Beer Didn't Carbonate

Well, not sure if this is the correct place to post this or not but since I am a beginner and it is somewhat of a beginner problem I will post it here.

Anyway, we made a batch of beer from our own recipe. We used 1lb of Gambrinus Honey Malt steeped for 20 minutes. Then added 6lbs of Northern Brewer Wheat LME and 1oz American Saaz Hops for a 60 minute boil. At 30 minutes another 1oz of American Saaz. With 5 minutes left we added 1oz bitter orange peel and 0.5oz coriander. At flame out we added in 3lbs Northern Brewer Clover Honey and cooled in an ice bath in our sink. After that we transferred to the fermenter, topped up to 5gals and added Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast. It was in there maybe 1-1.5 weeks, not 100% sure, then transferred to secondary for probably 3-4 weeks, again not sure. It definitely fermented in the primary as there was a nice yeast cake and the airlock was bubbling a lot for a few days. After the secondary we bottled, we used 5oz corn sugar added into the bottling bucket, then siphoned the beer in. We never stirred but the action of siphoning and the time it takes should have stirred it up and allowed time for the sugar to equalize through osmosis. The secondary did not have much of a yeast cake or sludge, though it did have some. We then bottle and used the O2 absorbing caps.

Now, here is the issue, after even 6 weeks they are all still flat. It's sad because other than being flat it tastes good. We have no clue what caused the issue, but the yeast pack was somewhat swelled when we got it and after smacking it, it was so swelled it felt like it was going to pop. What we are thinking of doing is opening all the bottles, maybe adding another 2.5oz sugar(?) and possibly a new smack pack of yeast and stir it up and rebottle it.

After reading this novel of mine, what do you all think.

I think you transferred off the primary yeast cake before the beer was done fermenting and the beer stalled. I think it will carbonate, but it will take time. Did you take gravity readings? What were they when you transferred, and before you bottled? I'm not going to give the "secondaries aren't necessary" speech, but you did definitely transfer too soon.

bottlebomber said:

I think you transferred off the primary yeast cake before the beer was done fermenting and the beer stalled. I think it will carbonate, but it will take time. Did you take gravity readings? What were they when you transferred, and before you bottled? I'm not going to give the "secondaries aren't necessary" speech, but you did definitely transfer too soon.

Click to expand...

Really? This was our first batch of our own concoction, was our 4th overall, and all the kits we've done have you primary only a week, so that's why we transferred it when we did.

We broke our hydrometer making our first batch and just haven't replaced it. My work schedule has me working every other weekend and we do all of this on weekends so usually everything is in 2 or 4 week steps and since I have been told that letting the beer sit extra time, as long a its reasonable, say under a month or so, isn't a big deal we figured we didn't need a new hydrometer since everything would be done by the time we were ready for the next step, lol.

Anyway, how long should we have primaried it for? Also, only used 1 yeast pack and no starter, should we have used a starter?

I don't think a stalled fermentation is your problem I have brewed plenty of beers that never saw close to a week and a half before being racked over to secondary. What temp are the bottles being stored at? and what were your gravity readings?


Before uncapping and doing all of that jazz try bringing one in the house somewhere youll see it. Twice a day pick it up and invert it. if after a week you've got no fizz then I would think about next steps.

Your OG for this recipe was around 1.060, so yes a starter would have been good. You NEED a hydrometer. It is your most valuable piece of brewing equipment after your kettle and fermenter. Without that it becomes very difficult to help you, because you haven't been able to monitor the fermentation process. As a general rule you should leave the beer in primary for around 3 weeks. 99% of beers will be stabilized by then.

ggoodman said:

I don't think a stalled fermentation is your problem I have brewed plenty of beers that never saw close to a week and a half before being racked over to secondary. What temp are the bottles being stored at? and what were your gravity readings?


Before uncapping and doing all of that jazz try bringing one in the house somewhere youll see it. Twice a day pick it up and invert it. if after a week you've got no fizz then I would think about next steps.

Click to expand...

