2 weeks in bottle and very little carb

Bottled a belgian WIT just over 2 weeks ago. It has been condtioning between 70-75 degrees. I used 5 oz of corn sugar to prime.

Tasted one after a week, very little carbonation, but it was there. Tasted a few bottles on Saturday (had some friends over) and still very little carbonation.

Any advice on how to kick up the carb in my brew?

Give the bottles a quick roll across the table to resuspend the yeast, and keep them at 70-75 for another week or two.

Carbing is a crap shoot. Sometimes it takes mine a week. Sometimes it takes four.

I agree. I had a similar problem with a brown ale recently. I pulled the bottles out of the basement to warm them up a bit. It still took about a month to get the carbination right.

temp is good, and the amount of sugar you used is plenty. Give them more time is about all you can do now. The rolling technique may help too, but time is the key. If two more weeks and still low, then we may have a problem. The beer will taste better after a couple more weeks. Be patient

I actually have the same problem. I've left my bottled beer in a closet for two weeks, that there is no carbination what-so-ever. A warm bottle was opened and there was a little. This is driving me insane because I've nailed the taste and body down with this batch, but my consistency in carbination is horrible. I know that my apartment temperature is kind of low, so that doesn't help out at all.

Anyone have any additional suggestions? I'm still relatively new at this; only my 4th batch. I'm currently attempting to apply the above suggestions, but am wondering how to avoid this problem in the future. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Just wait it out. I have had batches take 4-5 weeks sometimes to get carbonated right. Patience grasshopper. Your beer will be better for it anyway. It seems to me the 1-2-3 should often be more like 1-2-5

dale

Here is some more general advice I posted to another thread regarding bottle conditioning, since the topic seems to come up quite a bit:

1. Assuming you primed correctly, you want to carbonate for at least a week or two at about 70 - 75 F, then another week or two (could be at cellar temperature) to ensure proper carbonation. Sometimes carbonation will take 1 week, sometimes it will take 4. The yeast strain, recipe, length of time since the brew, fermentation temperature, etc. are all variables that contribute to the carbonation time.

2. If you haven't carbonated the first week or two at warmer temperatures and the beer is now flat, then gently swirly your bottles to re-suspend the yeast, and move the bottles to a warm spot for at least a week or two.

3. If that doesn't help, then be patient and leave them for another two weeks.

4. If that doesn't do the trick, you probably have a capping problem or yeast problem. Put a balloon or condom over the neck and cap of the bottle, give it a good shake, and see if any CO2 is leaking out. If so, proceed to step 6 (re-priming).

5. If faulty caps weren't your problem, then you might have to try adding fresh yeast to the bottles. A few grains of dry yeast are all that is necessary. Just make sure to chill the bottled beer first, or adding the yeast will cause gushers.

6. If that still doesn't do it, then you have under-primed. You will need to shake the bottles to release any built-up carbonation, carefully vent the CO2, chill them REALLY cold, and one-by-one remove the cap and add some carbonation tablets to re-prime. Recap and start again. Don't skip the venting and chilling step -- otherwise you will find out why very quickly!

** Make sure you don't jump steps because if you do, you might over-carbonate your beer and create bottle bombs. Not only will it make for bad beer, they are seriously dangerous.

So I took your advice and it has indeed improved. I just opened a bottle last night and there was some cabonation, but not enough to my liking yet. I know that I definitely did not under-carb, as I put in about 5/6 of a cup of priming sugar in. I have no problem waiting another week, or even a couple more. My question is this: should I try to resuspend the yeast again? Or would that have ill effects on my brew?

Thanks again!

I'd re-suspend the yeast by rolling them on a table. They are Wits afterall.

I have had similar differences in carbing. Some are perfectly carbed in a week. But others are taking more than a month. Not sure what the problem is so I just figure I will give them more time to age. Ofcourse that means I have to drive to the beer store to get something good to drink in the mean time. I really need to keep a larger stock so I don't run low at times like this.

Craig