02883r

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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?

tre9er

Recipes 

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.

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02883r

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Ok, thank you! I'll give that a shot this weekend!

jungatheart

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What's the verdict? Bad corn sugar or something else?

02883r

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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.

zachattack

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The dishwasher might affect head retention, but not carbonation. Hmm.

stpug

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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.

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darby

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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.

davemattb

Recipes 

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.