Flat beer

I just opened a porter that has been in the bottle three weeks on Thuursday, to find that it is almost completley flat. There was a thin layer of bubbles that disapeared completly right after pouring. Besides a lack of carbonation, the beer is otherwise fine.

The beer had been in the secondary for three and a half weeks, should I have added more yeast at bottling?

I primed with three quarter cup corn sugar.

Thanks in advance for any help

-magno

3/4 C sugar should be enough for carbonation.

What was the temp where you stored your bottles? If it was below 70F then you'll need to move the bottles to a warmer area.

I had this problem earlier with a pumkin beer. The thing was, some of them were carbonated, and some weren't. I kept good records, and after many batches of beer I realized I had two problems. First, I didn't keep my beers warm enough to fully carbonate, but the ones on the outside got more. The ones on the outside were the first ones I drank, but I was drinking them warmer than usual, because they were samples, and I didn't wait for them to chill. When I sampled the later ones they had been in the fridge for a while, and were cold. They weren't carbonated as well to begin with, and the cold temperatures made that carbonation less apparent.
I kept the rest of my beers in a warm place for about a week, and then chilled them properly, and they were excellent.

Are you sure the sugar was mixed well in the beer before bottling? If it isn't evenly distributed in the bottling bucket you can get inconsistency from one bottle to the next. Try opening another bottle and see how it is. I also second what homebrewer_99 stated. Did the bottles condition at a temprature warm enough for the ale yeast to ferment the sugar?

I say just give it more time. I've had a few take close to a month to get fully carbonated. The flavor will improve with that much time also.

Add a coopers Carb drop and reseal it for a week or 2. J/k.....let it sit for a while longer.

The bottles have been sitting in a couple boxes at room temp. It got cold last week but I imagine that they stayed in the 60 - 70 range being inside. I will give it more time.

As for mixing the sugar in well... I filled the bottling bucket with about 2/3 of the beer, the mix in the cooled sugar water gently with a sanitized spoon. Would I be better off putting the sugar water in before the beer? Sould I still mix wih the spoon?

Thanks again

-magno

magno said:

The bottles have been sitting in a couple boxes at room temp. It got cold last week but I imagine that they stayed in the 60 - 70 range being inside. I will give it more time.

As for mixing the sugar in well... I filled the bottling bucket with about 2/3 of the beer, the mix in the cooled sugar water gently with a sanitized spoon. Would I be better off putting the sugar water in before the beer? Sould I still mix wih the spoon?

Thanks again

-magno

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I always put my priming solution into the bucket first, then rack the beer on top of it with my siphon end angled a little so that the flow of beer into the bucket creates a swirling action and mixed the sugar evenly with the beer.

Avery now and then (if I get paranoid for some reason or if my siphon doesn't seem to have swirled nicely) I will stir it with the racking cane or a spoon.

-walker

homebrewer_99 said:

3/4 C sugar should be enough for carbonation.

What was the temp where you stored your bottles? If it was below 70F then you'll need to move the bottles to a warmer area.

Click to expand...

Mine have been at 65F (Basement) for 2 weeks... should I move them upstairs? It's normally 72ish upstairs.

Will a week be enough time? I'm pretty sure I can't wait any longer...

Sounds to me like you just need to give it more time or move it to a warmer temperature. My beer is stored in the basement where it's usually 60-68F. I've popped open bottles that turned up pretty flat 2-3 weeks after bottling. But a couple weeks later, the bottles all seem carbonated. My guess is that the suspended yeast is dormant after several weeks in the secondary, and it takes a while for it to get roused up enough to ferment the bottle, especially if the temperature is below 70F.

Don't worry, give it time, or give it some heat.