Carbonating Homebrew January 04 2023, 0 Comments

It's the start of a new year, so let's learn something about the beermaking process. Today let's talk about how to carbonate beer! You can get carbonation into your beer a few different ways. We'll split them up into bottling and kegging.

Bottling

  • Bottle Priming - If you are bottling directly from your fermenter, siphon your beer into your bottles and then add a small amount of corn sugar to each bottle, we recommend just under 1 teaspoon per 12oz bottle for "standard" carbonation levels. Cap, gently swirl the bottle to help the sugar dissolve, and let sit at room temperature for 10-14 days.
  • Batch Priming - Siphon the beer into a sanitized container. Add 1 cup of corn sugar to a boiled cup of water, gently stir this solution into the beer, siphon the beer into the bottles. Cap and let sit at room temperature for 10-14 days.
Kegging
  • Natural Carbonation - Sanitize your keg and siphon your beer into it. Add 1/2 cup of corn sugar to a boiled 1/2 cup of water, gently stir this solution into the beer, purge the air from the keg, seal the keg and hook it up to serving pressure, and let sit at room temperature for 10-14 days.
  • Forced Carbonation - Sanitize and fill your keg with beer. Purge the air from it, seal it and do one of the following:
    • Hook it up to serving pressure and store it at refrigeration temps for 2-3 weeks. Drink when ready!
    • Hook it up to 35ish psi and store it at refrigeration temperatures for 24-48 hours. Purge pressure and hook up to serving pressure. Test the carbonation level. If too low, hook back up to CO2 and leave for 8 hours. If too high, disconnect CO2 and release the pressure every 30 minutes for a couple of hours until carbonation levels are ok.
    • Cool the beer to refrigeration temperatures. Crank the pressure up to 45-50 psi. Dose the keg with pressure. Unhook the CO2 and shake the keg vigorously. Repeat the previous 2 sentences 4-5 times. Purge pressure and hook up to serving pressure. Test the carbonation level. If too low, hook back up to CO2 and repeat the shaking process once or twice. If too high, disconnect CO2 and release the pressure every 30 minutes for a couple of hours until carbonation levels are ok.
If you are doing some form of natural carbonation and you are attempting to carbonate a high alcohol beer or a beer that has been in the fermenter for more than a couple months, we recommend adding some Cask and Bottle Conditioning dry yeast. One pack per 5 gallons (or tiny pinch per bottle).

For more tips and tricks, check out our Knowledge Base!