No Fizz again.....

Hi Guys,
Im on my second brew now, My first brew failed... big time... was flat and in the end it tasted bad....
Anyway, I tried again,

I Fermented the lager, with a fish tank heater in to stop it going to cold. Everything looked good when it came to bottling... I had a good hydromeater reading etc

I have had my family save me soda bottles, I cleaned them all, added 5ml of sugar and it looked really fizzy... i had to put the lids on fast to ensure it didnt come over the top....

Its been in the bottles for about 3 weeks now, i was mega excited with trying the new brew... so last night i opened one of the bottles..... it only just had enough gas to make a fizz as i opened the bottle....
I poured into a jug and it was flat... no head....
I poured into a glass with a "widget" in the bottom... and there was a few bubbles rising, but nothing really happening... The taste wasnt bad... it was just flat!...

What am i doing wrong?

I think no one is answering because we don't have a clue what you did - or I don't.

it looked really fizzy

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What looked fizzy? I've never had anythign look fizzy at bottling.

i had to put the lids on fast to ensure it didn't come over the top....

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what?

I have no idea what technique you are using. What have you read or been told so maybe we can get a clue what you are doing.

Soda bottles?

I would suspect that you're not getting a good seal with your soda bottle tops....

ok, Sorry, I have re-read my message and your right it makes no sense at all.....

Ok lets try again...

This brew, is my second, and was a gerodie Lager extract kit.
It had fermented for about 10 days when i got a reading of 1.006 on the hydromeater,

I got hold of loads of 1litre soda bottles... cleaned them out, then syphoned the liquid from the fermenter into the bottles...

I then tipped 5ml of sugar into the bottles, and the lager seemed to froth up and come up to the top of the bottle.... i quickly put the lid on tight and shook the bottles so the suger would dissolve. the bottles didnt seem to have much pressure in them, and now about 3 weeks later, they are the same :|

I hope this is clearer

thx

The good thing about plastic bottles is that if it's the seal, you can generally tell by squeezing them. If there is any give and take... or obviously any sound, there's a leak.

ive put the plastic bottles on there side and stood on em...
they give a small amount... but no leak or air sounds....

Hello!

I am curious if you would see better results by dissolving your sugar into a priming solution and them mixing that solution into your batch before bottling. It sounds as if you are transferring liquid to bottle first and then adding the dry sugar to each individual bottle. If that is the case you probably are not getting the sugar disolved enough to mix with the fermented beer...so carbonation is less than ultimate even if you shake things up.

Most brewers dissolve the sugar or DME or whatever they are using to carbonate into about 2 cups of boiling water first. Then let that cool to around room temp. Mix that liquid soution with your fermented beer to get a better blend between two liquids. Finally, move the mixture into individual bottles. Hope that helps!

-Tripod

If you add sugar to the bottles after filling with beer, you'll get a beer volcano. I suspect that is what happened to you, and you lost quite a bit of the priming sugar out with the foam. (Google "nucleation site" for the scientific explanation).

Next time, either add the sugar FIRST or dissolve the sugar in some boiling water (about 2 cups). Pour that into a bucket with a spigot. Siphon the beer into that bucket, with no splashing, but with the tip under the surface of the priming solution, so that it "swirls" in, filling from the bottom. Use a piece of the siphon tubing to fill the bottles, or buy a bottling wand. Those are great! You stick one end into the spigot and there is a valve on the other end that opens and closes when your press a bottle into it. That way, you leave the spigot open (no opening and closing to aerate the beer) and no splashing into the bottle, because you just remove the bottle from the wand when it's full and the flow stops. That will make a huge difference in bottling for you.

