Need Options, Please

I bought a kit on sale from a company that I've seen people talk about here. Always has been positive. It was on sale. I bought a porter. It came with everything but the priming sugar. The brewing went well. Primary for 14 days. When I went to rack to bottling bucket, the stuff at the bottom (can't remember what its called) looked funny. Kind of slimy. I used a dry yeast, danstar I believe. I used a cup of brown sugar to prime. I've never used anything but corn sugar. Sat in the bottle for 10 days. I poured one and no carbonation. Let it go another week and just tried one and still not a bubble to be found. Is this batch a lost cause? Did I not use enough brown sugar to prime with? I've made 5 batches so far and this is my first failure. I suppose I'll chalk it up as lesson learned, assuming I actually learn something. On a brighter note SWMBO bought me a Fat Tire Clone kit.That's on deck for Saturday. Any input would be appreciated

I'd say give it more time. Was your priming solution well mixed with the beer in the bottling bucket? There should still be yeast in your bottles, so if there's sugar in there with them they'll eat it. Not many fermenters undergo a yeast-pocalypse in the span of 14 days.

I know I dissolved the sugar well in the 2 cups of water. I gave the bucket a gentle stir or two, but I was trying to be conscious of not incorporating too mu O2. I've looked for the yeast sediment in the bottom of the bottle, I didn't see much ( if any). I've heard there is a tablet that can be dropped into each bottle to carb. Would this be a possible solution? Or, If the yeast is dead would this be a mute point? Thanks for the help...

It usually takes 3-5 weeks. 5 weeks is more typical for porters/stouts it seems.

What temps are you storing the bottled beer? They need to be stored at a minimum of70* for proper carbonation

The temps are about 72, give or take. I've had no problems with carbonation with any other batch. Even in cooler weather. I thought maybe I hadn't used enough brown sugar. I drank both beers uncarbed, had a nice taste so I don;t think it's infected.

You should be fine using the same amount of brown sugar as corn sugar (at least according to Mr. Palmer's book, and I don't know volumes to use. I always stick with 3-4.5 oz). Do you rack your beer to the bottling bucket then add the priming solution? If so, next time try pouring in the priming solution first and then racking on top of it, so that you make a whirlpool effect to get it well mixed. Or even add half first, rack ~2.5 gallons, then add the second half and finish racking your beer.

I had the same problem with a batch I did a few months ago, it was not a porter but it took almost 8 weeks before they were carbed. I kept mine around 70ish too, now almost 12 weeks in the bottle and they are good to drink. Also I bottled a few 22oz ones and they carbed perfectly, not sure why but they did.

could be a capping issue if you are positive you added enough sugar. Besides yeast, the bottling and capping is the only other variable.

It sounds like you did everything right as far as bottling. I'm not quite sure if the brown sugar will impart a sweeter taste on your beer, but it should still ferment enough to carbonate. Thinking about it brown sugar in a Russian imperial stout or big porter might be pretty tasty.

If you bought your kit from B3 or Northern Brewer I think there is a box to check at checkout that adds priming sugar to your cart. I think I had this problem a long time ago, and they just figure so many people keg their beer that if you need priming sugar you'll get it separately.

In any case, I'd give it another 2 weeks. You didn't use screw top bottles did you?

phenry-I did rack beer on top of priming solution
transam- wow, 8 weeks! ive never waited that long. Ive got nothing to lose waiting.
purplejeep- I thought about the caps......can't see it being all the bottles. I've only opened 2 so far
Squirrelly- I didnt buy from either of the 2. I didn't want to mention the name in case people decided that it was somehow their fault, which I don't. I suppose it could've been bad yeast. But they wouldn't know that either.

I must say I am truly humbled and grateful for all the responses I got with this issue. The people here are really knowledgeable and helpful. I thank all of you. I only hope one day I'll be able to pass on some helpful info to another newbie.

I'm sure Revvy will post his handy-dandy little table shortly, but a simple rule of thumb is that the higher the gravity of the beer and/or the more alcohol present, the longer it'll take any fermentation (bottle conditioning included) to happen. 10 days is likely not enough for your average porter - I wouldn't even check it until 3 weeks had gone by. Definitely don't look at adding any further sugars (carb drops) until at least that much time has gone by, or you'll risk making yourself a good batch of bottle bombs once the yeast do get around to carbing everything up again.

Stratslinger-thats what kept me from going that route. Just yet, anyway. If after a few more weeks, would that be an option?? Do I just crack the bottle, put in the carb drop and then re cap??

So, its just about a month since its been bottled. Cracked another today. showing some slight carbonation. No head just yet. After I poured the beer, I noticed there was a lot of sediment in the bottom of the bottle....I'm assuming yeast. Is this ok? As it carbs up, will this go away. Thanks to everyone for all the reassurance. Glad I didn't dump this batch.

I did chill, however it was just overnight. I'm going to let them bottle age for another 2 weeks. I'll then chill one for 5 days and see what that does. Regarding the trub, is this just for the porter style?