Bottle conditioning NOT WORKING

This is my 6th batch and I've never had a problem with under carbonated beer, but for some reason this cream ale refuses to carbonate. I did everything the same way I always do it. Tried one after 1 week, nothing. Tastes and smells great, just no carbonation. So I moved the bottles to where it might be 1 or 2 degrees warmer and shook them a little to agitate the yeast. Tried one after 2 weeks, nothing. Anyone have a thought as to what the crap happened here? Here are the specifics:

American cream ale
5.5 gal
OG - 1.046
FG - 1.011
IBU - 20
ABV - 4.8%
SRM - 5

4.6 lbs. light DME
1 lbs. flaked maize
3/4 lbs. Carapils
1/4 lbs. Munich

Mt. Hood - 3/4 oz. @ 60
Liberty - .5 oz. @ 15 and 2

Irish moss @ 15

WLP001 California ale yeast

Treated my tap water with Camden tabs.
Steeped grains in 2 gal. @ 154 for 30 min
Rinsed grains in 2 gal. @ 168 for 3 mi
Combined via siphon, added DME, brought to boil
Made hop and Irish moss additions
Cooled to 70, topped off, aerated, and pitched.

Primary @ 73 for 6 days
Secondary @ 72 for 6 days
Cold crashed for 1 day, brought back to 72 and bottled using 1 cup DME, 1/2 cup corn sugar in 2 cups water

Oops
Posted this in the wrong forum. Sorry.

You cold crashed and bottled with DME, both of which will make the carbonation process longer. Just give it more time, 2 weeks isn't long enough to tell if something's wrong.

CidCitrus said:

You cold crashed and bottled with DME, both of which will make the carbonation process longer. Just give it more time, 2 weeks isn't long enough to tell if something's wrong.

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I second all of this.

Wow, you carbed with 1c DME and 1/2c corn sugar? That's about 1c DME than I use for priming sugar. Normally I use 2/3c table sugar. And you have no carbination? You may have a problem that won't fix over time. After 2wks, my tripel still wasn't carbed. It's been 8wks and the plastic bottle I use to test carb levels is still very squishy.

*side note*
So you don't have to open bottles to check carb levels, use one PET bottle so you can squeeze it to check how it's carbing.

looneybomber said:

Wow, you carbed with 1c DME and 1/2c corn sugar? That's about 1c DME than I use for priming sugar. Normally I use 2/3c table sugar.

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But you need a total of 1.5 cups of DME which would be about equal to 2/3 cups corn sugar- so that amount sounds perfect. DME has less fermentables in it and you need to use far more.

Normally, a better way to measure priming sugar/DME/honey/table sugar is by weight, not by volume. I'd suggest a small cheap kitchen scale to measure hops, priming sugars, and other additives. It's far more accurate.

*side note*
So you don't have to open bottles to check carb levels, use one PET bottle so you can squeeze it to check how it's carbing.[/QUOTE]

Good idea re plastic bottles (sorry still haven't figured out how to do those blue quote boxes)

If I'm measuring priming sugars by weight, then how much is normal for a typical batch of average gravity beer? (DME, corn sugar, etc.)

guldalian said:

Good idea re plastic bottles (sorry still haven't figured out how to do those blue quote boxes)

If I'm measuring priming sugars by weight, then how much is normal for a typical batch of average gravity beer? (DME, corn sugar, etc.)

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You normally use 1 oz of dextrose per gallon of finished beer (5 oz total for 5 gallons). For DME, that would be about 9 oz by weight to equal about the same carb level. For table sugar, about 4.7 ounces would be the same.

Yooper said:

But you need a total of 1.5 cups of DME which would be about equal to 2/3 cups corn sugar- so that amount sounds perfect. DME has less fermentables in it and you need to use far more.

Normally, a better way to measure priming sugar/DME/honey/table sugar is by weight, not by volume. I'd suggest a small cheap kitchen scale to measure hops, priming sugars, and other additives. It's far more accurate.

Click to expand...

Oh, that is good to know about DME! I used a scale the first time I did my priming sugar, and just pour my table sugar to roughly the same level every time.