Bottles wont carbonate

Third time making this amber ale. Fermentation went fine but every single time I bottle it won't carbonate. I can't figure it out. I reused the yeast for a batch rot now that fully fermented and I'm trying to understand what is wrong. Slight bubbles when I open it but nothing big. Pour it into a glass and it has NO head. Clear as can be but just tastes sweet and flat.

Bottled with 1 cup water and bottling sugar from LHBS who told me to use one cup.

How long have they been in the bottle and at what temps?

One cup in how big of a batch?

How long have they been in the bottles and at what temperature are they at right now. Three weeks at 70 degrees is about the average minimum.

1 cup for a 5 gallon batch
Bottled them 2 weeks ago. This seems to be the only batch that's has stayed flat tasting after 10 days. When I shake the bottles it acts like a 2 liter of soda. Bubbles up to a maximum point then gets quiet. I shook one then poured it and it had a lot of head and no flat & sweet taste.
EDIT: temps around 70. It's been 80 here most of this week in the afternoon and I've kept them inside.

In your first post, you say all of the batches don't carbonate. In the post above, you say just the latest batch hasn't fully carbed. This is an important distinction - please clarify.

Could be the caps/capper. Try to twist the crimped cap on the bottle with your hand. It shouldn't move.
Also make sure you stir the priming sugar into the bottling bucket although I would've expected some foamers if you didn't evenly distribute the sugar.

Look into a buying a scale so you can measure out in grams and ounces, a "cup" can sometimes be a very inaccurate measurement when you really require sugar weight.

Clarification: All three batches of this Amber Ale Extract recipe I've made have had the same flat & sweet taste out of the bottle. Other bottled batches have not had carbonation problems.


Caps are tight. They won't twist and I can shake the bottles and see the carbonation bubbles rising to the top. They pop off and give the usual sound you'd expect from a bottled beer.
I have a scale. It measures ounces grams and something else I think. How much would I use for an amber ale? I've never thought about a specific weight of sugar/dme to add to 5 gallon batches of beer to give the correct carbonation levels. I always read cups of ____ for carbonation.

DurtyChemist said:

Bottled them 2 weeks ago.

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The only problem you have is a patience one....despite having some "fizz" at 10 days that doesn't mean your beer is fully carbonated...and not being carbed at two weeks, is still not a problem.

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, 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.

And just because a beer is carbed doesn't mean it still doesn't taste like a$$ and need more time for the off flavors to condition out.

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

Carbonation is actually foolproof, you add sugar, the yeast eats it and farts co2 which carbs the beer. It's not a complex system, and there's very little that can go wrong...It just takes time.....

Glad it's just a patience thing. Most of my beer was legged and the drinker wasn't me. Decided to bottle it so I can store it and thought I screwed up.

Didn't cold crash just let it sit for about three weeks in a secondary so I could reuse the yeast and thought it would help smooth out the beer.

unionrdr said:

Just to clarify to some,he used 1C of water with the small bag of priming sugar. Sounds to me like not enough yeast was left to do the job. Did you cold crash or something?

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There's billions of cells in there, even if he cold crashed. I don't think that's an issue at all. I betcha in 2 weeks they'll be carbed fine.

Was the priming solution cool before adding it to the beer? To warm and it could kill the yeast right?

shivelybrewingco said:

Was the priming solution cool before adding it to the beer? To warm and it could kill the yeast right?

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Not a concern. Once you start racking the beer into the bucket, even just boiled priming solution will be cooled fast. There's enough yeast still in suspension in the rest of the beer being racked to do the job.

Something the OP should also look at... Amount of time the fully carbonated beer (time/temp per Revvy's posts) is in the fridge BEFORE you pour into a glass. IMO/IME, 5-7 days is the minimum time there. You need to give the CO2 time to get fully into solution, which happens best at colder temperatures. You also need to give the sediment time to compact in the bottle, so you get a cleaner pour. Especially with an ale.

shivelybrewingco said:

Was the priming solution cool before adding it to the beer? To warm and it could kill the yeast right?

