My neighbor and I just brewed our second batch. First batch was an Oktoberfest and we both thought it turned out really well, but was a tad flat. There was carbonation though. We just brewed an all extract wheat from a kit. It fermented for a week and a half, and then we bottled (using the dextrose sugar in the bottling bucket). Tried the first bottle after a week...no carbonation. Nearly 4 weeks now, and no carbonation. Bad batch? Would it be worth considering opening all of the bottles, putting in the tablets, and re-capping? Help is appreciated! My wife isn't excited about me brewing to begin with, now that I have to buy beer while I have 48 bottles in the basement is killing me (and adding to her annoyance). Thanks in advance!
Flat Beer tastes BAD
- Thread starter tbonert
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Did you stir the sugar in the bottling bucket to make a homogeneous mix for the whole 5 gallons? If not, you might have some bottles super carbonated and others not so much. You need to make sure there is no sugar concentration gradient in your bottling bucket.
What is the temperature in your basement?
yes. it will eventually carbonate at that temp if you have enough sugar but at 70 and a bit above it should carbonate faster. i've had 3 day old beer that was carbonated and had nice head, yes, i do try my beer early.
Ramitt
Well-Known Member
my basement is about the same temp, my beers take a full 4 weeks to condition.
No carbonation as in completely flat? Not even the slightest bit? I refuse to believe that a wheat beer is taking nearly 4 weeks to carbonate at 65 degrees. Something else is going on if there is absolutely no carbonation by now. So are they undercarbonated or completely not carbonated at all?
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.
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."
Lazy Llama came up with a handy dandy chart to determine how long something takes in brewing, whether it's fermentation, carbonation, bottle conditioning....
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.
Additionally since you're probably using the larger mr beer bottles, you can add another week or 2 to the timeframe. Larger bottles tend to take longer.
65 may not seem like a lot to you or me, but to the yeasties it's a big enough discrepency to retard the process.
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."
Lazy Llama came up with a handy dandy chart to determine how long something takes in brewing, whether it's fermentation, carbonation, bottle conditioning....
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.
Additionally since you're probably using the larger mr beer bottles, you can add another week or 2 to the timeframe. Larger bottles tend to take longer.
65 may not seem like a lot to you or me, but to the yeasties it's a big enough discrepency to retard the process.
Ramitt
Well-Known Member
I would think there would be atleast a minimum of carbination at 4 weeks though.
Pie_Man
Well-Known Member
How much priming sugar did you use and how did you sanitize your bottles? Wait a few more days and also refrigerate your beer for several days before opening.
You might think so....but that's often NOT the case.....
4 weeks primary, 2 weeks to bottle. Starts to come up at 2, not ready for at least 4 weeks bottled although you can drink it young, it's sweeter and flat. If you go a week and bottle be thankful its flat, better than bootle grenades.
I had a batch of spiced pumpkin imperial brown ale that I made for Halloween 2010. I didn't have a CARBONATED bottle until July 4th weekend 2011...and it tasted green. I tried a few Halloween 2011 and was really pleased. We drank most of them at Thanksgiving 2011.
Sometimes it takes time, but it's usually well-worth the wait.
Sometimes it takes time, but it's usually well-worth the wait.
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