passive

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I bottled my latest batch on Thursday, and I was interested to see how it was developing, so I just opened a bottle. It had a very tiny amount of carbonation, and by the taste, seems to have most of it's bottling sugar.
I know it will usually take two or more weeks to get to the proper level of carbonation, but I've opened early before, and it always at least had a noticeable amount.

This batch is a Pilsner from a Festa Brew kit, which uses Saflager S-23 yeast.

When it was fermenting, it bubbled very slowly, taking several weeks before it stopped. This was my first time using a yeast which needed to be rehydrated, and it was definitely a bit lumpy when it got mixed in, so I'm wondering if maybe fewer yeasts were active.

I suppose the only other thing I could mention is that all my bottling up until this point has been done in 1L swingtops, but for this batch I used a few 460ML ones. The one I opened was one of the smaller ones. I would think that would affect the pressure in the bottle, but not the carbonation in the beer?

Any particular advice? Should I just give it time and hope for the best?

Thanks!

Goblism

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I think you need to give it a few more weeks, your not even a week in right now!

HomebrewMTB

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Ales take at least 3 weeks to fully carbonate and I would suspect lager to take even longer. It also takes a couple days in the fridge for the CO2 to dissolve into the beer. So at this point nothing needs to be done or fixed. Unless you like flat beer, you just need to wait.

TopherM

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Did you make sure to maintain lager fermentation temps? Like 40-55 degrees throughout the fermentation. Pilsner is a lager style, so it is going to take 6-8 weeks to ferment then 3-6 weeks to condition after that.

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jsweet

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I'd be ashamed to admit how early I've cracked a beer out of curiosity, and yeah, I usually find they are at least "fizzy" almost right away. But I wouldn't get bent out of shape if one wasn't. Also, you can have tremendous bottle-to-bottle variation early on, just due to things as simple as a minor temperature differential. Recently I shared a pale ale that had been bottle conditioning for 16 days with some friends. We opened two bottles, and one of them was already just about there in terms of conditioning, the other one was thin and pretty clearly undercarbed. IME that inconsistency goes away with time.

passive

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Thanks for the encouragement. I'll leave it alone.

(I may have to find some more bottles for my next batch though)

Wakadaka

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One week and its not carbed?? Just dump it.

What was the OG of that beer? My bigger beers have taken a lot longer to carb up, and I would expect lager yeast to take longer too.

come back in about 2 weeks and see if it isn't better, and if its not the only thing your going to hear is to just wait another 2 weeks and try then. Time really does cure everything (almost) when it comes to homebrewing.

Lack of bottles is also my biggest problem and the main reason that I end up drinking some green beer. Luckily my cousin just started kegging, so I am getting a lot of extras this weekend

mrk00k

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I have a similar problem...I'm getting ingredients in the mail today, and I can't even taste my beer yet. What should I do?

haha, jk.

People really need to RDWHAHB.

jsweet

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I would make a yeast starter, and pitch it into your mailbox.

grace1760

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Trust me, with the USPS, if you pitch it into your mailbox, you're guaranteed to have a stuck fermentation.

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