Room temp, all our fermenting, secondary and bottles sit in our laundry/furnace room. We live in a relatively small apartment so it make it a bit difficult to find a good place. I will try your suggestions.

bottlebomber said:

Your OG for this recipe was around 1.060, so yes a starter would have been good. You NEED a hydrometer. It is your most valuable piece of brewing equipment after your kettle and fermenter. Without that it becomes very difficult to help you, because you haven't been able to monitor the fermentation process. As a general rule you should leave the beer in primary for around 3 weeks. 99% of beers will be stabilized by then.

Click to expand...

Ok, we will start doing primary for longer and get a new hydrometer. Will look into them as I am going to bet if we get a glass one again I will have it broken quickly.

If these refuse to carbonate you could sanitize the bottles and add some rehydrated champagne yeast and they will carbonate. That's a last resort though.

ggoodman said:

Twice a day pick it up and invert it. if after a week you've got no fizz then I would think about next steps.

Click to expand...

This can work too, I've done it. It has to be with beer that is to be drunk pretty quickly though as it can oxidize the beer pretty badly.

Ok, just opened 1 up that has been in the fridge for maybe a week, definitely still flat at teh start, but as it warms up it is getting a bit of a head and some carbonation. I have hope for this yet. Also, I must say, having it sit for so long has been a pretty cool experience, I have really been able to tell that maturation of the beer in the bottle over the weekly to biweekly trials we have had, it's definitely cool.

bose301s said:

Ok, just opened 1 up that has been in the fridge for maybe a week, definitely still flat

Click to expand...

Were they in the fridge the whole 6 weeks?

Carbonation/conditioning takes place at room temperature.. somewhere's around 70* or as close as possible. If you tried it in the refrigerator, your yeast fell asleep and the bottling sugars never had a chance to convert to alcohol and CO2. Bring them back out of the fridge for a couple of weeks in a warm climate.

Good luck.

Wait you had them all in the fridge for the 6 weeks?

Another thing to note, which is in a sticky as well, 3 weeks is a minimum after bottling to reach carbonation. Bigger beers may take longer, up to a few months. How many total bottles did you get? My first batch, I had about 10 bottles that were off the chart carbonated and the rest were.....ehhhhh sort of. I only used the swirling of the siphon to get the priming solution mixed and I don't think it did that great of a job. If you can tell which ones you bottled first and last, I'd throw one of each of those in the fridge and see if there is a difference. May not be, but also could be.

Definitely, definitely get another hydrometer and if you think you'll break it, give it to a friend to hold onto until brewing day.

No, it has not been in the fridge, I grabbed 2 at about 4 weeks and stuck them in hoping they would be, when the first wasn't we didn't open the second and I forgot to take it out, the rest have been at room temp the whole time.

Also, from the sounds of it the kits rush you, telling you 1 week fermentation, 2 weeks secondary and 1 week for carbonation before drinking. That's how we've done all our previous beers and they have all carbonated in that week. Oh well, we know to take more time now.

twistr25 said:

Definitely, definitely get another hydrometer and if you think you'll break it, give it to a friend to hold onto until brewing day.

Click to expand...

Friends don't let friends break hydrometers!

I see the 1-2-3 method mentioned a lot here, saying that it is for normal beers, with the amount of germentables in our beer would it not be considered a normal beer? Just wondering for future reference what can be considered normal to use the 1-2-3 method and what isn't normal and shouldn't use it.

I am also asking because tonight we just brewed the NB Big Honkin Stout and the directions again recommend 1 week or so fermentation in the primary then 2-4 weeks in a secondary, but from reading more and starting to gain some knowledge it would seem like we could just leave it in the primary for ~5 weeks then bottle and bottle condition for ~3 weeks and be good, is that the case?

Silly question, but nothing else is adding up on this thread, so I have to ask; how long are you chilling the beers before trying them? Bottle conditioned beers need at least 24 hours in the fridge, preferably more, for the co2 to dissolve into solution.

NordeastBrewer77 said:

Silly question, but nothing else is adding up on this thread, so I have to ask; how long are you chilling the beers before trying them? Bottle conditioned beers need at least 24 hours in the fridge, preferably more, for the co2 to dissolve into solution.

Click to expand...

Did not know that, but probably 12-18 hours, will try linger next time.

Yeah, that's not long enough. Leave them in the fridge for a day or two (or....... three) next time. Surprised that that wasn't the first question asked considering that everything else was done properly and mentioned in your OP. The simplest answer is often the correct one.