Hi,
For my 3rd brew... today after the fermentation has finished... i had a reading of 0.996 on the hydromeater, i boiled the sugar in about 100ml of water. i added it to the pressure barrel after filling with the lager.... i then shook the barrel and im hoping it will be better

As for the volcano effect... yeah thats what I had but i didnt lose any of the beer after the first one.... i was ready with the lids
is there anyway to save my brew?

o0_Enigma_0o said:

Hi,
For my 3rd brew... today after the fermentation has finished... i had a reading of 0.996 on the hydromeater, i boiled the sugar in about 100ml of water. i added it to the pressure barrel after filling with the lager.... i then shook the barrel and im hoping it will be better

As for the volcano effect... yeah thats what I had but i didnt lose any of the beer after the first one.... i was ready with the lids
is there anyway to save my brew?

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Where are you learning your brewing/bottling methods? I highly recommend you pick up "How to Brew" by John Palmer.
NORTHERN BREWER: Beer Books

o0_Enigma_0o said:

Hi,
For my 3rd brew... today after the fermentation has finished... i had a reading of 0.996 on the hydromeater, i boiled the sugar in about 100ml of water. i added it to the pressure barrel after filling with the lager.... i then shook the barrel and im hoping it will be better

As for the volcano effect... yeah thats what I had but i didnt lose any of the beer after the first one.... i was ready with the lids
is there anyway to save my brew?

Click to expand...

Maybe. Gently swirl, to rouse the yeast, and get them warm. Like about 24C. Keep them there until they are carbed up.

I'm surprised you got a reading of .996- that's lighter than water. Did you use a ton of sugar? Make sure you correct the reading to 60 degrees F- 15.6 C. Also, check it in plain water to ensure it's correct. It should read 1.000 in plain 60 degree (F) water.

only used 1 KG of sugar...

Should this brew be kept warm while it carbs? ive just filled the 5 gallon keg and its now in the garage, ive used old carpet and cardboard to save it from the cold floor...

I had something similar in my third batch. I had to do an emergency bottling after i kicked the spigot on my primary. It started leaking bad. I started my transfer and got almost half way through my transfer and realised that i forgot the priming sugar... Douh. Had SWMBO warm some water and dissolve it in as best as possible. Poured that bad boy into the bottling bucket and MT. KRACKATOA blew up, but fortunately it went down. To your methods just sounds like you need to read up, and dont get discouraged about your brew they will get better. Good luck and have fun!!!

I really hope I did not come off sounding arrogant or anything (that does happen) but your technique is something I've never heard of. Others seem to though with plastic bottles and so forth.

I feel like I've entered an alternative universe here on this one.

o0_Enigma_0o said:

only used 1 KG of sugar...

Should this brew be kept warm while it carbs? ive just filled the 5 gallon keg and its now in the garage, ive used old carpet and cardboard to save it from the cold floor...

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Yes. It won't carb if it's cold. It should be around 21C or higher.

Hi Guys,
Thanks for your info

I have now moved the 5 Gallon Pressure Barrel, and all the plastic 1 Litre bottles from my cold garage (appox 10 - 12 C) to my spare bedroom in the house... (currently at 21C) I have given the bottles a small shake and the yeast is clearly back in the mix... I have loads of cloudy beer again...

Should i leave the barrel in the warm room longer? or should i remove them both back to the garage after about 3 days?

I noticed that you are doing lagers. Are you using an actual lager yeast? Many kits are "lager-style" and actually use ale yeast. Actual lagers take more work than ales do. They have to be fermented at lower temperatures and are generally not taken on by beginners. I'm not telling you not to do a lager, by all means, brew what you like to drink, but you should really read up on lager techniques. You can read Plamer's book for free here: How to Brew - By John Palmer.

Also, I'm a bit confused on your pressure barrel thing. So, you added the sugar and beer to the barrel, then what? Then did you bottle it from here? Also, next time, don't shake the barrel. When you rack it over, let the beer swirl the sugar into itself. You don't want to introduce oxygemn at this point.

irunxcjm said:

Also, I'm a bit confused on your pressure barrel thing. So, you added the sugar and beer to the barrel, then what? Then did you bottle it from here? Also, next time, don't shake the barrel. When you rack it over, let the beer swirl the sugar into itself. You don't want to introduce oxygemn at this point.