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Not likely. One cup of boiling liquid in 5 gallons would kill some yeast but it would be cool within the area of a quart of wort leaving 4 3/4 gallons unaffected.

I pour my priming sugar in the bottling bucket while still hot during the siphoning and have had no issues with carbonation. It may be changing the flavor somehow but I don't really know.

I left the beer out of the fridge to let it carbonate and thought two weeks was enough to carbonate the beer. Its been a while since I bottled and wanted to drink it soon. I wanted to taste the recipe I've been legging to see if I figured out the flavor. I was expecting it to carbonate in a week like kegged beer.

It seems to be getting better. I've been shaking a few bottles a couple times a day and tasted one today and I think patience was my problem.

Sounds like I need to bottle my beer that's finished fermenting now so ill be patient enough to let it carbonate and clear up before I drink it. I'll have to remember it takes 3 weeks minimum. Maybe I'll bottle a stout or porter now and enjoy it on a summer night.

DurtyChemist said:

Sounds like I need to bottle my beer that's finished fermenting now so ill be patient enough to let it carbonate and clear up before I drink it. I'll have to remember it takes 3 weeks minimum. Maybe I'll bottle a stout or porter now and enjoy it on a summer night.

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Depending on the stout, or porter, that could be a very good idea. There are enough people that have had brews take 4-6 months, or longer, to carbonate. I've never had a beer take that long.

Now that I know about the duration it could take to carbonate I would have the patience. It's easier for me to keep beer if its bottled than legged. Kegs aren't at my apartment and bottles are easier to hide in closets.

Higher grav beers take longer.

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Tell me why you think the gravity of the beer has anything to do with how long it takes CO2 to dissolve into solution? You are adding the same amount(roughly) of sugar to carbonate a big beer as you would a small beer. It shouldn't take any longer to carbonate.

MachineShopBrewing said:

Tell me why you think the gravity of the beer has anything to do with how long it takes CO2 to dissolve into solution? You are adding the same amount(roughly) of sugar to carbonate a big beer as you would a small beer. It shouldn't take any longer to carbonate.

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Depends, completely, on the yeast strain used, how it was treated, what was done with the brew (racked to other vessels) and such. I've had bigger brews take not much longer than three weeks to carbonate (8-10%). But the yeast used was listed as being able to go at least 2% more than they finished at.

Since I'm kegging now, it really doesn't matter.

MachineShopBrewing said:

Tell me why you think the gravity of the beer has anything to do with how long it takes CO2 to dissolve into solution? You are adding the same amount(roughly) of sugar to carbonate a big beer as you would a small beer. It shouldn't take any longer to carbonate.

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From experience, it can make a difference. I suspect it has to do with the health and vitality of the yeast after going through a big fermentation, an environment (high alcohol) that is less than optimal for the yeast and will slow them down, and longer aging of higher gravity beers before bottling (more yeast ends up flocculating.)

I should say though that I've also had bigger beers where I didn't notice any difference in bottle carbing time.

I do my best to wait at least 2 weeks before I open my first test bottle, and even then it's just to make sure that "something" is happening.

unless it's an IPA or a Hefe I try to let it condition for a couple months before I put it into drinking rotation

MachineShopBrewing said:

Tell me why you think the gravity of the beer has anything to do with how long it takes CO2 to dissolve into solution? You are adding the same amount(roughly) of sugar to carbonate a big beer as you would a small beer. It shouldn't take any longer to carbonate.

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It just does, whether you believe it to be so or not. You just need to look at the hundreds of thousands of posts on here by folks who have had that happen to realize this is the case.

It more than likely has to do with the fact that the yeast is more tired after fermenting higher grav beers, and therefore it takes them longer to eat through the sugar we've fed it to bottle with. People who add fresh yeast at bottling time, don't seem to notice it taking any longer than "normal" beers.

Good answer Revvy. I agree sometimes it just does

This yeast showed 72% attenuation. Pretty sure it's an American ale from white labs.