What to do after failed carbonation?

I bottled a Honey Brown Ale two weeks ago and just opened one up for the first time. Though the taste is fantastic, the beer is almost completely flat. When I added my priming sugar at bottling I used about 4 oz. for 5 gallons. The package recommends 5 oz. but that has often overcarbonated my beer in the past.

Since I really do like the taste of this I don't want to give up on it yet. Any suggestions for how I should proceed? I don't have any CO2 equipment so that's not an option. I'd like to try and just open it all up and re-bottle it. Is this possible? If so, I don't know how much more priming sugar I should add since I already used 4 oz., and I don't know if I will need to re-pitch some yeast as well.

I'm grateful for any advice.

Seth

Probably_Confused said:

I bottled a Honey Brown Ale two weeks ago and just opened one up for the first time. Though the taste is fantastic, the beer is almost completely flat. When I added my priming sugar at bottling I used about 4 oz. for 5 gallons. The package recommends 5 oz. but that has often overcarbonated my beer in the past.

Since I really do like the taste of this I don't want to give up on it yet. Any suggestions for how I should proceed? I don't have any CO2 equipment so that's not an option. I'd like to try and just open it all up and re-bottle it. Is this possible? If so, I don't know how much more priming sugar I should add since I already used 4 oz., and I don't know if I will need to re-pitch some yeast as well.

I'm grateful for any advice.

Seth

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What temp are you carbing them at?Should be around 70to 77F for best results.

I've had this problem in the past, too. The solution is to warm them up. I bottle-carb at 73F-75F now using an aquarium heater and a water bath.

Keep the water level below the caps, though. I've learned that caps rust.

It's probably not failed carbonation- it's just slow. I've had some beers take 6 weeks to carb up, so don't give up yet.

Gently turn the bottles end over end to rouse up the yeast, and put them someplace warm.

I don't even bother checking them until 3 weeks anymore. 3 weeks is the minimum reccomended time anyway. Follow Yoopers advice and wait.

This has happened to me before too. I made an amber ale with a healty dose of honey. Took way over 2 weeks to carb. Might have been more like 4 weeks or more. I wonder if it had anything to do with the honey or maybe the amount of time in the secondary? Oh well point is as eveyone else said give it more time. Good luck on the brew!

Generally speaking the 3 weeks at 70 degrees that we recommend is only a guideline, a minimum...the higher the grav, the longer it takes to carb and condition. Don't forget, just because a beer is fizzy doesn't mean it is still not green, and tastes like a$$...

I've had stouts and porters take 4-6 weeks to carb...I have a 1.090 Belgian Strong Dark Ale that is 2.5 months in the bottle and it is barely beginning to carb up, I don't think it will even begin to stop tasting green and like rocket fuel for about another 2-3 months....

Hell during the winter I am lucky if I get ANY BEER to carb up inn 8 weeks, since my loft stays in the low 60 all winter...I wrap them in sleeping bags and other things to keep them warm.

this ain't koolaid we are making....

Read this, and Relax.

Revvy's Blog; Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning.

If you added sugar to your beer at bottling time, the only failure you are having, is patience, NOT carbonation.....

Lay each bottle on a table, and rock it back and forth once to re-suspend the yeasts and put them back in your 70 degree + closet, and check on them in 2 more weeks....

And read this as well...https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ne...virtue-time-heals-all-things-even-beer-73254/

If you're using honey to carb, plan on it taking quite a bit longer than 3 weeks. Honey is a slow fermenter, so it could be six weeks or so before you hit the right level of carb.

On the other hand, the beer that is carbed with honey will taste fabulous due to the time it had to condition while the yeast was working on the bee juice... MMMMM!

khiddy said:

If you're using honey to carb, plan on it taking quite a bit longer than 3 weeks. Honey is a slow fermenter, so it could be six weeks or so before you hit the right level of carb.

On the other hand, the beer that is carbed with honey will taste fabulous due to the time it had to condition while the yeast was working on the bee juice... MMMMM!

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Hmm..never heard that, that is good to know.

+1 on the honey taking longer to carb. if you used more than1/2 pound, you should lay it down for 2 months. it seems like forever, but your results will make you shed a tear of joy!

hard to tell how long a really good beer takes to carb. I have an oatmeal stout going on three weeks now and it is not done... and it it is not completed by next week I guess I will never know.

It's kinda like the licks to the center of a tootsie roll pop

staffVAJoe said:

hard to tell how long a really good beer takes to carb. I have an oatmeal stout going on three weeks now and it is not done... and it it is not completed by next week I guess I will never know.

It's kinda like the licks to the center of a tootsie roll pop

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What do you mean you guess you'll never know..you planning to dump it?

Like I said above I have had stouts and porters take up to 8 weeks...And I have a Belgian Strong that will need a couple months.

Did you know that it is "therotically" possible to carb a beer without adding priming sugar, more yeast, or doing the pre-mature bottling thing? There are some old English brewing books that talk about NOT priming certain beers (iirc English Bitters) and letting them carb up to the lowest level of co2/style...over a couple months.

If you play with the priming calculator in beersmith for that style...and run various numbers, you actually sometimes get negative numbers for the amount needed to get to certain volumes of co2..meaning not adding any sugar...and only adding a few grams to get higher..But to do that requires a lot of patience...

It's interesting, but als goes to prove that if you primed, and get it to the right temo...it will carb in time.

roll the bottles around and suspend the yeast.

Give it more time. Keep warm and check one bottle every two weeks until its fully carbed. It will get there eventually.

Every post I've read in this thread just suggests to wait(essentially).

What do you do if you still have no carbonation?

I asked this question months ago and got the above responses. It's approaching 10 months and it still has not carbonated. Any novel suggestions?

I've been using it to cook with currently, and switched to kegging.

I've read where you can put some in a steep sided dish and place it in your garden. Snails and slugs will be attracted to the beer, fall in and drown. Good pest control without using pesticides. This could be a cool way to protect our hop bines.

gpogo said:

Every post I've read in this thread just suggests to wait(essentially).

What do you do if you still have no carbonation?

I asked this question months ago and got the above responses. It's approaching 10 months and it still has not carbonated. Any novel suggestions?

I've been using it to cook with currently, and switched to kegging.

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I have uncapped bottles,added priming sugar ,and re-capped them on one batch that I didn't put enough priming sugar in and it worked fine.If you added enough priming sugar and it's still not carbed then your yeast may have pooped out in which case your only solution would be to uncap,add a few grains of yeast and re-cap.If I did any of these things,I would store them in a tote just in case of a bottle malfunction.Hope this helps save a doomed batch.