Zero Carbonation Help!

So I bottled the Cooper's Wheat Beer kit in my sig the weekend before last. This past Saturday I pulled on for my 1-week sampling and drinking

ZERO carbination, none, nada, zilch (you get the point). Two things I did different this time:

1) Coopers carb drops: I did one per bottle like the instructions said to.
2) New gold caps. I think these may be by problem. You know how when you normally cap a beer it makes a little ring indention on the cap? Well these didn't, they stayed "dome" shaped. I have 2 or 3 that have the old style cap on them (I was using up the remainders). I'm gonna try one of them tonight.

Question: IF it is the caps can I put another coopers drop in and re-cap and be okay?

It's been in the bottle about 10 days? What temperature are you storing them at?

I'd be concerned about adding more carb drops now- just in case the caps ARE sealed and it's just slow. You don't want bottle bombs!

I've never had a carbed beer at 1 week. 2 weeks there is usually some carb, 3 weeks it's usually fully carbed, for lighter styles anyway.

hmm.. this is my first lighter style... I swear my stout and brown ales had some carbonation after a week though, but maybe I'm mistaken. We'll see how the 2 week test looks.

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.

Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.

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

If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them ore time. If you added your sugar, then the beer will carb up eventually, it's really a foolroof process. All beers will carb up eventually. A lot of new brewers think they have to "troubleshoot" a bottling issue, when there really is none, the beer knows how to carb itself. In fact if you run beersmiths carbing calculator, some lower grav beers don't even require additional sugar to reach their minimum level of carbonation. Just time.

I've never used the carb drops myself, but if it were my batch I would take each bottle and gently turn it end over end a few times, to make sure that the sugar in the carb drops was well mixed into the beer. Couldn't hurt (I did say gently, didn't I?).

After a week there maybe a little carbonation, but there definitely should be some CO2 produced. Can you see a layer of yeast at the bottom of the bottle? If you think that you may have some suspect caps, give a beer a shake and see if you can hear any gas leaking from the seal.

Other than that, give them another week and check one. Patience is key, but there's nothing wrong with popping a beer open early to see what's going on.

I have used those pills before but i never only used 1 pill, 3usually. Temperature does help the word is 75 F is the temperature you want while you are bottle conditioning. After it has reached the level of carbonation you like but them in that is 55 f

beerkrump said:

If you think that you may have some suspect caps, give a beer a shake and see if you can hear any gas leaking from the seal.

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Now that's a good idea! One beer being shaken for some peace of mind is worth it I think.

I would just give the bottles a easy upside down and back to mix the sugar back up and then put somewhere warmer for a while. Adding more tabs would be a last resort. And just a heads up I tried opening a bottle that didn’t carb properly and once I dropped that tab it went volcano on me. Lost a good 1/3 of the bottle on everyone I tried to add another drop.

As for bens post, 1 Coopers drop is fine for 12oz normal gravity. Those other white crappy pills on the other hand take 3 or so per bottle. But they are horrible unless you like chunky beer.

Sorry, but, I just cracked my self up with the image of a guy shaking a beer bottle and hold it up to his head...

Please be careful.

beerkrump said:

Sorry, but, I just cracked my self up with the image of a guy shaking a beer bottle and hold it up to his head...

Please be careful.

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That’s when you call over the neighbor who loves to drink your beer but never brings any! Here hold this please!(Shake shake shake run and hide)

FWIW, I used Cooper's carb drops (1 per bottle) for the 1st time on my most recent (1st all grain batch, bottled 3/5) beer, being only a 1/2 batch (slightly less than 2.5 gal) and not wanting to bother with boiling the corn sugar solution. Once bottled I didn't touch them for 3 weeks. They carbed up perfectly. IMO, if the caps are good I think your beer just needs more time.

Yeah I'm not too worried about the Coopers drops, they seem pretty tested and they already dissolved just fine. I'm more concerned about these new gold bottle caps.. they just don't look right. I even applied as much presser to the capper as I felt safe doing just to be safe when I didn't start seeing the familiar ring indention. Maybe there's a reason they are domed, but it's just different to me.

So I got home last night and shook one. It didn't explode, I still have both my ears, and I didn't hear anything. I guess only time will tell. Just for paranoia sake I'm going to switch back to my normal caps when I bottle the IPA in my sig.

I'm going to say it again, because I don't think you're getting it...I doubt it's the cooper's carb tabs because folks use them all the time, and if they didn't work, they'd be out of the marketplace in a heartbeat...I don't think it's the gold caps, because folks use them all the time, and if they didn't work, they'd be out of the marketplace in a heartbeat..

It's...Because...It...hasn't...been....at...least.....three.....weeks....yet....

We don't say this all the time because we're into f-ing with the newbs to make them wait, it's because on average it takes 3 weeks for a normal gravity beer to carb up when at 70 degrees.

Just because you're impatient, doesn't mean there's anything wrong, or you did anything wrong. It just means YOU'RE trying to be in charge, when it's not you who's running the show, but the yeast.

I love when impatient new brewers over-complicate a simple thing. You're looking to blame products that THOUSANDS of brewers use every day with no complaints.So how come YOU are the only brewer who's having problems with these products? Why is your beer terminally different from ANY OTHER brewer who uses those products?

Seriously, go look at the hundreds of thousands of other threads where an impatient brewer thinks something's wrong, and he comes back after it's been 3 weeks and his beer is fine.

