My bottles just won't carb...

I'm beginning to think that there's an anti-carb aura in my house.

My first brew was a porter, extract with steeping grains. Barely carbed but I thought it might be because I screwed up elsewhere (didn't boil long enough)

My second was a raspberry wheat, extract with raspberry flavoring. It was moderately carbed but with no head retention, and the bottles' carbonation quickly declined as time went on. I thought it could be because it was an extract, who knows.

I brewed a hard cider that went the way of bathtub hooch at 10.5%. It didn't carb at all. I thought it was either because I left it on the yeast too long (2+ months I think, this was during my 'oh yeah I should brew again... next week' phase that lasted 6 months) or because it was so high in alcohol.

So, each of these on their own seem like they have a good excuse, but when added up... I bottled my alt two weeks ago, and hoped that as it was a partial mash it'd be better. But, two weeks in, there's a bit of carbonation feel on my tongue but still no real carbonation to speak of.

Let me take a break at this point to say, I know: 21 days @ 70 degrees. My house is actually probably 65ish (Buffalo needs to warm the eff up), but while I'm not expecting it to be perfect yet, given my history -- and that I'm going to be bottling my first AG in two weeks that I'm very happy with and don't want to screw up now -- I'd like to figure out what the hell I'm doing wrong. Like I said to Soperbrew in chat, I know I can buy carb tablets but this doesn't seem like a complicated concept, you know? Here is my method (I've already spotted one potential error thanks to Soper, but just to be sure I wanted to get everyone's opinion):

- Boil a pint of water
- Add priming sugar, stir (pre-measured by LHBS, they've all been kits thus far)
- Dump into bottling bucket
- Rack the beer onto it quietly, using that magic tool the autosiphon
- Bottle using a wand, stirring periodically

I did forget to stir for my raspberry wheat, which I thought might be a problem, but I didn't get any bottle bombs.

Now, when Soper was walking me through what to do he said 'you boil the sugar, cool and dump it in right?' and I responded 'No, I don't cool... son of a *****, I'm killing my yeast, aren't I?' I wanted to make sure it was still mixed together when I racked my beer onto it... so I may have shocked them into not working for me.

I also admit that I didn't put them in the fridge for as long as is recommended; for the alt, I've only chilled them for about 2-3 hours before opening (one at one week, one at two). I know this will also help carbonation, but there wasn't a big hiss that said there was undissolved CO2 hanging around at the top.

So, I know, there are things I can do better (though in my defense, I did just figure out the scalding hot priming solution part 15 minutes ago). it's just frustrating when I've yet to have a beer I'm really satisfied with, and having this mostly be due to something as easy as bottle conditioning. So, while I think I know what I've done wrong now, does anyone have any other idea what I could do better?

Are you using twist top bottles? Temps, yeast viability, and quantity of priming sugar are the biggest variables.

Sig...I'd weigh the priming sugar and find out how much they are giving you. I only let my sugar mix cool a little bit, and I've never had a problem.

There's a big difference between 65 and 70 degrees when it comes to carbonation.

I'd recon that for every degree below 70, you can add 2-3 extra days to the 21 days you normally need.

Find the warmest spot in the house. Park those beers for two weeks. Give those cases a slight rocking to rouse the yeast once a day.

Biermuncher pretty much said it...

You can gently roll the bottles back and forth on a table a couple times to re-rouse your yeast....and if you can't find a 70 degree place, you could conver your bottle boxes with a thermal blanket.

BierMuncher said:

Find the warmest spot in the house. Park those beers for two weeks. Give those cases a slight rocking to rouse the yeast once a day.

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+1 to moving your bottles some place warm. I had the same problem with a cream stout I brewed. I moved them from my front coat closet to the laundry room (gets pretty warm when I run the washer and dryer at the same time), and gently agitated them once a day for about 2 weeks. They carbed right up.

cheezy, sorry I forgot that part. I've used a mix of bottles and flip top growlers, but no twist offs or anything like that.

Bier et al: My house is annoying in that it's always either colder or hotter than it is outside, but never in the way I want. I have an unused bedroom right now that's probably getting heat (I'm actually cleaning it out a bit tonight), so maybe I'll put them in there. I'll also try agitating them some (tell them their parents' divorce was their fault, etc).

I've started this reply three times but you all keep commenting too fast. It's why HBT is so awesome... thanks!

If you have a closet AND you have your bottles store in boxes, so they're light tight you could always stick a string of christmas lights, or a small lamp, or even rig up a socket and low watt bulb in the closet to warm the area up a bit....You could even cover it with your bottling bucket to further block out the light.

Just like how they keep chicken warm...

Revvy said:

Biermuncher pretty much said it...

You can gently roll the bottles back and forth on a table a couple times to re-rouse your yeast....and if you can't find a 70 degree place, you could conver your bottle boxes with a thermal blanket.

