Well, I think something went wrong...

Well, I have had an amber ale in bottles for about 4 weeks. I did make sure to add the priming sugar to the beer (bottling bucket) immediately before bottling. I pretty much just added it directly to the bottling bucket and the it went right into bottles. I capped it with a hand capper and let them sit in a box between 62 and 70 degrees. Now the beer is pretty much completely flat. A few bubbles come up as soon as I pour it, but it dissipates very soon. Any common problems that I may have run into? I was incredibly careful not to get any of the trub into the bottling bucket so maybe there wasn't enough yeast in the bottles? I filled all of the bottles and then capped them all so there was a time when they were uncovered, but it couldn't have been more than 15 minutes. I used a kit from Austin Homebrew. Any help is appreciated and TIA!

Did you boil the sugar in some water first? There is a chance you had uneven distribution meaning some are way carbonated and some are flat. If that's not the case, let them sit another week at about 72 plus degrees. What kind of yeast was it?

pnutbutrsangwich said:

...I did make sure to add the priming sugar to the beer (bottling bucket) immediately before bottling. I pretty much just added it directly to the bottling bucket and the it went right into bottles...

Click to expand...

Does this mean the beer was in the bottling bucket first and then you added the priming sugar? If so, you need to reverse the order. This will allow the priming sugar to mix with the beer when the beer is transfered to the bottling bucket. Of course, this is assuming you boiled the priming sugar in some water first, as Bobby_M mentioned.

Hey man sorry to hear the FT clone didn't come out as expected.

How much priming sugar did you use? Did you boil water then dissolve the sugar, then add it to the beer and stir gently...making sure to mix the sugar solution in the beer?

Can you identify any bottles that may have been bottled with beer from the bottom of the bucket? Check those for carbonation...maybe some sugar settled to the bottom.

Also, how long did it sit in primary and secondary. If it cleared too much, you may have not had any yeast in suspension. How much yeast did you use, 11 grams at least??

may be off topic a little but have to ask. If your beer does clear too much and you prime and then bottle; is there something you can do to that beer that you have bottled? I just racked off my american light lager into a secondary and noticed yesterday that it is really clear. Never thought about it not having enough yeast.

Even when your beer looks perfectly clear, there's still millions of yeast cells floating around that you can't see. All other things being equal, there's always enough yeast for carbonation.

except for extreme circumstances (bulk aging a barleywine or DIPA where the yeast have had maybe a year to settle out, and the yeast are weak from the high alcohol as well)

randomly check your bottles by picking them up, and looking at the bottom. this is purely subjective, but check to see the amount of sediment in the bottles. if you see one has significantly more, open it and try it. if it gushes, then you had uneven distribution of the priming sugar, and you will want to check all the bottles, and the ones that have a lot of sediment put in the fridge, and wait on the other bottles. if in another month's time they don't carbonate to your liking, using carb tabs, i think munton and coopers makes them, and i think munton are the smaller ones, so i would use those, and add them to the bottles - this will be trial and error, so you will have to guess how much to add at this point.

or you can do what i did when i was transitioning to kegging and had an unevenly primed batch in bottles - i poured the rest of the bottles into a keg then set the pressure and boom, proper carbonation. haha. this is only if you have a kegging setup though.

Sorry I haven't gotten back in a couple days and thanks to all that have responded! Here's some answers to help clarify the situation. I did boil the priming sugar in water before adding it to the bottling bucket. I added one vial of White Labs California Ale yeast, supplied with the kit that I used. I don't know how much was in there, but it was a pre-measured pack from Austin Homebrew Supply so I imagine that it was "enough". This beer sat in primary for 10 days, secondary for 26, and has been bottled since 1/07/07. I did not add the beer to the priming sugar, rather the other way around (beer was already in the bottling bucket). Hope this clears things up some and again, thanks so much for the help.

One option is to open each bottle and put in a carb drop with a few grains of dried yeast, then re-cap.

david_42 said:

One option is to open each bottle and put in a carb drop with a few grains of dried yeast, then re-cap.

Click to expand...

I've read this and heard this many times... has anyone ever actually done this with any success? How many are a few grains of yeast, three, five, eight - and at what point do you risk priming "bottle bombs"?

I ask because I have a batch that's been very slow to carbonate also.

redpale said:

I've read this and heard this many times... has anyone ever actually done this with any success? How many are a few grains of yeast, three, five, eight - and at what point do you risk priming "bottle bombs"?

I ask because I have a batch that's been very slow to carbonate also.

Click to expand...

I have done this, but honestly, I don't think the yeast is necessary.

It is REALLY important, though, to de-carbonate your beer before you add carb drops. It is likely that the beer partially carbonated. If so, when you add the carb drops -- instant gusher. Plus, adding to the existing carbonation could lead to bottle bombs.

My suggestion is to agitate each bottle very well before you pry off the cap to (1) help any CO2 out of suspension, and (2) resuspend any yeast that has fallen out. Open the cap just enough to release any existing pressure, and let the bottle sit for a while. Then open the cap, add the carb drops, and recap. Move the bottles to a warm location.

Oh yeah, and if after 3 weeks there is still no carbonation, then add a couple of grains of yeast. But monitor carefully for bottle bombs because you may have double primed!

Thanks! - it's good to hear that someone has actually done this. Moves this theory beyond the realm of, well...theory

Drinking another one tonight. Seems that another week in the bottles did it some good. Damn, this feels awesome to drink beer that I made. Thanks for the input.