After just shy of 2 weeks in the bottle, my latest extract is done (Surly Furious clone kit)…and I can’t believe how clear it is! It tastes really good, although I expected more of a head on the pour. It is really non-existant when I pour slowly. If I pour harder, I get a small head but loads of yeast. Thoughts?
Secondly, with a gentle pour, I see no bubbles rising…is this common? The carbonation sounded good when I opened the bottle.
Finally, will a longer bottling increase the carbonation or head at this point?
Yes, good point. When I added the sugar/water mixture to the beer in the bottling bucket, I didn’t mix too vigorously. I simply swirled the bucket gently. I imagine that liquid quickly dropped to the bottom and those first few bottles will be carbed higher.
Be a little more patient. I consider just shy of a month to be pushing it. Just shy of two weeks at low 60s, probably not done yet. When it IS done, its going to be real pretty.
Will a lower conditioning temp(62-65) cause the beer to not condition fully or merely take longer? If it’s a problem I am at a loss on how to warm them up. If it’s ok then I can wait.
i usually go a month, i usually bottle one in a plastic used pepsi bottle. this way i can feel the firmness of the bottle and i can easily see the yeast formation.
Pretty sure I’ve read that Sierra Nevada conditions that warm. It’s not really going to hurt the beer once it’s in the bottle and conditioning. you wouldn’t want to store it long term at that temp but a couple weeks is no problem.
When I bottle they’ll sit at 70-75 for at least 10-14 days, a few days in the fridge and they’re good to go, lower temps mean slower process to carbonate.
Also note that higher gravity beers may take longer due to the higher alcohol content. I’ve had some 8-10% beers take over a month
Maybe I am overly sensitive to it but I can certainly taste the difference between bottle carbing and force carbonation, and strongly prefer force carbonation as I feel its “cleaner”.
I have always looked at it like this(so correct me if I am wrong). If you ferment warm you get esters, and bottle carbing is another fermentation. So why would you ferment a beer (bottle carb) above normal fermentation temps and under pressure, is that not just asking for esters?
when you allow a yeast growth phase warm you get esters. there is little to no growth phase in bottle conditioning thus little or no esters. Can you taste the bottle conditioning in a Sierra Nevada beer?
now, on a homebrew level we tend to leave a LOT more yeast in the bottle when bottle conditioning than SN does and that could well make a difference.
Funny but I’ve always (all of my life) preferred kegged beer. That’s just CO2, no extra yeast. But, I like what Palmer says. CO2 is CO2, bottle conditioned isn’t better its just different.
Keep in mind that warm fermentation temp will create fusels, which are literally oils, that can kill head retention. If you fermentation temp got much higher than 79 degrees this could be your head retention problem.
