Still Not Carbed after 1 month + ?!

I bottled an IPA over a month ago. I had the bottles in my basement for the first 2 weeks, around 68 degrees. Not much carbonation, but still pretty green. So I moved them upstairs to a closet at over 70 degrees. They've been there for about 3 weeks now. I had one last night and still very low carbonation!

I had a beer from my second batch this week that was stored in the same closet for only 2 weeks, and that seems to be carbing up nicely. I used the same ratio of priming sugar for both batches! At this point, are these first bottles ever gonna carb, or is there anything else I can do? They would be so good if they just had some carbonation!

If your IPA was a big beer then it's going to take a good while longer to get really carb'd. I'd keep them somewhere where it's about 72ish for another 2 weeks and try again. You could also try letting one or two age in your chill chest for a couple of weeks and see what you get compared to the others.

What was OG on the IPA?

time to start kegging

Wasn't a big beer, OG was around 1.042. I'm willing to give it more time, but it should've been carbed by now...

If there is no carbonation in any of the bottles, no 'pfft' when you open one, get some caps sanitized and some carbonation tablets from the brew store. Pop open each bottle, drop in the recommended number of tabs and recap.

If this fails, you some how killed the yeast and bottle conditioning with out yeast is impossible.

beerkrump said:

If there is no carbonation in any of the bottles, no 'pfft' when you open one, get some caps sanitized and some carbonation tablets from the brew store. Pop open each bottle, drop in the recommended number of tabs and recap.

If this fails, you some how killed the yeast and bottle conditioning with out yeast is impossible.

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There is a little more carbonation than after 2 weeks, but not much. There's a small 'pfft' when I open them. I might give it another week or 2 at above 70 degrees and try the tablets if still no carb.

I've had a few beers, even the lighter ones have average carb from corn sugar.

I'm going to start using 5oz instead of 4.

A buddy of mine used 5 in his Belgian FHA and it worked great. Mine with 4oz are kinda low in carbonation.

beerkrump said:

If there is no carbonation in any of the bottles, no 'pfft' when you open one, get some caps sanitized and some carbonation tablets from the brew store. Pop open each bottle, drop in the recommended number of tabs and recap.

If this fails, you some how killed the yeast and bottle conditioning with out yeast is impossible.

Click to expand...

Don't do this for at least 3 more weeks...Really some beers take time. You say "close" to 70, is that close above or close below 70? If it is close below, that may seem like nothing to you, but it IS a big deal to the yeasties.

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 even if they are carbed the flavor might still be off...that's called bottle conditioning.

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 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. in fact if you run the recipes from the books in beersmith many of them give you NEGATIVE sugar amount to reach the lowest volume of co2 for the style range-and that NO SUGAR would often get you either mid carbing range or the highest volume of co2 depending ont he recipe.)

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

If you added the amount of sugar that came with your kit, then that is the correct amount of sugar....most beers carb at around 2-2.5 volumes of co2, and for most beers that is 4.5-5 ounces of sugar...that is plenty.

Just make sure they are at 70 degrees and don't worry about taste or carbonation until it has been AT LEAST 3 weeks at 70....I never even concern myself til 8 weeks......

Give it some more time....

Revvy, you say it's taken up to 3 months for some to fully carbonate in the bottle. Isn't there some drawback to letting beer sit in a bottle for so long? I thought fresh was better when it came to beer? How long can I leave my beer in a bottle? I have a Russian Imperial Stout I want to make, but not drink until the winter. I've been holding off making it because I thought leaving it for 4 months in a bottle was not a good idea.

muenchk said:

Revvy, you say it's taken up to 3 months for some to fully carbonate in the bottle. Isn't there some drawback to letting beer sit in a bottle for so long? I thought fresh was better when it came to beer? How long can I leave my beer in a bottle? I have a Russian Imperial Stout I want to make, but not drink until the winter. I've been holding off making it because I thought leaving it for 4 months in a bottle was not a good idea.

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Oh, within reason, "longer is better" for beer. IPAs are usually best within 6 months, because the "nose" can fade a bit from the hops. A barley wine is probably not even very drinkable for at least 6-8 months. For an RIS, four months is cutting it a bit short, but if you make it now it should be drinkable this winter.

