Carbonation Issues

Ok so I'm as new to home brewing as you can get. I purchased equipment off craigslist before I even knew how to brew at home and tried to learn as I attempted my first batch. I just want to say up front that this is also my first time participating in an online forum so if my etiquette is a little off, please be kind.

Now to my problem. I managed to brew an American Pale Ale from an extract/specialty grain kit that I ordered through the mail. With the help of John Palmer's guide I steeped my specialty grains, boiled my wort with added hops, allowed for 2 whole weeks of primary fermentation before I siphoned from my carboy into a food grade plastic bucket and added a pre-boiled 3/4 cup priming sugar. I then siphoned from the bucket to my 22oz bottles, capped, and allowed to set for 2 more whole weeks. To this day (2 weeks and 4 days from bottling day) I've drank 14 of the 25 bottles I got out of my batch. Only one of them was fully carbonated while most of them were completely flat and a few of them have been half carbonated.

Now I read in a thread here just a second ago and it was mentioned that it generally takes 2-3 weeks for full carbonation.... but I wonder if I've done something wrong in the priming/bottling phase. Any help would be greatly appreciated so my next batch will be fully carbonated. Thanks.

generaly you want to leave your beer in primary for a week or so longer but that doesn't have anything to do with your carb issue. beer usually take at least 2-3 weeks in the bottle to carb up. I go 3 weeks in primary and 3 weeks in bottle. your beer is still very young. did you stir the sugar solution into the beer?

I don't know what you did priming wise, but if you followed directions then the reason, the only reason is your started drinling them way too soon....

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. Lower temperatures 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."

Read the above blog, and come back to the beer in a couple more weeks.

If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them ore 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.

What revvy said + you used a volume measure for the sugar. Measure by weight for dry ingredients, it allows much more consistent carbing. I didn't realized i was undercarbing until i used a priming calculator and saw that 4.1oz
(the default amount i use for all my beers) of dex was almost a whole cup instead of 3/4 of a cup like what is suggested and what i had been using up to that point.

Thanks for the advice. I'll leave the remainder of my first batch to sit in the bottles for awhile longer. Maybe try one in a week and go from there. I had no idea that it could take that long to carbonate.

Although the question of why some of the bottles were more carbonated than others still lingers.... any experience with that?

WilliamConly said:

Thanks for the advice. I'll leave the remainder of my first batch to sit in the bottles for awhile longer. Maybe try one in a week and go from there. I had no idea that it could take that long to carbonate.

Although the question of why some of the bottles were more carbonated than others still lingers.... any experience with that?

Click to expand...

Uneven carbonation is simply a matter of not enough time.

A tiny difference in temps between bottles in storage can affect the yeasties, speed them up or slow them down. Like if you store them in a closet against a warm wall, the beers closest to the heat source may be a tad warmer than those further way, so thy may carb/condition at slightly different rates. I usually store a batch in 2 seperate locations in my loft 1 case in my bedroom which is a little warmer, and the other in the closet in the lving room, which being in a larger space is a tad cooler, at least according to the thermostat next to that closet. It can be 5-10 degrees warmer in my bedroom. So I usually start with that case at three weeks. Giving the other half a little more time.

Each little bottle is a seperate microcosm, so they will react slightly different to each other. But usually they all will balance out given enough time.

But really with time all the bottles in a batch will carb up...