Biermann said:
Ok, I have an amber that I recently did. Let it sit for about 3 weeks after bottling, put a couple of the bottles in the fridge, tested them--great head retention, great carbonation, tasted great. Put the rest in the fridge. . . only about 1 in 3 has decent carbonation now. Some are down right FLAT. Others are simply awesome. What gives??
I agree with what Walker said. When you add the priming sugar, you need to gently stir it into the beer to get an even distribution. Here's what I do.
Boil 1-2 cups of water
Add 3/4 cup of corn sugar
Boil and stir for 5-10 minutes
Add this to the bottling bucket
Gently siphon beer into bucket
With a sanitized spoon, gently stir the beer for 30 seconds or so. Do not splash, just gently swirl the beer around, making sure the beer is mixing well.
Bottle.
You should boil the corn sugar for a couple reasons,
1) boiling sanitizes the priming sugar
2) boiling helps the sugar dissolve into the water.
Once the sugar is dissolved, its much easier to mix with the beer because grains of undissolved sugar tend to settle to the bottom of the bottling bucket causing some bottles to be over carbonated, while others seem flat.