Flat beer

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Parzy1230

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I've been brewing for a little while now and the first batch was OK and the next 4 were great then the 5th and 6th batches were flat even after 6-8 weeks in bottles there was some carbonation but not nearly enough about the only thing I can think of that I changed was the amount of time in the secondary the 5th batch was about 6 weeks and the 6th ( a lager) was about 4 months. Is the extended time killing my yeast or do you have any ideas on what else could be going on?
 
Parzy1230 said:
I've been brewing for a little while now and the first batch was OK and the next 4 were great then the 5th and 6th batches were flat even after 6-8 weeks in bottles there was some carbonation but not nearly enough about the only thing I can think of that I changed was the amount of time in the secondary the 5th batch was about 6 weeks and the 6th ( a lager) was about 4 months. Is the extended time killing my yeast or do you have any ideas on what else could be going on?
Sounds like your yeast are calling it quits and hanging back in the secondary after all that time.

Did you try swirling a bit of the secondary yeast cake into the bottling bucket?

What temp are you conditioning those bottles? Are you agitating them a bit every fews days to stir (wake) up the yeast?
 
bottle are kept at 65-70 degrees in my basement and i guess I never thought of swirling the bottle or the secondary I guess I figured the more sediment I could get out the better thanks for the ideas though
 
My general rule of thumb is to repitch with new dry yeast at bottling time (rehydrated and mixed with the cooled priming solution) if the batch has been sitting in secondary for longer than about 6 weeks. Might be a little overkill, but better safe than sorry.

Some other things that could be causing it:

  • Lack of adequate stirring of the priming sugar once it's been mixed with the beer in the bottling bucket
  • Use of low-fermentable-sugar-ratio extract (such as laaglander) as priming sugar
  • Low bottle conditioning temps
  • Beer gods conspiring against you (this has happened to me a few times)
  • High alcohol (12%+) has caused the yeast cells to shut down
 
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