First all-grain batch. No carbonation.

Hi all. This is my first post here.

My father and I have been making batches of our own homebrew for several years now and we finally decided to make the leap from extract to all-grain. I made the investment in some initial equipment and we soon had our first all-grain batch underway: an IPA. This was also the first time we decided to a secondary fermentation. Everything seemed to be going great, and the beer tasted pretty good (for unfinished beer) at each step of the way. When we bottled the beer, we filled up a party pig and put the rest in bottles. As of today it's been about 10 days since bottling so I decided to open up one of the bottles and try it. The beer tasted great but it was absolutely 100% flat. No head. Not even a hint of bubbles. I opened another as a sanity check and it was the same deal. When priming we used 5 oz. (by weight) of DME. My first thought was that since we did 2 fermentations there was way less yeast that made it into each bottle and therefore it's going to take a lot longer before the carbonation shows up. Another thought I had was that the 2 bottles I opened were filled close to the top and that maybe the pressure pushed the cap open and formed a leak. I just don't know. There is a haze in the beer and some crud at the bottom so I would think that means there is yeast, and therefore carbonation, in the bottles. At this point with our last batch (german wheat) the beer was completely carbonated. Anyone have any idea whats going on?

Hello,

Can you give us the volume of beer (5 gallons?) and the type of bottes/caps
used (coke bottles/beer bottles/etc) and how you primed (boiled water w/DME)...and storage temperatures
The crud/yeast on the bottle, would indicate yeast activity.

In general, there should be some carbonation at this point...but some beers have been known to be flat for a couple of weeks.

Cheers.

Hi there.
Well the batch was 5 gallons but I think it may have been more like 4.5 that made it into the bottles/pig. We used a mixture of 22 oz and 12 oz bottles and just generic caps that were lying around. For priming we boiled about 5 oz. (seemed to be 1 - 1.5 cups) of DME in a cup of water and threw that in the bottling bucket. All fermentation and conditioning took place in the basement which has a stone floor so it stays pretty cool all day and doesn't get too much light. I would guess the temp to be 60-65 degrees F, maybe up to 70 on rare occasions. This is same area where the primary fermentation took place so I know that this yeast can be active at those temps. It wasn't the most active fermentation I've seen, but there was a lot of settled yeast at the end. Do you think I should move the bottles so they can condition in a warmer area?

Also, I believe the yeast used was WLP001 california ale.

Thanks.

Oh, one more thing. The batch spent about 10 days in the primary fermenter, 10 days in the secondary and 10 days in the bottles.

Based the details and you having done this before, the only thing I can think of
would be the caps....you have a sufficient amount of DME..and temps are fine...and there was yeast activity.
I would try Carefully shaking a bottle and see if there is any escape of liquid that would account for escape of CO2.
That would be my guess.....but keep a eye on this thread to see if anyone else can come up with anything.

Cheers - and good luck!

Reading all the posts I can't disagree with any of them, however, 10 days is not long enough when priming with DME.

My experience priming with DME is that you need a minimum of 3 weeks to 1 month at above 70F to get any carbonation. The lower the temp the longer it'll take to carbonate (bottle condition).

IMO, if you are in a hurry to drink then use corn sugar for priming.

Another comment, how did you boil 1.5 C DME in 1 C of water for 5 mins? I'm thinking 1 C of water would have boiled away in that time. I always use 2 C water.

Hmmm, ok. I'll try checking the caps and moving the bottles to a warmer place for a while. We usually don't use DME for priming so I guess I just wasn't used to the amount of time involved. I don't mind waiting but I guess I somehow thought it only took a week or so for bubbles to appear.

It may have been more than a cup that we boiled but either way it was sugary soupy mess by the time it made it into the bottling bucket.

Thanks for the help guys. Cheers.

homebrewer_99 said:

, however, 10 days is not long enough when priming with DME.

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I betcha that's it right there. Give it a couple more weeks.

Also, the normal amount of DME is more like 9 oz by weight 9which is approx 1.25 cups by volume). 5oz by weight is the normal amount of corn sugar. So I think your amount of priming sugar was probably quite low.

I usually taste the first bottle after 2 weeks--even DME-primed beers are usually drinkably carbonated at that point. But that's with a larger amount of priming sugar.

cweston said:

Also, the normal amount of DME is more like 9 oz by weight 9which is approx 1.25 cups by volume). 5oz by weight is the normal amount of corn sugar. So I think your amount of priming sugar was probably quite low.
sugar.

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Is there any way we can salvage the batch if we didn't use enough DME? It would be annoying but we could boil a little more DME and add a squirt to each bottle then recap. I'm not sure how we could salvage the party pig, though other than switching to a corny keg. It's weird because when I was weighing out the DME I thought it looked like way more than a cup and I almost thought it was too much. I don't know what made me do it by weight.

I'd wait a week or so, check em then. Or, you could chill a couple and mix them with your favorite like beer. They still taste good right?

Has anyone had any experience with Carbonation Drops? Might be worth experimenting on a bottle or two if they don't improve over time.

Jason

iloman said:

Has anyone had any experience with Carbonation Drops? Might be worth experimenting on a bottle or two if they don't improve over time.

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I used drops on a few bottles last batch (to test since I am moving to kegs and will in the future only be bottling a 12 pack or so of each batch) I used a different brand (they looked like white rat poops) 2 per 12oz bottle gave about the same carbonation as the rest of the batch with 5oz Corn sugar.. If there is already DME in it you might try 1/2 the recommended per 12oz bottle

Also try warming up a couple bottles for a few days (80ish) and seeing if you get any carbonation the high temp wont make for as tasty a beer but it will tell you if you have viable yeast and enough DME.. if it carbonates then just give the rest more time if it isn't a leaking bottle issue. if it doesn't might want to add carbonation drops and reseal the bottles.