I bottled my first ever homebrew last Sunday (6/2/13) and checked carbonation levels today. After ~6 days at temperatures remaining around 72F there is only the smallest hiss when a bottle is opened, and no discernible carbonation in the mouth.
In the interest of full disclosure- I made the dummy mistake of getting too much trub in suspension when I added my priming sugar and I had to let it settle out for almost a full day- I think the yeast might have jumped the gun on me and used too much of the available sugar to get a good carb in the bottle.
How long should I wait before I check the carbonation again? If it is still pretty severely lacking, what would be the best way to get carbonation?
Generally I don’t bother checking before 10 days after bottling, and I’ll usually try to wait 2 weeks unless I’m really impatient. Also, I let the bottle sit cold in the fridge for at least a day before opening. The cold temps help CO2 dissolve in the beer better.
^^This^^
A good rule of thumb is 2-3 weeks at 70 and then a few days in the fridge. This would be for an average size beer. Beers that are over 1.060 or so may take longer to properly condition and carbonate.
A big portion of the sugar was probably consumed by the yeast before you bottled. Wait a few more days and check again, but my guess us they’ll still be under-carbed. If that’s the case, you have two options. Drink them slightly flat. Or reprime the bottles individually.
I don’t know if I buy that a big portion of the yeast would be consumed within the first 24 hours. Otherwise you’d probably notice a decent carbonation level within a day or two of bottling. I’m thinking that the lag phase at bottling has to be pretty significant since the remaining amount of yeast is pretty low and you’re only adding about 1.003 worth of sugar.
There are a number of factors at play here, not knowing most of them it’s hard to speculate. In my experience for 99% of the beers I bottled they were carbed by 7 days. I would add a little sugar to one or two bottles and see how they are in a couple days- could be very telling.
There is no “should”, it’s your beer drink/try it when you want, experience is what will teach you.