Bottle Carbonation

I have about 4 batches under my belt and ready to bottle the last of them...

They all have tasted alright, not great but alright..

Here is what I have in my process...

Bull boil
Hops in full boil then strain when putting into primary.
Primary for 10 days
Secondary for 2 weeks
Bottle condition for 3 weeks..

Prime with corn sugar.

The problem is I have very low carbonation in every batch so far...

Thanks in advance...

At what temperatures are you bottle conditioning?

How much corn sugar do you use?

75 degrees

I have been using the supplied corn sugar with my kit..

I think they range from 4.5 oz to 5 oz. The second batch used Coopers carb drops...

I was even thinking that I had let the secondary sit too long. 2 weeks..

Should I skip the whole secondary process?

just to be clear when are you adding priming sugar? and what temp are you letting them carb up in. I have used the carb drops twice, first time I had it to cold and it took like 4 weeks to carb my second time it took about 2 weeks

Ive just been using beer and lager kits but I have not been bottling, I have been using pressure barrels. Its a kegging system but thick hard plastic with a tap at the bottom and a pressure valve at the top where I use my Co2 botttle to equalise the pressure in the barrel.

I have had the same problem when it comes to carbonation of my lager and beer. I have primed it as per the instructions for the barrel ensured no leeks and tight fitting. I get a cracking head at first but it soon dies away.

Now ive been reading that it is best to be patient and carbonation will happen over time but is there anyway to accelerate this, i have considered using an 'Soda Stream' but dont want to go there.

Also how do you guys check the temperature?

75 degrees ambient is plenty warm for carbonation. I wouldn't skip secondary if you feel the beer needs it. You can always just add a light sprinkling of Lager yeast to the carboy the day before you bottle to make sure you have enough yeast to support carbonation, but that is usually only necessary when you lager or secondary for longer than what you have been doing.

One other thing that comes to mind is if you have a highly flocculating yeast there might not be enough in suspension to do the job properly, in that case you might want to rouse it a bit by giving it a quick stir about 20 - 30 minutes before bottling. (Any residual sediment will floc in the bottle...trust me ).

That all being said, I have had stuff take ages to carbonate. The two key factors in getting a quick full carbonation are yeast health and temperature.