Beer Forum

I put one of my bottles in a clear bottle to see what is happening during the carbonation period. What should I look for? Anything, or does the carbonation only reveal itself after the bottle is opened. After proper aging, what is the standard I am looking for for proper carbonation? I bottle another batch this weekend....any tips for the adding sugar/carbonation step?
Thanks in advance....

Sediment forming, perhaps? Once the yeast are done they should settle to the bottom for a nice nap.

If you want to monitor carbonation progress, make on bottle a plastic soda bottle. Then you can just give it a squeeze to see how it is coming along.

You shouldn't see anything different. When I used to bottle-condition, I would use a couple of clear bottles to see how things were settling, but I couldn't tell a difference between carbed or not carbed.

Tips for adding sugar? For a typical 5 gallon batch, dissolve about 5oz. of corn sugar into a small amount of boiling water (sorry I don't remember how much water). Pour the sugar mixture into the bottle bucket and rack on top of it. This should mix the beer and sugar. Bottle and bottle and bottle... Or Keg.

It sounds like you've already bottled some. So if I'm misunderstood your question, I apologize.

Keeping things very simple its 1 pint of water and corn sugar. Use 3/4cup for restrained carbonation (British Ales) to 1cup for a real carbonated brew. There are 4 table spoons in a 1/4cup --- so that gives you some easy grades of carbonation. For a lot of standard ales I use 3/4cup and 2 table spoons.

Get the mixture boiling in a sauce pan then reduce the heat a bit (keep it boiling) and boil for 12 minutes. Cool the sauce pan in a ice bath until its at 70deg ---- I add it to the bottling bucket after I hit the 2gal mark on the transfer.

Why cool it to 70F??? That little bit of liquid will quickly equalize when you add the beer in the bucket. When I did bottle....MANY moons ago....I would do as you said....boil it up...then just add it at the start....that way the shear turbulence from the racking would mix it. I don't think that short of a contact time with boiling sugar water will make any noticeable difference in the final product.

An easy method to do is fill one smaller plastic water bottle while you are bottling & screw the lid down tight. Then you can tell from the hardness of the bottle how carbonated it is.

Thanks everyone. It has been 1 week. My plastic Diet Coke bottle is nice and firm, and through my clear beer bottle, I see a clarified beer. I will let it set for another 2 weeks, then taste it up against what I was cloning. I appreciate all of the comments.