Screwed up priming

3 weeks ago I bottled an Irish red extract kit. It was my first 5gal batch. I don't remember which calculator I used but I checked my notes and it appears I only added 2.2oz of corn sugar. (brewer's best priming sugar).

I tasted one this past weekend and it was nearly flat. I am assuming that there was an operator error when finding that calculation and I am new enough to have not noticed that was a small amount for a 5 gal batch.

Anyway, do I have to drink nearly flat beer or can I just open the bottles and add a small amount of cane sugar? Then recondition a few more weeks? Or just let them sit until I get kegging supplies and dump them in a keg to force carb? (hope to be kegging by midsummer)

Now, that I proof read this, I realize that I know my options, just not sure which would be my best attempt to fix this beer.

I would just let them sit and wait until the midsummer option. Truthfully they might get carbonated before then anyways so it could be problem solved. Also being an Irish Red, it won't go bad within that amount of time.

Try putting it in the warmest part of your house for a couple of weeks and try another one.

From what I can tell you're only getting about 1.7 volumes of CO2 in that beer, which is going to seem pretty flat. They aren't going to carb up any/much more than they have already assuming they are at a good carbing temp already.

I had a similar issue a while back with a belgian dubbel. I targeted 1.7 volumes of CO2 only to find out that I really don't like that little carb in my beers so I experimented quite a bit with recarbing options.

What you do NOT want to do is open them and simply pour some sugar in - they will foam up immediately and you'll lose 90% of the beer in the bottle. Trust me

After trying a few options, what I was able to do was take some sugar - you'll have to somewhat guess at the right amount - and boil it in as little water as possible. Then cool it just like you would for normal batch priming. Then, open each bottle one by one and use something like an eye-dropper to add the solution to the bottle and re-cap. Simply mixing the sugar in water doesn't work - it needs to be boiled (but just for a minute).

Or - you can wait and keg as you mentioned.
Good luck.

That's interesting. Thanks for sharing the tip. I'm actually low on bottle caps right now but I might try that method with a few of them.

You might be able to just open them up, drop a Cooper's carbonation drop in each one, and re-cap.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/brewing-ingredients/sugars/priming-sugars/coopers-carbonation-drops.html

Of course, if you're partially carbonated already, then the additional drop might be too much. I'm guessing one drop in each bottle is roughly equivalent to about 4 oz of corn sugar in a 5 gallon batch. So you'd be ending up on the slightly overcarbed side, probably around 3 volumes of CO2. That's not enough to make bottle bombs, but it might be a bit too fizzy for the style.

I would rather be over carbed in regards to style. I'll have to make a run to the LHBS and see if they carry that stuff. How long should I let the drops work before tasting?

I always try to wait at least 2 weeks at 70° F. Longer if it's in a colder area.

Now that I think about it, you could also just weigh out the appropriate amount of dextrose that you think was "missing" (perhaps 2 oz.), then make a solution with say 1 mL of water for each bottle in the batch. Do the boil and cool routine, then use a sanitized syringe, pipette, etc. to dispense 1 mL of the solution in each bottle.

Thanks for the ideas. Sounds like it is still salvageable (unless I screw up)

Along the same lines (not trying to hijack) I have a mega gravity belgian that doesnt want to carb up after a month in the bottle. Would the carb drops work in that situation where it might not be a priming sugar deficiency?

If the beer is at the right temperature and you added enough priming sugar, you probably don't have viable yeast in the bottles. Usually this is because of extended aging and/or a variety of yeast that flocculates really well and as a result stays entirely in the fermenter.

You need to get viable yeast in the bottles. You could find a suitable dry yeast and use tweezers to drop a few grains in each bottle. US-05 will do the trick.

EDIT: Actually, check your ABV and choose a strain with a corresponding alcohol tolerance. You may need to go w/ champagne yeast or something similar.

Based on what the OP said I'm inclined to think it's not a yeast issue. It was an irish red so it's not a high ABV like a barelywine or double IPA and although the fermentation time wasn't stated I'm going to assume that it wasn't aged very long.

It had SOME carb, but 1.7 volumes is pretty low. I'm sticking with adding more sugar.

Kealia said:

Based on what the OP said I'm inclined to think it's not a yeast issue. It was an irish red so it's not a high ABV like a barelywine or double IPA and although the fermentation time wasn't stated I'm going to assume that it wasn't aged very long.

It had SOME carb, but 1.7 volumes is pretty low. I'm sticking with adding more sugar.

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My last response (the yeast issue) was in response to BrotherFreeman. He may have an alcohol tolerance issue, or yeast that completely flocculated out. In those cases simply adding more sugar isn't going to get things going.

I just bottled up a really old (50 weeks) English IPA collaborative brew that was brewed with a highly flocculant strain. After sitting that long we felt it wise to pitch half a pack of Notty in with the priming sugar so there would be enough viable yeast for bottling. But yeah, except in odd cases like that, there's more than enough viable yeast floating around to do the job of carbonating the bottles, as long as you give them enough sugar to convert.

SixFoFalcon said:

My last response (the yeast issue) was in response to BrotherFreeman. He may have an alcohol tolerance issue, or yeast that completely flocculated out. In those cases simply adding more sugar isn't going to get things going.

I just bottled up a really old (50 weeks) English IPA collaborative brew that was brewed with a highly flocculant strain. After sitting that long we felt it wise to pitch half a pack of Notty in with the priming sugar so there would be enough viable yeast for bottling. But yeah, except in odd cases like that, there's more than enough viable yeast floating around to do the job of carbonating the bottles, as long as you give them enough sugar to convert.

Click to expand...

Missed that post - my bad.

I'll hoist one in your honor tonight.

We'll both hoist one in honor of these two poor souls who thought they'd have carbonated beer by now.

Just to be clear:

The Irish red had completed fermentation. Fg readings steady for several days (don't have notes on me to give actual fg but 3 weeks primaried and 1.5 weeks secondaried).

After tasting the first beer, I checked my notes to see if I could spot an obvious mistake. The first thing I noticed was the 2.2oz of corn sugar. It seemed low to me.

I have found some guys fairly close to me that brew and they have invited me to several of their brew days. I have noticed they always use around 4oz of Cane sugar for a 5 gal batch.

With me using half the dose and corn instead of cane sugar, I figure that is the problem. I think I used the graph from the "how to brew" online version. I checked it again this morning and if I am reading it correctly, 2.2oz is correct (or at least correct by that graph...)

Agreed 1KD1. Although I am quite easily not an expert, or even proficient at priming, it sound slike if you add a bit of sugar to each you will probably be good to go.

On my issue, it was not that extended of a ferment. Maybe 2-3 weeks primary and 3-4 in secondary. I had a 8 gallons batch split into 2 buckets, one on LP500 and the other on LP540. Both are medium or med/low flocc but I think that is the issue because both are very clear with not a lot of yeasties on the bottom. I think I will go the champagne yeast route and put a spec or two in each and see if I can kick start them. Hopefully I dont run into some already carbed beers and be forced to drink them!