When you moved the beer to a warmer area did you rouse the yeast? This helps if the yeast settled out before the beer was fully carbed.

muenchk said:

Revvy, you say it's taken up to 3 months for some to fully carbonate in the bottle. Isn't there some drawback to letting beer sit in a bottle for so long? I thought fresh was better when it came to beer? How long can I leave my beer in a bottle? I have a Russian Imperial Stout I want to make, but not drink until the winter. I've been holding off making it because I thought leaving it for 4 months in a bottle was not a good idea.

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Uhm, NO....What do you think would happen?

There's no harm in letting a beer sit, in fact you will find that many need time, it's called bottle conditioning some beers are meant to be aged, just like wine. Some, especially higher grav beers, don't reach their peak for several months months or a year. And some just end up needing a few weeks, months to "correct" itself....

This isn't coolaid we are making..It's a natural process, involving living micro-organisms, and they are the one's in charge, and they have their own timeframe and agenda....we just need to let go and let them do ther thing....

There are only a few styles that are meant to be drunk fresh, hefe's and milds come to mind. Some will peak in a few weeks and lose certain qualities, like hoppiness in IPA's, or spices, or oak...But sometimes that's exactly what they need.

Here's an example I posted back in Jan.

Revvy said:

Last week I poured the last of my Partigyle pumpkin Porters...Brewed on Labor Day, bottled 1 month later...First ones cracked on Halloween still green but carbed, so we drank a six whilst giving out candy...Left the rest alone til turkey day, and my family loved them, and I've drank a few now and then...But this one sat...until now, bottled on October first...Consumed 3 months later...

When it was green, even though it was carbed, you got a hot alcohol burn, and a really funky sourness from the pumpkin in the back of the throat..and way too much spice, especially the clove....Not undrinkable, but far from wonderful,

The last one was amazing, and sublime; the pumpkin and spice are nicely balanced, somewhat tart against a backbone of a deep rich burnt caramel and toffee note, with even a black coffee hint coming through. Nothing overwhelms, instead they meld together seamlessly.

There's a nice blend of both carbonation and a lingering mouth feel, and a deliciously seductive nose of toffee and cloves.

I would without hesitation pay 9 bucks for a 22 of this if it had the name Rogue, or Stone on it....and it kicked the ass of any pumpkin ales in the stores last October. This beer right now is at it's peak....and it was the last one.

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In the Dec 07 Zymurgy Charlie Papazian reviewed bottles of homebrew going back to the first AHC competition that he had stored, and none of them went bad, some had not held up but most of them he felt were awesome...We're talking over 20 years worth of beers.

If you are making a big beer (and some define a big beer as anything above 1.060) give it time

If you haven't, read the "Of patience and bottle conditiong" blog I posted above, it talks about letting flavors marrying, just like in cooking.

Thanks, Revvy, I have read your Bottle Conditioning blog, lots of good info as always.

Revvy said:

Don't do this for at least 3 more weeks...Really some beers take time. You say "close" to 70, is that close above or close below 70? If it is close below, that may seem like nothing to you, but it IS a big deal to the yeasties.

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I did a lot of research before posting this thread, and I know sometimes you just have to give it time. The beer has been in my closet for 3+ weeks now, consistently well over 70 degrees, probably close to 75-76. I did rouse the yeast a couple weeks ago.

BADS197 said:

I've had a few beers, even the lighter ones have average carb from corn sugar.

I'm going to start using 5oz instead of 4.

A buddy of mine used 5 in his Belgian FHA and it worked great. Mine with 4oz are kinda low in carbonation.

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I used a full 5oz of priming sugar; it's strange how another beer with an almost identical OG took only 2 wks to carb in the same storage place, & this one is taking so long.

My comment was for "no 'pfft'", as in zero CO2 being produced. Even a slowly carbing, high OG brew will have a tiny 'pfft' 2 weeks after adding bottling sugars. I had a stout that I did an experiment with recently. I took half of a five gallon batch and bottle conditioned them without any additional sugar. It took six months to get the bottles to start to carb, but they did. However, a few were oxidized because the protective layer of CO2 formed so slowly.