Bottle conditioning

Can swirling my bottles help with carbonation? I have a brewers best double ipa bottled and stored at 64-72 degrees. It has been bottled for a month now with minimal carbonation thus far. It is about 8.1% abv. My LHBS says the yeast are drunk right now and to give it more time. Used us-05 and priming sugar. Any ideas would be appreciated


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You used both US-05 and Priming Sugar? How did you mix in the bottling bucket, did you pour beer then added priming sugar?

Shaking it up while in the bottle I dont think will speed up carbonation. I would just do random test on different bottles like all of them and see if it carbonation is consistent.

Kit said to dissolve priming sugar in 2 cups of clean water and put that in bottling bucket first. Then siphoned my beer and gave it a good but gentle stir and bottled. I've sampled both the first beers bottled and the last. Same carb with both.


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I suspect you need more time and a higher temp. 3 weeks @ 70 degrees is the minimum for beers with average ABV's.

Put them somewhere warm, swirl each bottle, and see what happens in another couple weeks.

my 2 cents

Also i used a pack and a half of the us-05 per my LHBS and rehydrated it


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The typical process when using priming sugar is to boil the 2 cups of water add priming sugar until it dissolves then let it cool and add to bucket. How much priming sugar did you use. They usually suggest 3/4s a cup.

Adding rehydrated yeast to it i've never done and wouldn't know if it would work.

I did not add any yeast at priming and bottling time. All yeast was pitched at about 80 degrees after transferring wort to fermenter. As for the amount of priming sugar, i am not really sure. Whatever the kit had supplied is what i used. This was my first homebrew and i followed the directions to the tee. Beer tastes very good just missing about half the carbonation it should have. I now have a black ipa nearing end of fermentation and denny's wry smile on the way for my next brew. Safe to say i am hooked.


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Rolling them on sides has been a suggested method to help roust up the yeast to continue carbing. I've done it, not positive it helped but they did carb up

A couple tips...

Put the bottles in a dedicated closet for conditioning. I lay them on their sides...or...place them into crates. Crates make it easier to shake the bottles to keep the yeast suspended.

Try to keep a constant 80*F so the yeast will be more eager to work and try to use fresh yeast at bottling time. Also, a small starter of champagne or Belgian yeast can really speed up the process. Just don't forget they are there at that temp...getting a head start on carbornation is OK, but don't leave them more than two or three weeks as that can impact the flavour.

If you can't keep that temp, make or get a small heater with a thermostat. I made a small space heater using a couple power resistors bolted to a heatsink which has a shroud around it and an 80mm fan blowing air through. Hooked it up to a small timer circuit so I can adjust the duty cycle and hence temperature. I power this contraption with an old computer power supply. Works great.

Using these methods, all my strong Belgian beers (including a recent 11% tripel I made) usually carb in three weeks, though that doesn't mean they are done...far from it.

Ok. Rolled and swirled. Also moved upstairs to hopefully bring temp up a bit. Will check a bottle in a few days. Great advice guys


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I had the same issue with my IPA, virtually zero carbonation after 3.5 weeks at mid-high 60's. I moved the bottles to the garage which is in the mid-70's and have inverted the bottles a couple times now to get the yeast back into solution. I'm going to wait another couple weeks before I try again.

Glad your hooked keep brewing never hurts the end result will be beer! Cheers and remember this site is a great tool!


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I'm new to homebrewing and having the same problem with my APA. Its been in the basement (~60°) for three weeks now and is partially carbed, but not near what I want it to be. I know the main thing to do here is to be patient, but I feel like they aren't carbing up any more than they were a week ago. I moved a 6 pack up stairs and inverted 2 of the bottles. Keeping my fingers crossed!

As stated above i have a black ipa in my fermentor. I recently racked to secondary. My sg was 1.022. I was expecting a 1.014-1.016 range. This is the second time i took sg and got .022. So i assumed if i racked to secondary it might swirl up some yeast and continue to ferment. My question is if i still have .022 at bottling day, should i expect low carb again? Should i add anything(more priming sugar,carb tabs,sprinkle of yeast). Thanks


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You could try a higher temperature to help the yeast finish.

However...all grain or extract?

If all grain what was your mash temp and length?

Its extract. Only my second brew


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If the SG isn't moving at all, then it's fine to bottle the regular way. No need to add more yeast or more or less priming sugar.

Here it is. The double ipa from the original post. Not sure if the swirling helped or not but it certainly didnt hurt. I think the extra 2 weeks plus moving to a slightly warmer room did the trick. Great beer, great carb, great head, great advise guys. Thanks alot. Moral of the story is.... Have patience and ask questions on HBT.


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