Big sized Bubbles

[twistedspoke]

So the wife asked me if she could brew a beer for a bridal shower she is going to and that she wanted to create a "convert-chicks-that-dont-drink-beer" type of beer. So with a little education she chose to brew something that was super light in color w Pilsner and carapils. She selected the hops by herself by smelling them (i put them in unlabelled cups so she wasnt biased) and she chose Nelson, CTZ, saaz and Riwaka.

After picking them I told her that what she had chosen was going to create something akin to Sav Blanc, which is exactly her intention and that it fitted with whats she wanted to do. After it was fermented i was quite surprised to see how bright it is in color and is relatively clear. Currently its in the kegs being dry hopped and i will filter it for her to make it even brighter later this week. The color is spot on #### And i do have to give it to her... its a refined very flavorful beer with lots of floral and wine-ey notes to it.

However, she has asked me to create larger sized bubbles more akin to champagne sized bubbles, than the tight, micron-sized bubbles that I usually get out of my force carbonated beer.

When I told her that it wasnt possible she went to the fridge opened up a can of fizzy lager (Asian Beer with a tiger on the front) poured it into a glass and held it up to the light and said, "So how do they do it?" - smart girl.

So brewing guru's - how do they do it? After all, the yellow mass produced fizzy stuff is force carbonated as well.


Any info would be most appreciated.

[Stinkfist]

I am assuming it relative to the carbonation level of the beer , hence the name yellow fizzy beer they are highly carbonated also like a champagne, so I would aim for a carbonation level above 3, not sure it will make the beer better but if that is what she is looking for that is probably the only way.

[mtyquinn]

I would say higher carb as well. More bubbles to mush together. Unfortunately I do not have a real scientific answer for you though. Good Luck. Sounds like an interesting beer.

[spiderwrangler]

Protein level will have an impact on that, and I feel like residual sugars will as well... When you are talking about a bubbly, fizzy beer, everything that comes to mind is very thin bodied and and dry.

[alan_marks]

Hmmmm... after reading this it almost sounds like a "session" Belgian blonde. Keep the idea of pils and carapils, add generic sugar to lighten it all up, ferment with your choice of S-05/WLP001/1056 American Ale yeast, then carbonate at a level of 3 to 3.5 volumes. You could even use extra light DME and store sugar to simplify the wort. I would check out the numbers in your favorite brewing software (I like ProMash, but I'm old) to verify the gravity and IBU's.

Now, give your GF a taste of Duval and see what she says about it...

Panty dropper?

[keelanfish]

Wasn't there an article in the last few years in either zymurgy or BYO about this subject? I seem to remember it being really technical and describing the physics behind bubble size, etc. I'll flip through my old magazines when I get home tonight and find it.