So, you're saying that when I grab a six of PBR off the warm store shelf and bring it home on a hot summer day, throwing it in the fridge for a couple of hours to get it cold will give me flat beer?

JustLooking said:

So, you're saying that when I grab a six of PBR off the warm store shelf and bring it home on a hot summer day, throwing it in the fridge for a couple of hours to get it cold will give me flat beer?

Click to expand...

PBR was filtered and force carbed last time I checked (CO2 comes from a tank and is evenly mixed vs. the yeast creating it). I think you're covered

You really can't use a 1-2-3 formula for brewing. Everything depends on your gravity readings. Many conditions can affect fermentation whether a honey blonde or an imperial stout. You need to take hydrometer readings after 1.5-2 weeks to see if you've reached your desired FG. Only then should you consider either secondary or bottling...

And you may want to buy multiple hydrometers at a time. I usually keep two spares. Check out the "broken hydrometer count" thread to see some of the more creative ways people break them.

All you've done sounds reasonable - and none I rh errors mentioned by others would end up with completely flat beer after three weeks in a bottle at room temps (assuming your room is somewhere near 70F).

How confident are you that your caps are on properly? After this, I'm at a loss unless in the process of transferrin to the bottling bucket jihadis something like filter it...

brewguyver said:

PBR was filtered and force carbed last time I checked (CO2 comes from a tank and is evenly mixed vs. the yeast creating it). I think you're covered

Click to expand...

The CO2 from naturally carbonating is not evenly mixed? What I've read says that CO2 is CO2 and that equilibrium is equilibrium, and that the laws of gases apply regardless of the source. What am I missing?

IMO, the OP's problem is not that he didn't leave his bottles in the fridge long enough. I'd go with the opinion that the yeast are not healthy and that it will take more time at room temperature to carb this beer.

JustLooking said:

The CO2 from naturally carbonating is not evenly mixed? What I've read says that CO2 is CO2 and that equilibrium is equilibrium, and that the laws of gases apply regardless of the source. What am I missing?

Click to expand...

We're talking about bottle conditioned home brew, not commercially made, force carbonated beer. Big difference.

IMO, the OP's problem is not that he didn't leave his bottles in the fridge long enough. I'd go with the opinion that the yeast are not healthy and that it will take more time at room temperature to carb this beer.

Click to expand...

What, in the OPs description of their situation, makes you think that the yeast aren't healthy? There's no reason to think that the yeast aren't healthy. The fermented the beer, and they're likely still in suspension. I'd say it's either the OP isn't chilling long enough, or, like FlyDoc mentioned, a capping issue.

Just to confirm: did you just dump the priming sugar into the bucket and rack or did you boil the sugar in a cup of water and add the simple syrup into the bucket, this was not clear in OP.

If you just dumped the sugar in then that's your problem

duboman said:

Just to confirm: did you just dump the priming sugar into the bucket and rack or did you boil the sugar in a cup of water and add the simple syrup into the bucket, this was not clear in OP.

If you just dumped the sugar in then that's your problem

Click to expand...

Dude, you may be onto something there. Looking back the OP says "added 5oz of sugar to bucket" before racking. I assumed priming solution, sugar/water, but if it was just sugar, that's could be the culprit.
Also, if that's the case, get those bottles into somethings sealed and safe, because just a couple/few have all the sugar and are really likely to explode.

NordeastBrewer77 said:

We're talking about bottle conditioned home brew, not commercially made, force carbonated beer. Big difference.

Click to expand...

Interesting. Please explain how the CO2 molecules from force carbing differ from those created through natural carbonation. I can't see there being a difference once equilibrium has been reached. If the yeast is healthy and there's something to eat, it only a matter of time before carbonation.

And if they've been in the bottle for six weeks at room temperature, I'd think that any bombs from poor mixing would have already blown.

JustLooking said:

Interesting. Please explain how the CO2 molecules from force carbing differ from those created through natural carbonation..

Click to expand...

No need to, it's not a difference in moles, it's a difference in process. You goin' somewhere with this? Have something to offer to the contrary that could help the OP?

NordeastBrewer77 said:

Dude, you may be onto something there. Looking back the OP says "added 5oz of sugar to bucket" before racking. I assumed priming solution, sugar/water, but if it was just sugar, that's could be the culprit.
Also, if that's the case, get those bottles into somethings sealed and safe, because just a couple/few have all the sugar and are really likely to explode.

