bmasyga

Recipes 

Hey everyone. I made a honeybee ale from extract fro Midwest. The brew was one week in primary, 2 in secondary, and three in bottles with priming sugar. Two nights ago I poured my first glass and had crazy amounts of head. It was about 3/4 of the glass. Tonight I took two out of the fridge and both had zero carbonation and no head. What is going on. It has a little off taste to it as well. Could it be infected? If so will time fix it?

PistolsAtDawn

Recipes 

The off flavors are common on young extract-based beer. That will probably decrease with age. Worry not about infection being the culprit there.

As for your carbonation difference, that may be something as simple as the priming sugar not being mixed well enough in the pre-bottled beer. I had plenty of problems with that myself early on.

jknapp12105

Recipes 

How did you introduce the dextrose to the beer?

bmasyga

Recipes 

What is dextrose? Sorry. I am really new to this.

jknapp12105

Recipes 

No Biggy. Dextrose (corn sugar) is what you use to carbonate the beer the final two weeks. For 4 gal you typically boil 2 1/2 cups of the dextrose on the stove fr about 3 min then you pour that into your bottling Bucket FIRST. Then you pour your flat beer on top of that will it will naturally mix, then bottle

jknapp12105

Recipes 

How you bottled it could have played a factor. What type of bottles did you use?

Screech

Recipes 

I also had this problem except not as much foam as you describe, but I had an inconsistency in my bottles. I poured in the priming sugar mixture, after boiling, into the bottling bucket and then siphoned on top of that. Then I slowly and gently stirred to give it a proper mixture. I then stirred occasionally while bottling (every 12 pack or so). This should help with your inconsistent carbonation.

Kevin

__________________
"Remember, the only way to really F up your beer is to replace your yeast with ketchup." - NineMilBill

Primary: Victory Hop Devil IPA

Bottled: Delirium Tremens

Bottled: Black Dog Ale

marqos

Recipes 

Wait, did somebody say 2.5 cups corn sugar for 4 gallons of beer?! I thought it was .75 cups for 5 gallons... That's a pretty big discrepancy there...

BillyBock

Recipes 

Yeah, it should be 1/2 to 3/4 cup of sugar per 5 gallon batch.

kwingert

Recipes 

Sounds like you didn't get enough sugar in each bottle. The sugar will settle to the bottom if you don't keep it stirred up. Next time, GENTLY stir your beer in the bottling bucket after you've bottled 4-6 beers. This will help keep the sugar mixed evenly.

Try using a priming sugar calculator next time. Just google it. Not every style of beer gets the same amount of carbonation.

__________________
Beer is proof god loves us and wants us to be happy-Franklin