Beer not carbing, WTF???

I have a Blackberry Ale that has been in the bottle now for 1 month, and there isn't even the slightest bit of carbonation, what gives?

My first blackberry beer was great carbed up fine, the only difference is that I used Oregon canned fruit for this batch. I used the same amount of priming sugar as before, yet not even a hiss when I pop the top nor a single co2 bubble, this one has me going bananas, this is the first beer that hasn't had carbonation within the first two weeks.

Having stated all of that, I am thinking of trying carbonation drops, what do you think?

Did the fruit have a bunch of preservative in it?

JKoravos said:

Did the fruit have a bunch of preservative in it?

Click to expand...

No, Oregon fruit is just fruit in sugar water, many people use it for fruit beers, however, I want it to carb to see what the flavor does, right now it is a little dull, and my first fruit beer with fresh fruit was a hit, I could drink it all day. The carbonation seems to make the fruitiness "pop", I really don't want to drink this stuff as-is, it kinda sucks the way it is. I was thinking maybeI forgot the priming sugar, but I know I didn't because I bottled two batches on that day and I am certain I primed it, I even added the amount to my notes, and I buy bulk dextrose and weigh out my sugar with a scale, I do not jsut add the 5 oz pkgs the LHBS sells. It is strange.

If your priming sugar went in and was mixed properly, the only other possibilities are your yeast pooping out or the bottles not being sealed properly. How long did it sit in secondary?

I had it in the primary for 3 weeks secondary for 10 days.

If you primed it properly, adding more sugar (regular or carb drops) won't do it. The sugar is there, the yeast just aren't eating it for one reason or another. What was the starting and ending SG on this? Is it a big beer?

i had the same problem and made sure corn sugar was dissolved and thoroughly mixed in

It was not a big beer by any means, I'm at work and I don't have my notes in front of me but IIRC, OG 1.057, FG before secondary was 1.014, and I totally forgot to take a SG reading when I racked to bottle, I knew the fruit had fermented out though. If I had to guess it was probably around 1.008. I used WLP 001 it has a higher alcohol tolerance, but its attenuation range is ~80%. 1.057 to 1.011 would be just about 80%, do you think it is a yeast problem? I know the ABV isn't too high, but maybe the yeast gave up? It is 1st generation washed yeast, but it had a nice vigorous primary, and after it had fermented out and I racked to secondary it did take a day or two to start again, but it chewed through the fruit nicely.

I basically followed my same plan as I did with my first blackberry beer, except I used the canned fruit this time.

What would be the best way to add yeast to already bottled beer?

I would think that your only real choices are empty it all back into your bottling bucket and add a packet of yeast. Or uncap them all and put a pinch of dry yeast in each and pray.

Before doing any of that, I would rouse the yeast and warm them up a little.

I was going to swirl the crap out of them tonight, my home in the warmer months (now 102° today) stays about 74-78° in the cooler rooms of our home, probably closer to 82° in our southerly exposed room, maybe I'll put them in there for a week and see what happens.

I swirled my first beers up becuase I started in February, and there is that point where we try to not use the A/C or the heater, so it was getting a little chilly in the night, but since then I have had no trouble until this little bastard reared its ugly uncarbonated head!