Beer is flat

After 2wks of condtioning beer has little head and taste a little flat? Should I let sit for another week. This is my first brew.

Yes. Give it at least another week. If it isn't done there... give it another week. Most people that bottle don't touch them for at least three weeks. It will likely be even longer if you did a big beer (OG higher than like 1.065).

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer. Beers stored cooler than 70, take longer.

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.


Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."

Carbing is foolprrof. You ad the right amount of sugar, leave it at the right temp, and it will carb.

If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them more time. If you added your sugar, then the beer will carb up eventually, it's really a foolroof process. All beers will carb up eventually. A lot of new brewers think they have to "troubleshoot" a bottling issue, when there really is none, the beer knows how to carb itself. In fact if you run beersmiths carbing calculator, some lower grav beers don't even require additional sugar to reach their minimum level of carbonation. Just time.

Thanks Revvy for your explanation, but can I clarify? Will the beer still eventually carbonate when you (I) have under dosed the beer with sugar at bottling. I put a carbonating drop that matched a 330ml bottle, not the 500ml I used.

It will carb, but not to the level that you initially wanted it to.

skippa said:

Thanks Revvy for your explanation, but can I clarify? Will the beer still eventually carbonate when you (I) have under dosed the beer with sugar at bottling. I put a carbonating drop that matched a 330ml bottle, not the 500ml I used.

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It won't reach the same carbonation level as the target. It will carb, but will always seem less carbed than you probably planned.

For the record - I hate carb drops/tabs. Boil a little table sugar in a cup or two of water, dump that in the bottling bucket, rack the beer on otop of it. Voila. Consistent carbonation to the exact vlume of CO2 that you want - use more of less sugar as desired.

When I have my bottle filler in the bottle how far should I fill the bottle?

Close to the top when you remove the filler you will have about 1 inch head space

Revvy said:

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer. Beers stored cooler than 70, take longer.

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Crap, I just put half the batch of a 7.8% English black ipa with bourbon and oak chips in the refrigerator after two weeks at 70°, If it's flat can I put it back to warm storage? I haven't sampled one because I am on antibiotics for strep throat.

meltroha said:

Crap, I just put half the batch of a 7.8% English black ipa with bourbon and oak chips in the refrigerator after two weeks at 70°, If it's flat can I put it back to warm storage? I haven't sampled one because I am on antibiotics for strep throat.

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Yes. Take it all out and give it another week or two at 70-75*F followed by at least three days fridge time.

If I filled like 1 1/2" from the top will this take longer to carb. Wish I know how to post a pic to show u?

When using a bottle filler, fill it up as far as it will go without spilling over. The filler will displace a certain amount of fluid and when you remove it you will have an even amount in each bottle. I wouldn't worry about the amount of space you have being too much. The amount of priming sugar determines the amount of carbonation and the temperature you let the bottles condition at determines how fast they reach full carbonation.

How long did you chill/refrigerate the bottles? I have had occasions where I have thought the beer was flat but it had that nice "hiss" when you opened it so I knew it was carbonated but the problem was that I didn't chill the bottles long enough for the carbonation to sink back into the bottle.

My advice wait it out another week, chill for 3+ days then, then try the beer.

1 1/2 from the top with the filler removed ain't bad. It seems to me with more then that it does take a bit longer. With more then that the beer has head but not alot of co2 bubbles rising thru it. I think with more head space it just takes a little longer to settle out of the head space and into the beer

histo320 said:

How long did you chill/refrigerate the bottles? I have had occasions where I have thought the beer was flat but it had that nice "hiss" when you opened it so I knew it was carbonated but the problem was that I didn't chill the bottles long enough for the carbonation to sink back into the bottle.

My advice wait it out another week, chill for 3+ days then, then try the beer.

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Stupid question why chill for 3+ days

It takes time to get the CO2 from the headspace dissolved into the beer. Ever open a warm beer and have it fizz all over the place? Imagine that, only worse with homebrew.

Brew2 said:

Stupid question why chill for 3+ days

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Chill to stop the yeast from working