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Hi,
The pressure barrel is just a plastic keg/barrel made by youngs... it has a screw cap with a pressure release valve to stop it exploding when the brew makes to much co2. Also you can buy a screw cap that has a theaded valve connection so you can force co2 into it... i dont have that bit yet. When i use the keg/barrel i dont bottle it from there, it has a nice tap for easy drinking

I added the suger and beer to the barrel and then when i said shook, it was more of a swirl, its heavy....

As for the lager, I am using coppers lager extract kit, and that came with a yeast pack, so i have no idea if its a lager yeast or a ale yeast.

the taste of the lager i have made before wasnt bad... was like a lager with body but had no fizz at all..


Ive just checked the temp of the beer in the new warmer bedroom.... and it was at 13degC, so ive moved it closer to the radiator

update,

The beer has had about 12 hours in the house...
Checked the temp last night it was at 20c again
and this morning it was at 17c
Im hoping this is warm enough to make the co2

You're on the right track. Keep it above 20 C for at least a week or two and let is know how it goes. I am also a bit concerned that your pressure barrel may be letting pressure out, and not keeping in all the pressure that your beer needs to carbonate. Can you elaborate on the pressure release valve set-up?

Still kinda confused as to what's going on here... First, you said you had a hydro reading of 0.996? That's dry, like way dry, like a wine. I've never seen my FG get that low before with a beer, but I'm sure someone will chime in stating they've had FGs that low before.

Regarding your bottling technique, I'm still confused as to what you're doing. You said that you added sugar and boiled water to your "pressure barrel". What is that? I would recommend going out and getting a 5 gallon bottling bucket with the spigot. This will make your life a whole lot easier.

Also, try not shaking the container after mixing the priming sugar in. This can aerate your beer giving the end product off flavors. As Yooper stated, just put the priming sugar solution into the bottom of the bucket and then siphon the beer on top of the priming sugar, trying to keep the splashing to a minimum. The "whirlpool" action you'll get from the siphoned beer will be enough to mix the sugar solution and the beer well enough. No need to shake the bucket after adding the priming sugar....

Hi, My brewing process...

I put the malt extract, 1kg of suger 3 liters of boiling water, and about 21 -22 litres of cold/warm water into my 5 Gallon Fermentation barrel (cold / warm ish water to ensure the right temp for the yeast)

Then after its femented, I syphon the femented beer from the fementation barrel, to the pressure barrel.

Then I boiled up 100ml of water and dropped about 160g of suger into it, This boiled and created a water/sugar mix, i then tipped the water/suger mix into the pressure barrel, i then used my brewing spoon to mix the suger to the beer. To ensure the mix was "mixed" i then swirled it around a bit...

I know now i should add the suger to the pressure barrel first...

Does this clear it up?

Also..... Ive been thinking about the hydrometer reading... I remember some stuff being on top of the hydrometer... because i just left the hydrometer in the fermentation berrel while it went through the fementation process... i think some of the bubbles that where created had gone hard and where causing some down ward pushing on the meter.... so im now thinging 0.996 is wrong....

Cheers

I was thinking maybe that you would be getting an off reading from the hydro because they are designed to read 1.000 at 60*F so if you are not reading at exactly 60*F, you'll need to either add or subtract points to get a correct reading... Do some research on hydrometers, etc. You'll find tons of info here...

Now that I've read that you just left the hydro in the fermenter I'm pretty certain that bubbles and/or krausen, etc. are playing a role. I recommend not leaving the hydro in the fermenter but rather removing a sample from time to time to be read in a totally seperate container with a clean hydro.

Hope that helps!

-Tripod

Hi,

I'm sure you are not doing this, but I and a friend started home-brewing about the same time. He was very excited about his first batch, and it went right into the 'fridge when he finished bottling. Two weeks later he was greatly disappointed when there was no fizz... Then he remembered that the yeast goes dormant in the cold... therefore no carbonation! Now he remembers to put the bottles in a place where they can continue to ferment. Oh, and I heard the method Yooper recommended gives very consistent results compared to adding bottling sugar or or other carbonator to individual bottles.