Bottling and Carbonation HELP!!!

I have been brewing for two years now and I am getting sick for my beers not not carbonating very well. I moved it to a warmer place, I stirred things up a bit, and I even uncapped then added yeast to one batch. My latest is a Hefe and it has been bottled for 3 weeks now. All I get is a little fizz then flat. Do I need to leave it longer? The only success was when I kegged. All I want is some head!!!!

What type of priming sugar are you using, and how much are you adding to a 5 gallon batch?

Hmm, how long do you wait before bottling? I wouldn't think that's the problem, but it's the best I could think of.

The only other thing is you could try using more priming sugar if you are't already using a calculated amount.

BlindLemonLars said:

What type of priming sugar are you using, and how much are you adding to a 5 gallon batch?

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I usually use 4-4.5, this last batch Hefe batch I use 5. I always use LD Carlson Priming Sugar pks.

That's adequate. I wonder if the the temperature drops below 70 degrees where you're storing them?

JebCkr said:

Hmm, how long do you wait before bottling? I wouldn't think that's the problem, but it's the best I could think of.

The only other thing is you could try using more priming sugar if you are't already using a calculated amount.

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I usually leave a total of 3 weeks fermenting. One week primary and 2 weeks secondary. This last Hefe was a high start reading of 1.061 so I left it for a month before it dropped to 1.014.

YooperBrew said:

That's adequate. I wonder if the the temperature drops below 70 degrees where you're storing them?

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Is 70 a magic number? I am have been between 65-70.

If it's not carbed at 3 weeks, it's simple,....then you just gotta wait longer.

Gravity and storage temp are the biggest factors in carbonation/conditioning times...Less than seventy severely slows down the yeast...2 degrees may seem like nothing to us, but to micro-organisms that could be like 10.

ALL beers will reach their level of carbonation eventually. In fact, it's possible (and proven by running the numbers in beersmith) to NOT add priming sugar and get minimal carbonation/style of a few volumes in time (in old brewing british brewing books they didn't add sugar to some ordinary bitters, and milds and relied on time and temp to do the work naturally.)

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.

More info can be found here....Revvy's Blog, Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning.

Lazy Llama came up with a handy dandy chart to determine how long something takes in brewing, whether it's fermentation, carbonation, bottle conditioning....

Hawgwort said:

Is 70 a magic number? I am have been between 65-70.

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Yes, it sort of IS a magic number, in my experience. I had some beers never carb up at 63, some sort of carb up at 68, and some carb up very well at 72+. In the winter, my house is about 62 degrees, and I've had to use a space heater just to get my beer to carb up!

Thanks Yopper and Revvy! Here is my game plan I am going to increase the temp and wait longer. Although, waiting longer sucks. I was going to enter this into a competion last entry time is 08/14.

You still have a couple of weeks... give it a chance.