Carbonation Time Question

I brewed a RYE IPA that I bottled almost 2 weeks ago now, and started to crack them open this past week to taste it. Just opened one, but there is still no sign whatsoever of carbonation in them. No head at all on the beer, and very very few bubbles at all. When bottling I had just under 5 gallons, and used the standard 5 oz priming sugar, that I dissolved in 2 cups hot water, then added to bottling bucket before siphoning in the beer from secondary. The bottles have been in my chest freezer since, which I have kept off. I have a temperature controller so I checked the temperature a few times, and it is right around 66 degrees in there.

Is there something that could possible be wrong? I had another beer in there that I bottled a few weeks before this one and that is fully carbonated now (even possible over carbonated). I am just wondering if Ryes may take longer for some reason. There are very few signs of bubbles at all when I pour it into a glass, and absolutely no head on it. I am starting to worry that I didnt use enough sugar or something. I also have a keg, but chose to bottle this one so I could bring it out with me. If it winds up never carbonating, is there any harm in opening all the bottles and dumping them into the keg and then force carbing?

Some help would be appreciated. I have seen others saying just give it time, but I would have thought that after 12 days I would have seen some activity in there. I even tried taking all of the bottles out yesterday and turning them upside down then back rightside up to move around the contents and try to kick start something. But nothing.

I wouldn't expect a NORMAL grav beer to be carbed at only 2 weeks in the bottle, a high gravity beers.

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.

I had a batch that wasn't completely under my control in terms of the process after pitching the yeast. Long story that would waste time relating the details. This batch was completely (and I do mean completely) flat after 4 weeks in the bottle. The beer was in the primary and then secondary for 4 weeks total (this was the part I didn't have control over--I don't use a secondary). I did not forget priming sugar when bottling, and they were stored at 70F for those 4 weeks after bottling.

I ended up uncapping, re-hydrating dried yeast, and adding about 4.5 ml per bottle then re-capping. They carbed up just fine after that and taste good. This can be done as a last resort, but yes I would give it more time.

I've never had this happen with any other beer I've brewed. The individual who handled the primary and then transferred to the secondary said that they must have not gotten enough yeast when they transferred to the secondary, which I find hard to believe, but I really can't think of another explanation as to why this beer didn't carbonate initially. It was a Kolsch style beer fermented with White Labs Kolsch yeast.

By the way, at some point I also agitated the bottles to try to get some activity, which did nothing.

I hope this helps with your situation.