Carbonation problem

My last batch, a Belgian Abbey, tasted great, but many of the bottles did not carbonate. I followed the same sanitizing procedures as always. Any idea why this happened, and is there anything I can do to save this batch.

How long were the in the bottles at 70 before you started cracking them?

If you are talking about a strong belgian ale, more than likely they wouldn't even begin carbing and conditioning for at leat 6-8 weeks...anything less than 8 weeks I wouldn't even worry...Heck my 1.090 Belgian Strong took 3 months to carb up...

Read this, and if it's only been a few weeks, then relax...

Read this;
Revvy's Blog, Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning.

Lazy Llama diagramed it best...

It has been 6 weeks or so, a couple of the beers have had a very good carbonation, but more have not.

The most likely problem is that the priming sugar was not thoroughly mixed into the beer before bottling.

Revvy said:

Lazy Llama diagramed it best...

Click to expand...

I must agree, Llama's comprehensive diagram really helped me, as a new brewer, to understand all the complexities in the carbing/conditioning equation. I'm fairly certain nomination for some sort of international prize is in his future.

albannach said:

The most likely problem is that the priming sugar was not thoroughly mixed into the beer before bottling.

Click to expand...

No...more than likely if a few are now carbed, the rest just haven't come online yet. They are each in their own little yeastie "eco-systems" so they all have their own time frames.

You might consider rolling the bottles once on their side to re-suspend the yeast and make sure the temp is 70 or above...and they will come to carb eventually.

If it's 6 weeks, betcha by 8 they will be fine. If you read the blog I linked you'll see I've had stouts and porters take 8 weeks, but they carbed eventually.

Heck even in Old English brewing books, they don't add any priming sugar at all in some lower grav beers, and let the co2 build up over time...of course it's not like the highly carbed beer we americans were raised on, but they are at the lower end of our carbontation range if we use software. In fact I ran the numbers of some of those recipes in beersmith and some of the numbers actually came up in the negative for amount of sugar added...meaning you didn't need to add any sugar at all, you just had to let them sit and they would reach the mid range of carbonation...with patience.

So more than likely if you agitate the yeast make sure the temp is above 70 and walk away for a bot longer, they will all starting "popping."

Did you heat up water and dissolve your corn sugar in it prior to adding to the beer?

I am not sure if the yeast can easily feed off the sugar if it has settled to the bottom of your bottles due to not dissolving prior to adding to the beer.

I could be wrong but I though I would throw that in.

Thanks for all your input