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Carbonation difficulties (carbonation Tool and Attenuation)

Thirty-three

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Hello everybody. I am having a problem getting my carbonation down pat on a regular basis. Some batches are well carbonated 2.5 - 3.0 volumes but I sometimes get beers that are over carbonated, no bottle bombs, but a reading of 3.5 - 4.0 vols on the manometer that I put on one of my bottles. My actual FG is mostly within a point of estimated FG so I don't think I have a problem with stuck fermentation, non attenuated beer. Since I always use the same quantity of sugar that I scoop into each individual bottle before bottling, I was wondering if maybe it is yeast dependant. Some yeasts attenuate more than other and would therefore create more C02 for the same amount of sugar. Could the difference in yeast attenuations explain that or is it too small to make a difference in CO"? If yeast type is an issue, shouldn't the carbonation tool account for the yeast that is in the beer in order to calculate the appropriate amount of sugar to add? Thanks.
 
How are you measuring out your sugar into the bottles.  Are you finding that there is a bottle to bottle variability or is it systemic with an entire brew that they are all over-carbonated?

When it comes to adding sugar for secondary fermentation in a bottle, I much prefer to make a sugar solution by boiling a small amount of water with enough sugar for the entire batch and then adding this to the bottom of my bottling bucket before racking the finished beer on top.  The racking of the beer on top of a sugar solution ensures that the sugar is fully dissolved and the motion of the beer helps to make sure it is well dispersed.  Even when making a small batch and going straight into bottles from the fermenter, I will make a sugar solution and add only the necessary amount by syringe into each bottle to ensure that the sugars are quickly mixed with the beer.

The other thing to check is to make sure you are really at your final gravity.  How long are you fermenting your batches?  Do you take readings over a couple of days to make sure you are at a stable gravity?  Those final couple of points of gravity take a lot longer reach for the yeast, as the food is scarce and the yeast cells are flocking and falling out of suspension.  While the FG target is a fair indicator, it is a target based upon a model.  Have you degassed one of the higher carbonated bottles and rechecked the gravity? 







 
I have begun to use Brewers Best carbonation tablets with good results.
 
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