4 batches will not carbonate..... Any ideas why?

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02883r

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I have brewed close to 30 5 gallon mini-mash batches of beer so far. I have never had an issue until recently. Since September I have had four batches that did not carbonate. I don't get it... Two of them are beers I have made before, two are new recipes. For each batch I boiled 4.5 oz priming sugar, let cool to below 80 degrees and added it to my bottling bucket. None of the batches sat in the secondary for longer than 2 weeks. I know everything was sanitized properly....

I bought some brewers best carbonation tablets that I thought about adding to the bottles and recapping them. If I were to do that, should I add a "grain" of dry yeast to each bottle as well? Every batch of beer tastes pretty good, its just flat....

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thank you!
 
I've always had this fear that my supplier will send me miss marked lactose as corn sugar.

I wouldn't know how to tell them apart either.
 
I wonder if you got some bad caps or something or you are having a problem with your capper?

I'm not sure.... the last two batches were caps from a new bunch.... I haven't had any issues with the capper that I am aware of... I always sanitize the caps as well.

How would I tell if the caps aren't sealing properly?
 
I've always had this fear that my supplier will send me miss marked lactose as corn sugar.

I wouldn't know how to tell them apart either.

You know, I never thought of that..... I could see that in maybe one batch, but I would have a hard time thinking I would have gotten mislabeled corn sugar four times. I wonder how you would tell the difference though... Wouldn't you still get a light carbonation with lactose?
 
I have a theory... it's called winter.

What's the avg temp where you're keeping the bottles? In my last apartment, beer didn't carb in the winter unless I actively heated it. But we were also pretty stingy with the thermostat, and my beer was in an unheated closet.
 
I have a theory... it's called winter.

What's the avg temp where you're keeping the bottles? In my last apartment, beer didn't carb in the winter unless I actively heated it. But we were also pretty stingy with the thermostat, and my beer was in an unheated closet.

This...colder temps started in Sept.
 
I myself was very concerned about my last two batches carbonating. They took about two weeks and in summer they take about
four days. If you have a bucket you can put the bottles in some warm water to get them started and maaybe once a dat change
out the room temp water for warmer. Once the yeast get started they may not need further motivation. Use one plastic bottle
to guage progress by the hardness of the plastic soda bottle. Just an idea.
 
I've got to go with the temp also. Ive got an electric heater about 8' from my beer closet keeping 'em at a steady *72 and i'm chillin' them in 3 weeks and drinkin' 'em in 4
 
If you shake a bottle (gently at first) and it doesn't leak at all, it's not the caps...at least it's highly unlikely. Temp is probably the culprit here. Ale yeasts need to be in the high 60's at the lowest if you want them to carb. Try turning each bottle over gently, then back, and move them all to a warmer location.
 
I have a theory... it's called winter.

What's the avg temp where you're keeping the bottles? In my last apartment, beer didn't carb in the winter unless I actively heated it. But we were also pretty stingy with the thermostat, and my beer was in an unheated closet.

It does make sense.... But I do most of my brewing in the winter and have never had this issue before. I have my bottles in cases in the center-most part of my house (the warmest). The temperature is steadily 62 degrees, which has always been more than sufficient in the past, even with the exact same beers. I will put a heater near them and see what happens.

Thank you!
 
If you shake a bottle (gently at first) and it doesn't leak at all, it's not the caps...at least it's highly unlikely. Temp is probably the culprit here. Ale yeasts need to be in the high 60's at the lowest if you want them to carb. Try turning each bottle over gently, then back, and move them all to a warmer location.

Ok, the bottles definitely not a problem. It has got to be a temperature problem.
 
Actually... one of the batches, an amber, has been at my girlfriends moms house (I made it for her for Christmas) where the temperature is consistently between 70-73 degrees; they still didn't carbonate.
 
What kind of sugar are you using? Could you test it by making a yeast starter or something?

How are you adding it to the bottling bucket? If you don't have it in enough solution, could it have re-solidified and stuck to the bottom of the bucket?
 
Did you by chance use your dishwater to sanitize your bottles? Not that there's anything inherently wrong with this method, just that I had a friend who had two uncarbed batches that he used a dishwasher to sanitize them (we were thinking the anti-waterspot stuff that's sometimes put in it's own location and lasts for many washings). It's the only thing we could come up with at the time that might have caused this.
 
What kind of sugar are you using? Could you test it by making a yeast starter or something?

