2nd Batch, no Carbonation??

So, my first batch was a complete success. Great taste, great carbonation. But I thought I had rushed it a bit, so for my 2nd batch, I though I would do it by the book. 1 week primary, 2 weeks secondary, 3 weeks bottle conditioning (actually gave one bottle another week in the fridge). Popped it open, poured, and came out flat as a pancake.

Now, the one thing I noticed was that right off the bat, the yeast layer at the bottom of the bottle was extremely thin, as opposed to my last batch. This batch was sitting in my spare bathroom, in boxes at a pretty constant 70 degrees.

To me, it seems that I just didnt have enough yeast floating around in the secondary when I bottled. Was I suppost to stir the secondary before I bottled? Any ideas?

No--the whole point of the secondary (to let trub and yeast and stuff settle out) would be nullified by stirring it.

You did remember to add the priming sugar before bottling, right?

Sometimes you have to adjust the amount of priming sugar to the style of the beer. What did you make and how much did you use?

[LEFT said:

cweston[/LEFT]]No--the whole point of the secondary (to let

trub​

and yeast and stuff settle out) would be nullified by stirring it.

You did remember to add the priming sugar before bottling, right?

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Yes, I forgot to mention that. 4oz of liquefied priming sugar was added. I guess that's what really miffs me about it.

Cheesefood said:

Sometimes you have to adjust the amount of priming sugar to the style of the beer. What did you make and how much did you use?

Click to expand...

It was an American Brown Ale (kit from Morebeer.com)

How much priming sugar did I use? It was 4 oz. which came in a package that came with the kit. I put it in a pot with I think was a cup of water, let it boil, cooled and pitched it in the bottling bucket

Now, thinking about it, I did the same thing that I did with my first batch and that was I poured the sugar AFTER the beer was already in the bottling bucket. I read that I should do the opposite, but it didnt hurt my first batch

Well, at least I'll be able to save it. I'm getting the parts for a kegarator conversion this weekend.

joerockt said:

Now, thinking about it, I did the same thing that I did with my first batch and that was I poured the sugar AFTER the beer was already in the bottling bucket. I read that I should do the opposite, but it didnt hurt my first batch

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What may have happened is that your priming sugar didn't mix into your beer very well. Unfortunately, that means that for every flat bottle you have, you have another bottle somewhere with twice as much sugar in it as it was supposed to have.

I would open several bottle, from different parts of the batch (if you put them in a case as you bottled them, you should be able to guess what order they were filled in, maybe).

If some are carbonated and some not, then that is your problem.

With only 4 oz of priming sugar total, hopefully none of them got enough to become bottle bombs.

cweston said:

What may have happened is that your priming sugar didn't mix into your beer very well. Unfortunately, that means that for every flat bottle you have, you have another bottle somewhere with twice as much sugar in it as it was supposed to have.

I would open several bottle, from different parts of the batch (if you put them in a case as you bottled them, you should be able to guess what order they were filled in, maybe).

If some are carbonated and some not, then that is your problem.

With only 4 oz of priming sugar total, hopefully none of them got enough to become bottle bombs.

Click to expand...

Ah, ok I was afraid of that. I dont know how each bottle in my first batch was fully carbonated then. Beginners luck I guess. Would it have anything to do with the amount of yeast in the bottles? Like I said, my first batch had a good solid layer at the bottom of each bottle. A very thin layer in this batch.

Well, I finally put the growler I had filled up with this batch in the fridge. Poped it open, poured and got about a 2 inch head out of it. So like you said cweston, looks like some will and some wont.

Still waiting on my kegrator parts. Thats what I get for asking a friend of a friend.