No carbonation.

I just popped open a few bottles of beer I brewed and the carbonation is not there in 3 out of the 4 first bottles. The fermentation went really strong in the primary the loud bubbling kept my wife and I up at night! Secondary was quiet and uneventful... So...

I believe the problem is a faulty capper. I used an antique capper and I had to really pull hard and twist to get the bench capper to let go of the freshly capped bottle. I believe this may have broken the seal on most of the bottles.

I'm relatively new at this... Do you guys think my beer can be saved? Should i add more priming sugar and recap with a new capper? Should I add more yeast and recap? Or did my beer carbonate, then go flat, making the beer ruined?

Please help.

Thanks!

lexingtondover said:

I just popped open a few bottles of beer I brewed and the carbonation is not there in 3 out of the 4 first bottles. The fermentation went really strong in the primary the loud bubbling kept my wife and I up at night! Secondary was quiet and uneventful... So...

I believe the problem is a faulty capper. I used an antique capper and I had to really pull hard and twist to get the bench capper to let go of the freshly capped bottle. I believe this may have broken the seal on most of the bottles.

I'm relatively new at this... Do you guys think my beer can be saved? Should i add more priming sugar and recap with a new capper? Should I add more yeast and recap? Or did my beer carbonate, then go flat, making the beer ruined?

Please help.

Thanks!

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is there yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottles?

How long have they been in bottles and at what temperature have they been sitting?

Answer the above questions. Then try giving the caps a twist with your hand. It's usually impossible, or at least pretty hard to spin the caps.

There is a good amount of sediment. The beer has been in bottles for 2.5 weeks at 69 degrees in closed box.

Caps won't twist by hand, they appear to be on there tight.

lexingtondover said:

Caps won't twist by hand, they appear to be on there tight.

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if the caps are on tight and they arent leaking and you have no yeast sediment on the bottom then something happened to your yeast to prevent them from fermenting the bottling sugar....this is why i asked if there is yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottles. if there is then it fermented and leaked out...if there isnt it never fermented the sugar in the first place. also temperature matters cuz you could potentially kill the yeast....and typically natural carbonation from bottle fermenting should take about 2 weeks or so....if you bottled them then threw them in the fridge at 40 degrees and its an ale then that is why you never got any carbonation if its a lager than you would be fine but since this is new to you im assuming you havent tackled lagers yet

There is yeast sediment and I kept them at a solid 69 degrees. The caps are on tight enough that i can't twist by hand. Should I just wait a few more weeks and be patient or add something and recap? That's really what it comes down to.

It is an ale, a brown ale.

lexingtondover said:

There is yeast sediment and I kept them at a solid 69 degrees. The caps are on tight enough that i can't twist by hand. Should I just wait a few more weeks and be patient or add something and recap? That's really what it comes down to.

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how long have they been bottled? if the bottles were stored at 69 and you have yeast sediment then id say they ate your priming sugar right up and just something is wrong with the caps...but if they have only been in there for 4 or 5 days then yea you are probably opening them too quickly and id give it another week. and if they have been in there a couple weeks your yeast should be fine....in which case i would check all the bottles by popping the caps and if none have carb it has to be your capper...pour your beer back into your bottling bucket and reapply priming sugar....cap with a non antique this time =p thats my 2 cents

Take them up a few degrees if you can and give them another week or two. You're on the cool end of things and not very far long. 70+ for three weeks minimum before you worry about your carb levels.

+1 on the above post. I would not dump yet.. At least give them another week or two. I have a friend who insisted three weeks ago that his homebrew wasnt carbing and he was going to open them all and add coopers drops. I urged him to wait at least two more weeks and presto, they carbed up nicely.

Thanks guys. I'll try this, I have nothing to lose at this point.

Roll the bottles on their sides to re-suspend the yeast. 99% of the time, given enough time, they will carb up.

Good news. This worked. I rolled the bottles, put them in a box with a heating blanket on low for a week or so and boom, carbonation. Alot of carbonation. Thanks everyone!

Thanks for the inspiration. My first batch of extra pale ale never carbonated properly. I just rolled them to re-suspend the yeast and they're sitting a safe distance from my fireplace warming up. I hope it works!