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mikeyt

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Aug 2, 2006
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Location
Darwen, England
Hi everyone.

I'm new to this world of homebrew, but already I seem to have caught the bug. It's still very early days yet, and I'm not too sure if everything is going according to plan or not, yet.

My first beer was a Black Rock stout, which was in a kit. All I needed to do was add the sugar, and let it ferment for a few days before bottling it and letting it condition. This bit wasn't a problem. After the allotted time in the bottles, I've now had one or two and they have all come out flat, with no head whatsoever. This isn't a major problem - more a slight annoyance, as I'm not too sure why. The beer fermented slightly in the bottles, releasing CO2, but obviously not enough to give the beer much life.

It still tastes good, though, so I'm continueing to drink the stuff.

I have got my second brew on now, which is an EDME IPA. I'll be bottling that in a few days time. The hardest part is the wait, to let the beer mature - the natural thing I suppose it to drink it as soon as possible!

Anyway, just thought I'd say 'hello', and no doubt will be looking for advice sometime in the near future!!
 
If you want to give more details about these brews--recipes, techniques, how long and at what temp the bottles conditioned, etc, we could probably figure out the reason they are not carbonating very well.
 
Welcome aboard!

If you bottles are taking a while to carbonate, you may want to check what temerature they are aging at. It's generally recommended to keep the bottles at a moderate room temperature - around 70F, or 21C - until they've reached the carbonation level you're looking for. Colder temperatures will retard the process.
 
Did you add a little sugar (corn sugar) to your beer just before bottling? If your beer had fermented out and you bottled it there would be hardly any carbonation...
 
Thanks for the replies - so the following information is off the top of my head, as I'm currently in my lunch hour at work!

The beer was a black rock stout, which came in approx 1.8 kg can. I warmed the can up, and emptied it's contents into about 4 litres of just boiled water, along with 500g brewing sugar, and 500g dark spraymalt. This was then topped upto 25 litres, and was at a temperature of about 26 celsius, before the yeast was added, and stirred. The bucket was then left for about 7 days to ferment at room temp - it was a hot week over here, so probably around 27 celsius - before I bottled it, with a half teaspoon of sugar per bottle (500ml). This was then left at the same temperature for a week, before the first lot thrown in the fridge to cool for a few days before consuming. At the time, there was no other cool place - like the suggested 10 celsius - with this hot weather we've had over here in Blightly!

The bottles have carbonated slightly, as you can hear it escape when you crack them open, but maybe I left too much of a gap between the top of the bottle and the beer, so any carbon dioxide is just filling the empty space, and not necessarily carbonating the beer?

I've done my IPA the same way, and I will be bottling that Friday, hopefully. Again, a half teaspoon of sugar will be added, but this time I'll fill the bottles just that little bit more. Tales of explosions from my dad tend to put me off filling them right up!

Cheers for reading, and helping out, anyway!!
 
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