot - I have no idea how warm they get, but not hot enough to burn skin.  It’s probably not worth the risk unless you have a good idea of what will happen.