So has anyone here had experience with carbonation tablets? I am in the middle of a lager brew and I am trying to figure out how to get the beer carbonated when it is ready for bottling. I am trying to steer away from using the yeast still in the beer to carbonate the beer. Lately I have been bottle conditioning with neutral yeasts but I don't believe I want to do that with this Dopplebock. So I was looking into carbonation tablets. So any advice on the matter from anyone?
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Carbonation Tablets?
- Thread starter Berkyjay
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Huh, so it seems that most of the tablets I can find are actually just sugar and you still need to rely on the original yeast remaining in the beer. I was expecting these things to actually be carbonates which dissolves in the bottle providing carbonation. So I guess my question is, how do you carbonate a lager? Do they still have suspended yeasts......is this a silly question?
James
James
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If you don't want the hassle and expense of adding fresh yeast at bottling time, lagers will bottle-carbonate, tho it may take longer than an ale. Just siphon a little extra yeast off the bottom of secondary to ensure you put enough into the bottling bucket. Add corn sugar as you would an ale. The BSmith Carbonation tool is good for estimating that amount of sugar to use.
Do I have this correct:
1.) you are going to bottle your lager dopple
2.) you want to NOT use the yeasts already alive and well in the beer.
3.) you think that some alternate carbonation is or might be available for bottling.
I think that's what I read.
This is what I think are the answers to those individual questions:
1.) I am pretty sure that no home based system will let you pressure carbonate and bottle. It takes a lot of equipment.
2.) What's wrong with the yeast in the beer? They won't hurt you or the flavor you can't kill or eliminate them without pasteurizing and filtering so unless you are pasteurizing and filtering no matter what you do the yeasts will always be with you.
3.) There is no way to bottle and carbonate using CO2 you add to the beer. Carbonation requires that you have some access to the beer in a vessel so as to apply pressurized CO2 gas to the beer without letting any escape ( pressurizing the beer keg).
Carbonating bottled beer in the commercial set up is done in a super smooth and slick high speed process where the CO2 Charged beer hits the bottle and is capped so fast that the CO2 doesn't have a chance to fizz up and escape.
I suppose it would be an interesting challenge to pressure carbonize the beer and then ever so gently rack it to bottles trying not to jiggle it and get the bottles capped without fizzing the charged beer. Interesting maybe, but definitely more work and effort than I'd be willing to undertake.
1.) you are going to bottle your lager dopple
2.) you want to NOT use the yeasts already alive and well in the beer.
3.) you think that some alternate carbonation is or might be available for bottling.
I think that's what I read.
This is what I think are the answers to those individual questions:
1.) I am pretty sure that no home based system will let you pressure carbonate and bottle. It takes a lot of equipment.
2.) What's wrong with the yeast in the beer? They won't hurt you or the flavor you can't kill or eliminate them without pasteurizing and filtering so unless you are pasteurizing and filtering no matter what you do the yeasts will always be with you.
3.) There is no way to bottle and carbonate using CO2 you add to the beer. Carbonation requires that you have some access to the beer in a vessel so as to apply pressurized CO2 gas to the beer without letting any escape ( pressurizing the beer keg).
Carbonating bottled beer in the commercial set up is done in a super smooth and slick high speed process where the CO2 Charged beer hits the bottle and is capped so fast that the CO2 doesn't have a chance to fizz up and escape.
I suppose it would be an interesting challenge to pressure carbonize the beer and then ever so gently rack it to bottles trying not to jiggle it and get the bottles capped without fizzing the charged beer. Interesting maybe, but definitely more work and effort than I'd be willing to undertake.
CR said:
I bottle from my keg's all the time. Take a 6er to a party. Sure its easy. Turn the pressure down to 2lb vent the keg releasing excess pressure. Pour into the bottle and cap, Done. Here is the extended version: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678
Cheers
Preston
CR said:
I'm really just trying experiment and see what these experiments do to the flavor of my beer. I've done a lot of research into Trappist brews (which I strive to emulate) and from what I have learned, many of them centrifuge their beer after fermentation then re-pitch a different yeast culture designed for bottle conditioning. I might be off on my facts their, but I do know that some of them use a re-pitch for bottle conditioning. So yeah, I'm just poking around for knowledge because you never know what's out there. Thanks for the reply and your input.
James