How are you adding it to the bottling bucket? If you don't have it in enough solution, could it have re-solidified and stuck to the bottom of the bucket?

I am using 4.5 oz of corn sugar. I boil 2 cups of water, add the sugar, let it boil for about a minute then let it cool below 80 degrees. Once it cools I dump it in the bottling bucket then rack in my beet from the secondary.
 
Unless I missed it you never told us how long those batches have been in the bottles.

Oh, sorry.... you're right!

one has been bottled since the end of November, one has been bottled since the beginning of the first week of January, the other since the end of the first week of January and the last has only been about 2 weeks (so it may get better, but it is completely flat).
 
Did you by chance use your dishwater to sanitize your bottles? Not that there's anything inherently wrong with this method, just that I had a friend who had two uncarbed batches that he used a dishwasher to sanitize them (we were thinking the anti-waterspot stuff that's sometimes put in it's own location and lasts for many washings). It's the only thing we could come up with at the time that might have caused this.

I don't have a dishwasher... I have heard horror stories about using them! I always soak my bottles in bleach and water for a day or two, then soak them in just water, then rinse the hell out of them, then put them in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour. Its probably a bit extensive, but I know I have clean, residue free bottles at the end....
 
This is really a mystery. I second the idea of making a starter with the corn sugar to test it.

Now I've gotta know what it is!!
 
This is really a mystery. I second the idea of making a starter with the corn sugar to test it.

Now I've gotta know what it is!!

I will try that. Forgive my ignorance, but how do i do that? Pour a bottle in a plastic bottle with a small ammount of boiled corn sugar?

Do you think there is a possiblitly any of it could be spoiled, or end up spoiling because of lack of carbonation?
 
Boil the corn sugar and cool like normal. Take gravity. Add to a sanitized jar and pitch yeast like you would into a batch of beer. Cover with sanitized foil and swirl every time you walk by it. After a few days, take gravity. If it's lowered significantly, like beer would, then the sugar is really fermentable sugar.
 
Boil the corn sugar and cool like normal. Take gravity. Add to a sanitized jar and pitch yeast like you would into a batch of beer. Cover with sanitized foil and swirl every time you walk by it. After a few days, take gravity. If it's lowered significantly, like beer would, then the sugar is really fermentable sugar.

Ok, thank you! I'll give that a shot this weekend!
 
What's the verdict? Bad corn sugar or something else?

I'm so sorry it has taken me so long to get back on to reply, my work blocked this website from use (I'm a teacher so I suppose beer is not the best topic for some reason...)

The verdict is still unclear.... I think it was a combination of temperature and to my surprise using a dishwasher.... I found out a few weeks back that my in laws put close almost 100 of my bottles in their dishwasher before giving them back to me..... I think some of the film may have remained on the bottles. The problem is, I don't know which bottles they were as they have since been reused for new batches.

I had two batches carbonate after putting them in a small area of my house with an electric heater for a week, but they have a strange (not necessarily bad) off taste that has not been there in the past. We'll see how some of my future batches turn out.
 
I'll just reiterate that a friend had 2-3 uncarbonated batches using bottles that were sanitized in the dishwasher. Obviously we can't conclude that it was the dishwasher that caused it but it was the only variable that seemed out of the ordinary that we could think of at the time (this was 5+ years ago).

A total "What If....", but what if the spot-free agent that is used along side of dishwashing detergent leaves a residue and the residue is lethal to yeast (even in small amount). That would leave a batch uncarbonated. Total random thought I guess.
 
I just read through this thread. I have a batch, a cream stout that I bottled in mid-January, that won't carbonate. I thought my house might be too cold (63 at night and never above 67) so I put half of the bottles on a heating pad. They feel very warm and I turn them over about twice a week. It's been 5 weeks of this and they are still totally flat. I don't get it. I've brewed about 20 batches - extract and mini-mash. This happened once before a few years ago. None of my bottles have been in a dishwasher. I used DME plus a little corn sugar for bottling. I'd like to get to the bottom of this because its too much work to make a batch and have it fail.
 
I had an issue with low carbonation for a few batches too. I first thought it was the altitude. Tried adding more corn sugar or dme with same results. I've since invested in a colonna capper/corker. Its huge, but is so much easier to use. My first batch with that capper i added extra sugar and it was overcarbonated. I think my Red Baron capper wasn't sealing properly. Plus, now I can make wine AND cork those bottles.
 
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