Click to expand...

After reading enough of these problems I don't assume anything anymore

duboman said:

After reading enough of these problems I don't assume anything anymore

Click to expand...

Yeah, true. I saw sugar in the bucket and the thought didn't even occur to me, kudos to you for catching that. Seems likely.


And I have a feeling the thread's about to be derailed.

duboman said:

Just to confirm: did you just dump the priming sugar into the bucket and rack or did you boil the sugar in a cup of water and add the simple syrup into the bucket, this was not clear in OP.

If you just dumped the sugar in then that's your problem

Click to expand...

We made a priming solution, 5oz corn sugar in half or one cup boiling water, poured that into the bottling bucked then racked to it. Sorry for any confusion.

NordeastBrewer77 said:

No need to, it's not a difference in moles, it's a difference in process. You goin' somewhere with this? Have something to offer to the contrary that could help the OP?

Click to expand...

Your are correct. The process is different, but the end result is the same. There are possible flavor compounds and mouth feel that could used to distinguish a difference between natural and force carbing, but that is not the topic.

I have nothing to add that hasn't already been said, but eliminating unrealistic possibilities that have been presented is something that could be helpful to the OP. You suggested that his lack of carbonation could be that the bottles were not left in the fridge for long enough. You then try to support the claim by saying that natural carbonation is different from force carbonation. I don't agree with either.


All those high-five's for nothing.

bose301s said:

We made a priming solution, 5oz corn sugar in half or one cup boiling water, poured that into the bottling bucked then racked to it. Sorry for any confusion.

Click to expand...

How about the caps? Do they seem to be on tight? Is your capper working well? Trying to trouble shoot here, sorry for all the questions.

bose301s said:

Really? This was our first batch of our own concoction, was our 4th overall, and all the kits we've done have you primary only a week, so that's why we transferred it when we did.

We broke our hydrometer making our first batch and just haven't replaced it. My work schedule has me working every other weekend and we do all of this on weekends so usually everything is in 2 or 4 week steps and since I have been told that letting the beer sit extra time, as long a its reasonable, say under a month or so, isn't a big deal we figured we didn't need a new hydrometer since everything would be done by the time we were ready for the next step, lol.

Anyway, how long should we have primaried it for? Also, only used 1 yeast pack and no starter, should we have used a starter?

Click to expand...

A rule of thumb I go by is "let it ferment and then add 8-10 days." you don't wanna pull to early. And letting it sit a few days as long as its at temp won't hurt it it'll only refine it

NordeastBrewer77 said:

How about the caps? Do they seem to be on tight? Is your capper working well? Trying to trouble shoot here, sorry for all the questions.

Click to expand...

They seem tight, but maybe not as tight as before. We have a good wing capper, has worked on every previous brew great. Only other thing I think is that these were different caps than we've used before, they were "O2 Absorbing" caps as opposed to standard, would that make a difference in tightness or anything else?

No, it shouldn't. I'm stumped. I do think you need to try keeping a bottle fridged for two or three days and try one. Not saying that that's it, but contrary to what some posters have said here, you do need to fridge a beer for at least a day or two for the co2 to dissolve into solution fully. That's common knowledge around here, and a simple search will show many threads where just that has been the issue with no/little carbonation.

bose301s said:

They seem tight, but maybe not as tight as before. We have a good wing capper, has worked on every previous brew great. Only other thing I think is that these were different caps than we've used before, they were "O2 Absorbing" caps as opposed to standard, would that make a difference in tightness or anything else?

Click to expand...

I’ve found that the caps can be on good and tight, but still not seal well. My theory is that the sides of the cap can be squeezed in, holding it on, but the cap might not be pressed completely against the end of the bottle – it might even be cocked a little. In my case, I changed cappers and the problem immediately disappeared.

OP: I hope you will eventually pass along what you find. I’m almost as curious as you are about what could be causing the flat beer. I understand this is a frustrating problem – good luck.

Well, tried the inverting method followed by 24 hours in the fridge and IT CARBONATED!!! Actually a pretty good little beer,not earth shattering or anything but still pretty good. We are learning to be more patient now, lol.