Lack of carbonation after a week

For my 7th batch I tried the St Paul's Porter from NB. Things went pretty well all during the process and all samples shaped up nicely. As normal, I like to take a sample a week after bottling just to see how things are going. This time I was shocked to see no carbonation. I was pretty sure I did everything per instructions on bottling day but now I'm starting to wonder what I did to screw up.

Is there a chance that I just need to give it more time to carbonate or is it more likely that I messed something up on bottling day?

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.


Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."

Well, my 5th batch was a stout recipe from AHS and I didn't remember the same carbonation issue so I hit the panic button this time. But, I will give it another week or two and check again and see how it goes.

I had a beer for a year that didn't carb.

Probably because I just put the corn sugar in the bottom of the bottling bucket instead of actually making sure it was mixed in. lol

That was my first batch though.

lunchbox said:

Probably because I just put the corn sugar in the bottom of the bottling bucket instead of actually making sure it was mixed in. lol

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Is there another way to add the primer? I've always put it on the bottom of the bucket then started my drain into the bucket. I assumed this was the best way to mix it all up.

pretzelb said:

Is there another way to add the primer? I've always put it on the bottom of the bucket then started my drain into the bucket. I assumed this was the best way to mix it all up.

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I boiled my priming sugar in a couple cups of spring water until dissolved... toss that water into the bottling bucket and swirl your wort in by laying the siphon tube along the edge so it creates a vortex effect. The swirling action mixes it for you. If you swirl onto dry sugar you run the risk of the sugar clumping and not incorporating properly, but I know that lots of people do it and have success with it.

Yup, that's what I do now with one slight difference. I use a bit of the beer to boil the sugar in.

I know that the difference is probably too small to matter, but I try not to add any addition water once it's fermented.

lunchbox said:

Yup, that's what I do now with one slight difference. I use a bit of the beer to boil the sugar in.

I know that the difference is probably too small to matter, but I try not to add any addition water once it's fermented.

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Valid point... it might affect your FG by a point (.001) or two, especially on an "almost 5 G" batch. I'm more of an "ish" brewer anyway though. SG? "1.075ish"

Was the last time you brewed this recipe in the middle of November? Remember, its colder out and even a couple degrees will slow down fermentation/bottle priming.

I use the minimum amount of water I can get away with to get the priming sugar dissolved, then I rack into it, and i have SWMBO stir the bottling bucket every 10-12 bottles.

Yes, I'm a little particular when it comes to bottling