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Yep.
My first batch took about 1 month to get good carb as my home temp is usually around 65 in the cool/cold seasons.
It sure helps to cover with blanket and move near a vent or warm spot...also rocking them a bit too.

It sounds like your procedure is fine, so I'd with weighing/measuring your priming sugar next time, just to see how much you're using. Now, I use 4 ounces usually, but sometimes use 5, and the 5 ounce ones are overcarbed to my taste.

Chilling longer DOES make a big difference, but usually you still get the "pffft" when you open, and sometimes a gush if it's not cooled long enough.

Are you using a particularly flocculant yeast? Maybe the yeast is falling to the bottom of the bottles without doing their job. Have you used the same yeast strain in each batch?

Sigafoos said:

I'll also try agitating them some (tell them their parents' divorce was their fault, etc).

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You could torture them a little and keep a calendar next to them as a reminder as to their drinking date. Tell them if they behave, you'll make a painless drinkage, or if they are naughty and don't carb, you will make it a slow painful torturous experience for them.

I've had every damn bottle carbing problem under the sun. I doubt that your problem is entirely due to scalding the yeast. After the initial shock, the dilution in the beer would have brought the temp down to a reasonable (non-yeast-killing) temp within the first 1/5th of the beer being racked. The rest of the yeast, then, would be fine.

I've found that adding some rehydrated dry yeast at bottling really helps as an insurance policy. I'd also get your bottles warmer than 65ºf...use a space heater (that's what I do) if you have one.

Lastly, I've saved a few batches by opening up the cases once a day for a week and shaking each bottle so as to rouse any yeast that have decided to flocculate. This took my Destroyer of Worlds IIPA from flat to perfectly carbonated in about a week's time. I highly recommend this for any non-carbing or under-carbing batches.

Thanks everyone, I'll be trying some combination of this tonight. I do have an extra closet, but it's got silly things like my wife's wedding dress in it so I'm thinking a space heater might be problematic. I do have plenty of extra blankets though, and the bottles are in thick cardboard boxes, so I'll see if I can think of a way to heat them up.

i'm eaves dropping here, trying to figure out why my last several batches have been flat. not all, but most of the bottles. i've had years of great brewing experinces, never a flat one. all the sudden,no head, got me quite frustrated. anyway, maybe the time thing, but some have set a month or more and are flat. but some have set in fridge after 2 or 3 weeks, so could be temp, bottles are stored in warm area prior to that. no issue with sugar, use 5oz, boil and cool before adding to wert. real carefull about sanitation and all, no contaminations. even tried the "give it a twirl" thing, to no avail. I'm thinking maybe didn't give it enough "warm time" to cure, do you think perhaps i should remove bottles from fridge and let them set awhile longer in 70ish area?

Definitely. Don't chill them until they are fully carbed- you'll be the yeast to sleep when you chill them. 70 degrees for three to four weeks is best, usually.

okay, so i screwed up with that, figured maybe. you said put the yeast to sleep, so i'm assuming i didn't "kill" it, anyway, do you think it will work out if i 'unchill' them and wait another 3 or so weeks?

Yes. Take them out of the fridge, and then swirl the bottles around to resuspend the dormant yeast.

okay gonna try that. thanks and i'll let ya know in about 3 weeks if it worked!

As other posters have said, temperature is everything.

If your used the proper amount of priming sugar and your bottles were not toxic to the yeast (unrinsed bleach for example), and your OG wasn't more than the yeast can handle, then the only variable left is temperature.

However from what you said about the cider you might be drowning the yeast in its own piss. After all, ale yeast will only tolerate alcohol between 8 and 12 percent, depending on the strain. Currently I've got an IPA that is having problems because I made a change to my procedure that gave me a much higher yield from the grain than I expected, and as a result the yeast isn't acting as expected.

Keep your temps above 68, closer to 72 if possible when conditioning, and be aware that your yeast will die if you expect too much from it.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Buffalo is still cold (it does know that it's May, right?) and we don't really keep our house that warm, so last night I opened the vent in a spare bedroom, stacked the boxes in front of it after giving each bottle a nice swirl, and packed three comforters over it to keep the heat in. Tonight I'll toss in my meat thermometer to monitor the temps... hopefully it's good enough, because it's about as warm as I can make it right now.

With the cider, yeah I'm assuming not everything is the temperature's fault. I actually really liked it still, and thinking about it I should start another batch soon. Hell, maybe this weekend when I (hopefully) do a mead.

For the record, after a week or two of this, combined with Buffalo warming up, my bottles are fully carbed. I have to refrigerate them for at least a day or it's 80% head, but it was definitely my problem. Thanks everyone

Is 80F too hot that it will kill yeast that are carbonating bottles?

gpogo said:

Is 80F too hot that it will kill yeast that are carbonating bottles?

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No. They'll carb faster.