4 weeks in bottles...still flat

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431brew

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Once I post what I think is a problem here, it usually resolves itself a few days later (as you guys always say it will). I hope this is the case here.

I posted here http://https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/first-5-gal-brew-74240/index2.html#post882083 last weekend that it was taking awhile for my beer to carb, but finally last weekend I tried one and it was perfect.

Thinking things were great now, the first two I opened last night were flat. These are the first I have tried since the good one last weekend. I stopped after pouring these two down the sink. They were flat and were not even golden colored like the one last weekend. They have been in the bottles for 4 weeks now after spending a week in the primary and a few days over two weeks in the secondary. I gave most of the others in the two cases a shake and they look like they are still flat, too.

This is my 5th batch of beer in my short career, and I have never had a carbonation problem - even when I added sugar to each bottle as I did with my first batch. I used glass bottles for the first time, so was expecting this to be my best yet. (Last weekend's sample was, but I'm a little worried now.)

Thanks.
Chris


Why would one bottle have awesome carbonation and be sparkling gold color, and the others look like they just came out of the secondary? I added the pre-measured carbing sugar to a little water, added that to my bucket, and syphoned on top of it?

Should I continue to wait? I now have kegs and gas, so could I pour all of them into the kegs and force carb at this point?
 
did you mix enough when you added the priming sugar? Once i didint stir and i didint have carbonation is half my bottles. How much sugar did you add? 3/4 cup is the usual for 5 gals of beer.
 
did you mix enough when you added the priming sugar? Once i didint stir and i didint have carbonation is half my bottles. How much sugar did you add? 3/4 cup is the usual for 5 gals of beer.

3/4 cup. It was pre-measured in the kit, so I don't think I screwed up there. Maybe I didn't circulate enough as you said.
 
What temps are they at? They should condition at or just below fermentation temps for at least 2 weeks. I wouldn't do anything but wait.
 
if they didint carbonate you can get something like this:Coopers Carbonation Drops - 60ct Bag

Uncap and then add and recap your brew...i wouldn't recommend it unless your absolutely sure they didnt carb because its a pain and risks infecting.

Thanks, scinerd3000. The ad says that it only takes 3 days for them to carbonate. I assume that this would be a last resort remedy because if they were used, and the yeast and priming sugar that are already there happened to kick in at the same time, I could create bottle bombs. Is this correct? I guess a safe approach would be to open a bottle to drink. If it were flat, bottle it again, add the drops, and drink asap, which is why it is a pain and risks infection?

The over-carbing part is why I thought it might be safer to pour the bottles into a keg and force carb. It seems that the most popular advice right now is to give it more time, which has proven to be good advice with homebrewing.


Give them each a gentle shake to rouse the yeast. Wait another couple weeks and see what ya get.

bearkluttz, I did that a couple of weeks ago and thought it had cured the problem after getting to drink a good beer last weekend. I will give it another try and give it more time.


Thanks to everyone who has offered advice. Any comments on the force carbing approach if I'm still flat after a couple more weeks?
 
if you decided to pour into a keg i would purge all the o2 and then shake the keg to get all the o2 back out of the liquid also ( the result of pouring it in). Ide still leave them for another few weeks. Some brews take much longer than others and they could just be slow to carb. If there not carbing at this point though i dont think adding the sugar drops will make bottle bombs but thats just me.
 
did you secondary this brew ,somtimes you can leave it in the secondary to long and all the yeast will settle out of the beer ,making it take a longer time to carb up ,just a thought ,have had this problem myself,your beer bud bull
.
 
Two weeks later, still not carbed....not even close on the one I tried. The ad for the carbonation drops says the beer will be ready in three days. To reduce the chance of bottle bombs, I am thinking about only adding the drops on a Tuesday or Wednesday to as many beers as I will drink on the weekend. This way, all others still have a chance to carb naturally.

Any suggestions or comments on this? Thanks.
 
Some reading for you.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/558191-post101.html

And this guy's thread follow up sums up what you need to do...(which is wait)

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/amber-ale-wont-carb-81555/

All you need to do is to roll your bottles on a table to re-rouse some of the yeasts and make sure they are above 70 degrees, and come back in a couple weeks...

they will carb up fine

I will roll and wait! Revvy, I somehow missed this post my last two trips to this thread. I read the links, and makes sense to me. So, I am going to wait a few more weeks and see what happens. If no luck then, I will volunteer my beer for the experiment you mentioned in the referenced link.

Thanks for the info...sorry I missed it earlier. I missed it a couple of weeks ago and then again today. I have to read fast from work and sometimes I miss good advise.
 
Thanks for this thread, and the others, gents - I have exactly the same problem and will try the same solution.

I, too, was getting ready to dump some bottles... Hopefully that won't be necessary!

Jay
 
Would too low of a temperature cause the bottles to take longer to carb? Or, in other words, is there a direct ratio between temp and carbonation time? For example, if everything else is equal (same batch, sanatation, all caps sealed, stirred well, etc.) would some bottles carb faster if they were carbing at a higher temp - say +5*F?

-Tripod
 
Are you sure the seal was good from cap to bottle? I've had no carb from some brews and perfect from others, and I assume it was the lack of seal when bottling.
 
Are you sure the seal was good from cap to bottle? I've had no carb from some brews and perfect from others, and I assume it was the lack of seal when bottling.


I guess that's always a possibility and I do not know how you would prove it. I had one good beer 3-4 weeks ago and the rest have been flat. I do not think that it is likely all of my bottles lack a seal. I do think that there is a possibility that my priming sugar/water didn't mix well with the beer in bucket. I accidently siphoned the beer and the added the sugar instead vice versa.


For all...... I am giving up and getting some carbonation drops. I read the ad and it says that they carb in three days. Here's my question:

Suppose I add the drops to a bottle that IS carbed. I think I will know as soon as I open it, but suppose I don't. If I add the drops to a carbed beer, is it likely that I would have a bottle bomb before I drank it 3-4 days later? I am only going to add the drops to a 6'er at a time for these reasons.

NOTE:
I have two kegs, co2 tank, and a regulator in my closet. In fact, I had them before I bottled this beer, but did want to waste good beer while trying to figure out how to use the keg stuff without a second frig. So, I went the safe route and bottled with priming sugar. In the future, the kegs and gas will be used!
 
If you carefully stretch a balloon over the bottle tops it will show you if you have a leak or not. If you get the balloon inflation, you have a leak.

Carb tabs are just compressed dextrose and don't work any faster than bulk dextrose so don't expect miracles.

There is no way of really knowing which bottles are carbed so you are taking a chance adding more sugar.
 
Thanks for this thread, and the others, gents - I have exactly the same problem and will try the same solution.

Woo hoo! It worked! The difference between 68 degrees and 72-73 degrees made a significant difference, as I suspect did rolling the bottles on the table.

Thanks again for the great tips!
Jay
 
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