why didnt my soda kit carbonate

I made one of AHS's rootbeer kits two weeks ago, and it didn't carbonate. I made it per instructions. 4 gallons water, 6 pounds sugar, and rehydrated yeast. What went wrong?

Ive tried both rootbeer and orange soda. Neither one had ANY carbonation.

You would think after 50 or so batches of beer I could get sugar water, flavor and yeast to make bubbles.

You didn't do ANYTHING wrong, just leave it, and keep an eye it, every day, once a day. A lot is going on with the yeast. It WILL carb up. My first bottle took 4 weeks to carb up, and until week 4 I swear NOTHING happened, or seemed to.

OsbornBrewing said:

You didn't do ANYTHING wrong, just leave it, and keep an eye it, every day, once a day. A lot is going on with the yeast. It WILL carb up. My first bottle took 4 weeks to carb up, and until week 4 I swear NOTHING happened, or seemed to.

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Hmmmm. I knew the directions wouldn't work out quite right.

what happens if you already opened the bottle. Just made 2 two liter bottles of rainbow extract rootbeer and it barely carbonated. Can it re carbonate when resealing the bottle?

Garrett said:

what happens if you already opened the bottle. Just made 2 two liter bottles of rainbow extract rootbeer and it barely carbonated. Can it re carbonate when resealing the bottle?

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No.

Well, unless you keep it someplace warm and there is still active yeast to carbonate it and there are still sugars to eat- then I guess yes. But you'll be starting from ground zero again, just like when you open a commercial bottle of soda- it goes flat in just a couple of days.

My root beer soda took 4 months to carb. I also didn't know that they can explode if you didn't keep an eye on them.

My sodas carb up in two-three days (root beer) and overnight (ginger ale).

I assume you used fresh yeast, regular sugar, and the extract?

Yooper said:

My sodas carb up in two-three days (root beer) and overnight (ginger ale).

I assume you used fresh yeast, regular sugar, and the extract?

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yes, i did and it barely carbonated in 1 week.

Well, my wife got sick of having my uncarbonated soda sit around for over a month and a half, so down the drain it went today.

I'm sad. I have the same AHS kit and I couldn't get my root beer to carbonate either.

I used a 2L Sprite bottle, and followed the instructions. There is a tiny bit of carbonation but that's it.

I didn't re-hydrate or start my yeast (s33). Do you think the bottle isn't holding pressure?

I have the same problem, I'm going to switch bottles next time and try leaving a bit more space and adding more sugar, I used mostly Splenda and followed the diet recipe. I opened and tried them after 2 weeks the bottles were hard but not getting rock hard. I added more sugar and I'm just checking them every day now. One bottle is getting softer and the other is still hardening...

I tried making Ginger Ale from scratch using Splenda and got no carbonation at all.
I might try Root Beer soon and carb it in a keg.

I've used the Mr rootbeer And had no trouble. I am on the process of finding a carny to carbonate my future batches. But the champagne yeast did fine for me

I got one of my bottles to carb the other I'm sure had a leak. Next try I will use more sugar and a starter.

I was having trouble with it carbing up too. I switched to champagne yeast and also used EXACT measurments. Made sure my yeast was dissolved and foamy. My 2 litre bottles got solid the same day, I am kinda scared they gonna explode cause their REALLY Hard.But I see lots of settlement still yet.Anybody have a way of having no settlementor is that just natural?

Ok, a few pointers - I've found that you need fresh yeast, if your yeast is old, you need more.

There is no way around sediment with the soda if using yeast to carb - using forced carb and keg is different matter. Try not to pour off the last few ounces.

IF you use standard plastic soda bottles, you'd be hard pressed to explode them before the yeast give out. They can take 10 volumes of CO2, for comparison, a standard beer bottle is 2-2.5 volumes up to glash champagine bottles at 5to 6 volumes (other HBT threads have the details)

If the bottles don't carb up for you, simply mix up some new yeast (assuming you put in about 2 cups/gallon of sugar you won't need more sugar - if you didn't put in close to that then either A you used 'diet' sugars which might need more sugar or B it won't taste right anyhow).... take out a bit of soda, and put in the newly hydrated yeast.

Back to exploding bottles, I once in my early days made some fermented apple juice (hard cider is to kind). At one point, I put 50% ferment back in with 50% juice into PET style bottles. The bottles 'distended' and I tossed them when they were emptied, but they didn't break. Moral - go plastic if you think you have REALLY high carbonations.

Yooper said:

My sodas carb up in two-three days (root beer) and overnight (ginger ale).

I assume you used fresh yeast, regular sugar, and the extract?

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This may be off of the original topic but I thought I would ask. I am wanting to try carbonating my kegged sodas using yeast/sugar instead of using forced CO2 from a tank. Does anyone have experince with this and if so can you tell me:

Which type of yeast you like to use?
How much yeast do you use?
How does it take to carbonate if the keg stays at room temperature?

stanley1271 said:

I tried making Ginger Ale from scratch using Splenda and got no carbonation at all.
I might try Root Beer soon and carb it in a keg.

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That's because Splenda isn't sugar. Your yeast had nothing to eat...


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KingofPop said:

I was having trouble with it carbing up too. I switched to champagne yeast and also used EXACT measurments. Made sure my yeast was dissolved and foamy. My 2 litre bottles got solid the same day, I am kinda scared they gonna explode cause their REALLY Hard.But I see lots of settlement still yet.Anybody have a way of having no settlementor is that just natural?

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I think the only way is to force carbonate.

Roger



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I experienced the same troubles of no carbonation. Then after letting it sit for weeks I found it started to have off - yeasty, fermented - flavors... I got so frustrated with the whole process, and being as impatient as I am anyway, I just went out and bought a co2 tank and a few carbonater caps, and BAM instant carbonated beverages! !!


I know it's cheating, but I can only experience so many failures before I want good results (especially when there is a good easy alternative).

Yes I also went out and bought the carbonation caps and CO2 tank and it works great.

Roger


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