Not giving them time to fully carb and condition. REGULAR stouts have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to fully carb
and condition.....Bigger beers have taken me months.
And just because a beer is carbed doesn't mean it still doesn't need more times for the hot alcohol flavors to mellow out.
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. And at least another 3-6 before it was drinkable
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."
Lazy Llama came up with a handy dandy chart to determine how long something takes in brewing, whether it's fermentation, carbonation, bottle conditioning....
Let me give you an extreme example of it, I brewed a high gravity pumpkin beer 3 years ago. I found one yesterday, and cracked it. And posted this.
OH MY GOD...I just found a bottle of this in one of my cubby holes beer storage places in my loft.
It is amazing!!!!!!!
I can't believe how great this beer is. It's what every pumpkin beer I ever tried and was disapointed with should be. It has a quarter inch light caramel/tan head, lots of lacing on the glass. It has a surprising definite pumpkin and spice taste, cut with a dark caramel/molasses toffee note to it. It has a pronounced bitterness, not from hops but a roasty coffee bite to it. It's got no hop aroma, but instead has a burnt sugar chocolate and coffee smell.
All in all this is one of the best beers I ever made. I really wish I had more of this. I guess I may have to brew this in the late summer for fall.
I'm blown away.
Dayum!!!!!
Give them time.