Carbonation

[JD25]

Is there a way to tell if the beer is carbonated without opening the bottle? It's been 2 weeks since I primed and bottled and I was trying to determine if the beer had been carbonating naturally.

 

[grapeman]

It isn't going to be possible to tell on each individual bottle if it is carbonated or not. If it has been two weeks, I would cool a couple of them down in the fridge and then open one and pour it out nice and slow. Check for at least a fair head and drink it. Does it taste carbonated if it had a head. If so, repeat with the second one(waiting a while if you don't want one after another). If that one is good also, the rest should be OK. I would leave them in a fairly warm area for another two weeks to make sure of proper carbonation and then move to a cooler storage area if you have one.


If no carbonation, give it another week or two and test again. By the way, JD- if you continue on with your prvious related posts, we can follow what you are doing better- just pull up the old post and post a reply. We see the changed and added posts. That way if we have a question about the batch as a whole we just read back through the previous replies.


Good luck with it. I hope it turns out carbonated and very tasty for you.

 

[JD25]

Thanks Appleman. I'll try that this weekend.

 

[Oneo Teras]

I read a book on making beer and there was a neat suggestion to check the carbonation... When you prime and bottle the beer fill one plastic soda bottle with the beer and cap tightly. Then you can squeeze the bottle every few days and check the status of the carbonation. After a week or two it should be very hard similar to when it had soda in it.


I haven't actually tried this as I just wait the two weeks then chill and open a bottle. It hasn't failed to carbonate yet!

 

[JD25]

Good suggestion. I'll try that the next batch.