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Quick Carbonation Question

D

Danno6102

When bottling a beer & calculating the carbonation, what temerature is supposed to be used? I assume the temp the beer will be sitting at while carbonating, (~70*) & not serving temp. (~40*) I've been using the ~70 temp, but just curious if I'm using the right number.

Thanks,
Danno
 
Danno,
 When you are bottling (NOT kegging), you need to use the temperature of the beer at the time it is being bottled (usually room temperature, though it might be lower for a lager).  The reason is that the uncarbonated beer still has around 1 volume of carbonation in it from the fermentation process, even when sitting open at room temperature.

 However, that varies with temperature, so the temperature number is used to calculate the "initial" carbonation volumes so we know how much sugar/additional carbonation is needed to reach your target.

 Kegging is the opposite - for kegging use your refrigerator temperature (usually around 41F) to calculate pressure needed assuming you put the kegs in the refrigerator.

Cheers!
Brad
 
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