No carbonation

I bottled my first non-kit brew (Frank The Tank's Red Dragon Ale) on Saturday.

I opened a bottle Wednesday night to see if the carbonation had taken. I've done this before with other brews and they were already quite carbonated after 4 days in the bottle. My face fell as I poured the red ale into my glass and it was as flat as iced tea.

Should I be worried, or am I just being impatient?

2-3 weeks at 70*f to get a real good carbonation. My first batch took around 2 weeks to get a good carb.

Impatient noob you are...Read this...

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

Thanks, guys. I've brewed this particular one to give away as Xmas presents, so I'm particularly anxious for it to turn out well!

On the plus side, it's pretty tasty, even if it's flat at the moment!

KingPellinore said:

Thanks, guys. I've brewed this particular one to give away as Xmas presents, so I'm particularly anxious for it to turn out well!

On the plus side, it's pretty tasty, even if it's flat at the moment!

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Just give it as a gift and tell them to leave it room temp till the 31st and throw it in the fridge for New Years Ever party.

KingPellinore said:

I bottled my first non-kit brew (Frank The Tank's Red Dragon Ale) on Saturday.

I opened a bottle Wednesday night to see if the carbonation had taken. I've done this before with other brews and they were already quite carbonated after 4 days in the bottle. My face fell as I poured the red ale into my glass and it was as flat as iced tea.

Should I be worried, or am I just being impatient?

Click to expand...

It's a good exercise to pop one open every week or so to see how the carbonation develops and the flavors meld. Generally it'll take anything between 10 and 30 days for a beer to become fully carbonated. There are a lot of variables that affect this - how much yeast was still in suspension when you bottled and what temperature you are conditioning at, how much alcohol the beer contains, etc.

If the beer is still flat after 3+ weeks, then it's time to start taking steps to fix the problem. Flat beers are relatively easy (though tedious) to fix, undercarbonated ones are extremely difficult (unless you keg, of course).

I am struggling with this myself. My first brew - a hefe - has been in the bottle for over three weeks. It is still pretty flat, although each bottle I open is a little better than the last. It is a little colder than 70 where I need to keep it (SWMBO, you know). Also, I boiled the bottling sugar in a really large pan, and I think only about two thirds of it got in the bottling bucket. AND I didn't stir the beer to mix the sugar. What can I say - It's a first brew. At least I have room to improve.

I'm counting on patience to solve all the problems. At least it smells great and tastes pretty good (for flat beer).

jldc said:

I am struggling with this myself. My first brew - a hefe - has been in the bottle for over three weeks. It is still pretty flat, although each bottle I open is a little better than the last. It is a little colder than 70 where I need to keep it (SWMBO, you know). Also, I boiled the bottling sugar in a really large pan, and I think only about two thirds of it got in the bottling bucket. AND I didn't stir the beer to mix the sugar. What can I say - It's a first brew. At least I have room to improve.

I'm counting on patience to solve all the problems. At least it smells great and tastes pretty good (for flat beer).

Click to expand...

If the beer has decent body, you can try mixing it with a little bit of club soda to pep it up a little bit. Sounds like blasphemy, but sometimes it works.

ArcaneXor said:

If the beer has decent body, you can try mixing it with a little bit of club soda to pep it up a little bit. Sounds like blasphemy, but sometimes it works.

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If I'm no better off in a week or two, I'll try that.

I am struggling with this myself. My first brew - a hefe - has been in the bottle for over three weeks. It is still pretty flat, although each bottle I open is a little better than the last. It is a little colder than 70 where I need to keep it (SWMBO, you know). Also, I boiled the bottling sugar in a really large pan, and I think only about two thirds of it got in the bottling bucket. AND I didn't stir the beer to mix the sugar. What can I say - It's a first brew. At least I have room to improve.

I'm counting on patience to solve all the problems. At least it smells great and tastes pretty good (for flat beer).
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Sounds like a shortage of sugar combined with some channeling from not being mixed. Although sugar is very soluble in water/beer, a little stirring is required to get an even prime. Before I would mix soda water with my beer, ugh, I would make another batch, over carbonate it slightly and mix it with the slightly flat beer.