You shook your bottle and nothing exploded? What does that mean? How does that tell you in a glass bottle whether you have carbonation or not? If your bottle explodes that means there's something wrong. You're not going to "see" if a beer is carbed or not...there's not a flag or color change that tells you that. All you can do is wait for the beer to carb.

It really is FOOLPROOF. You add sugar, you cap it, you stick it in a warm place and you WALK AWAY for at least 3 weeks.....You check a bottle, if it's ready it's ready, if not you come in another week or more....and eventually the bottles will be carbed.

It's not magic, it's not complicated, and it's not something that is hit or miss or faulty, if you've simply followed the same process that MILLIONS of brewers do EVERY DAY, and if you are patient.

But if it's not ready before 3 weeks, and MOST OF THE TIME IT WON'T BE....you don't declare that there is something wrong, and you don't try to fix something....You give it AT LEAST the time we recommend....if you jump the gun, and it's not ready, it's not the beer or the beer yeast's fault...they're doing their jobs.

It's your fault for being impatient.

Yeast can't read, so calenders and instructions, mean absolutely nothing to them. The have their own agenda, and it is usually different from ours....

My humor is obviously lost on some people. I didn't actually expect a bottle to explode. If I really thought it might explode I would have held it next to my wife's cat after shaking it. (Once again this is an attempt at humor, please don't call the aspca on me!)

I've already stated I trust the Coopers drops and my issue wasn't so much with the caps as it was the caps compatibility with my capper. As I didn't hear anything after shaking a bottle I'm assuming everything is fine. I won't know for another few weeks however so I will be playing it safe and switching back to my normal caps for the IPA.

Perhaps it's time you put down the coffee and RDWHAHB. This is the newb forums, newbs are going to ask newb type questions. If you don't like newb questions then maybe montior another forum instead. I was really just hoping someone would reply back "The gold caps don't make the ring indention but they work fine". Next time I'll try to be more specific.

GreenDragon said:

Perhaps it's time you put down the coffee and RDWHAHB. This is the newb forums, newbs are going to ask newb type questions. If you don't like newb questions then maybe montior another forum instead. I was really just hoping someone would reply back "The gold caps don't make the ring indention but they work fine". Next time I'll try to be more specific.

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So you're PO-ed now because I'm telling you the same things that we repeat over and over in here, that works? That it hasn't been 3 weeks yet so you don't know anything is wrong????

I'm very relaxed...I'm trying to help you...

More than likely, since 99.9% if the time someone starts a thread like this, that after three weeks the beer turns out perfectly, you're is more than likely going to be fine to.

Do you know that half the brewers don't indent their caps at all? There's actually threads about it on here. And polls. You don't need to press down so far as to have rings, to have your beer carb up....I don't make indentation rings on my caps, gold or otherwise.....And my beers carb perfectly fine.

Putting dents on them is a choice, it's not the right or wrong way to do it. A tight seal is a tight seal, and if indenting them makes you feel better fine...but if it's not carbed in that time frame and you've done it, then what are you gonna blame? Something else that millions of other folks do all the time..

Right now you are looking for a ghost, that may or may not exist, because you haven't given the beer sufficient time yet to know if anything's wrong...It's simply not been enough time to KNOW if your beer's not carbed or not....

Sorry you don't like my answer...but it's the truth. You admitted you opened the beer after only a week....sorry but, that's not the timeframe that the yeast tend to work under. But that doesn't mean that they're doing anything wrong.

*shrug*

Revvy said:

So you're PO-ed now because I'm telling you the same things that we repeat over and over in here, that works? That it hasn't been 3 weeks yet so you don't know anything is wrong????

I'm very relaxed...I'm trying to help you...

More than likely, since 99.9% if the time someone starts a thread like this, that after three weeks the beer turns out perfectly, you're is more than likely going to be fine to.

Do you know that half the brewers don't indent their caps at all? There's actually threads about it on here. And polls. You don't need to press down so far as to have rings, to have your beer carb up....I don't make indentation rings on my caps, gold or otherwise.....And my beers carb perfectly fine.

Putting dents on them is a choice, it's not the right or wrong way to do it. A tight seal is a tight seal, and if indenting them makes you feel better fine...but if it's not carbed in that time frame and you've done it, then what are you gonna blame? Something else that millions of other folks do all the time..

Right now you are looking for a ghost, that may or may not exist, because you haven't given the beer sufficient time yet to know if anything's wrong...It's simply not been enough time to KNOW if your beer's not carbed or not....

Sorry you don't like my answer...but it's the truth. You admitted you opened the beer after only a week....sorry but, that's not the timeframe that the yeast tend to work under. But that doesn't mean that they're doing anything wrong.

*shrug*

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kinda surprised you didn't segue into a search button rant while you were at it

Revvy said:

Right now you are looking for a ghost,

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Deus Ex Cervisia?

i've had the rings appear on some of mine and not others. it never mattered. maybe the gold caps are a little thicker or something. also just used the coopers drops for two batches. with priming sugar i did notice that after a week it had some carbonation. but with the drops it didn't have any after a week. i know this is not enough time for them to carbonate, i just like tasting my beer anyway. after two weeks i tasted another, it was drinkable for sure, but way undercarbed. i'll try them again this coming weekend and see how they are then. i don't think i'm being impatient, i just want to try the beer. i go in knowing its not ready yet. thats the nice thing about having a full pipeline. i don't get AS impatient for my beers to be ready. but if you feel like trying them, i don't see any harm in that, as long as you don't worry about it.