2 weeks in the Bottle

my first brew is 2 weeks in the bottle and still somewhat flat tasting. I must pour aggressively to get a 1/4" to a 1/2" head in a glass...

no noticeable bubbles in the beer...

what did i do wrong?

i used 3/4 cup of priming sugar, boiled with 2 cups of water, racked my beer onto the priming solution and then bottled.

there is some carbonation, just not a whole lot...

any ideas? i hardly think another week in the bottle will do anything for me...

Where did you store your bottles while conditioning? From my experience, cooler temps can take a little longer to carbonate.

I recently brewed an IPA. I stored some bottles in the basement and some in the kitchen cabinets. The bottles that were stored in the kitchen cabinet were carbonated after 7 days. The bottles in the basement took the full two weeks to carbonate.

At what temperature have your bottles been conditioning?

What was th OG of your beer? Sometimes in bigger beers the yeast are just pretty-well spent and don't have much oomph left for converting the priming sugar--but I doubt that's the issue.

they were stored in cardboard boxes, right next to my fermenters...

temps @ around 75 degrees...

btw, My OG was 1.050

Don't worry. They will be fine. I had a porter that was not carbonated at all, just like you describe, after 2 weeks. I was given the advice to GENTLY shake each bottle a few times over the next week to get the settled yeast back into suspension. I did that and let them sit for another week (4 weeks total from priming) and they were all perfectly carbonated.

John

johnsma22 said:

Don't worry. They will be fine. I had a porter that was not carbonated at all, just like you describe, after 2 weeks. I was given the advice to GENTLY shake each bottle a few times over the next week to get the settled yeast back into suspension. I did that and let them sit for another week (4 weeks total from priming) and they were all perfectly carbonated.

John

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so i need to give each bottle a gentle shake. i will give that a try..

I have found that if I don't rinse very well after I sanitize the yeast under carbonate.
I use One-Step and then run them through the dishwasher with out soap, and get good results.

TA

Trappist Artist said:

I have found that if I don't rinse very well after I sanitize the yeast under carbonate.
I use One-Step and then run them through the dishwasher with out soap, and get good results.

TA

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i keep hearing more and more about using the dishwasher without soap. now, if i could ever find the dishwasher empty:cross:

i thought i rinsed well enough after washing and then used iodophor to sanitize...

here's after 1 week:



here's after 2 weeks:

I have had mine take 3 weeks to get a good carb and after 4 weeks they were even better. I would turn them over and try one next week. I bet it will be much better.

thanks, i am going to flip them over now...

here's to hoping that mixed up the yeastie's a bit... did a little turnover or two on each bottle...

next weekend i have friends coming over to bottle two batches and brew another. and we will be drinking some of this 1st batch along the way...

I only started homebrewing a few weeks ago. My first homebrew was a Black Rock stout. I did everything I was instructed to do, and bottled it. It said leave the bottles for a couple of weeks before drinking. I did, but the result was a flat headless beer. I was a tad dissapointed, but it tasted OK, and for a first attempt, I was going to give myself the benefit of the doubt.

A couple of weeks later, and the stout is now carbonated - it's getting better with age. It's still got no head - in fact I'm quite jealous of the head in the photos! Since then, I've done an EDME IPA, and an EDME German Lager, both of which are bottled - I'm being very patient and am going to wait a full month in bottles before I get around to trying one. I just hope that it is worth it.

I read somewhere that by using boiled cool water, this can help with the head of the beer. Has anyone noticed this? I am currently brewing a FERMBREW Abdij (Abbey beer), and have used boiled cool water to do this. However, this is supposed to stand in a bottle for at least 8 weeks before drinking! Now that is some wait - I hope it is worth it!!

Trappist Artist said:

I have found that if I don't rinse very well after I sanitize the yeast under carbonate.
I use One-Step and then run them through the dishwasher with out soap, and get good results.

TA

Click to expand...

That's about what I do. Clean first, then dump in santizer , then in the dishwasher. Seems to work well.