Help with carbonation

Guys, I brewed my second batch and didn't get carbonation. Can you tell me what may have happened and what do you think I can do to correct. Here are my notes:

11/11/2011 Brew Day. Irish Stout kit from Brewers Best. OG was 1.05

11/24. 1.018
12/5. 1.016. Transferred to secondary
12/30 1.016. Bottled

This all happened around 65-70 degrees, after bottling I left it in a cooler room. 55 degrees. Tested a beer on 1-13 no carbonation, so I moved it back to 68 degrees. Put four in the fridge on 2-1 and tested today. No carb again.

I used about 4 oz of corn sugar, racked directly on it.. The yeast was Nottingham.

Beer has good taste just no bubbles. The remaining yeast is very sludgy on the bottom. I shook a little, even moved upside down for a few day hoping to move the yeast.

Do you have any suggestions for me?

Put it in a warmer room (70-72 deg.) for 2-3 weeks. Stouts take longer to bottle condition and carb in my experience.

55 degrees is way to cold to carb. Notty will most likely drop out at that temp and certainly will not carb in a reasonable time (i.e. 2-3 weeks) I recommend moving to 70-72 degrees as bad67z said and also swirling the bottles to get the yeast back into solution. Give 'em 2 more weeks, then pop one. You should start to see some carbing by then. If not, then I have another theory. You said you racked the beer directly onto the dextrose. Did you just pour the dry sugar into the bottling bucket? If so it's possible that it caked to the bottom of the bottling bucket and most of the sugar was left in the bucket, rather than going in to the bottles. That's a long shot though. I would assume that a lot of the sugar would be disolved even with no stirring.

Bad67z & imrook,

Thanks guys. My house doesn't typically get above 68 in winter. Do you think lager yeasts would work better for my situation and next batch?

Notty will work fine at that temp. You let it go to sleep, so it will take a while. Just leave it longer.

I brewed the same kit on 11/26/11. I bottled on 1/7/12 - bottles sat at ~68 deg. On 1/24 I opened my first bottle after 48 hrs in the fridge and it was a gusher. On 1/31 I tried again and when I poured the glass was all foam and I had to let it settle. Finally this past Sunday I had a bottle that was in the fridge for 72 hours and it was just right. So this batch took about 1 month to carbonate properly for me. I think everyone had it right, put it at a higher temp for a couple weeks.

Nate7out said:

I brewed the same kit on 11/26/11. I bottled on 1/7/12 - bottles sat at ~68 deg. On 1/24 I opened my first bottle after 48 hrs in the fridge and it was a gusher. On 1/31 I tried again and when I poured the glass was all foam and I had to let it settle. Finally this past Sunday I had a bottle that was in the fridge for 72 hours and it was just right. So this batch took about 1 month to carbonate properly for me. I think everyone had it right, put it at a higher temp for a couple weeks.

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Just a thought, if you have inconsistent carbonation it could either mean poor mixing of the priming sugar or some of your bottles could have been not so "clean" when filled!

It can certainly take several weeks for some beers to carb but the average ABV beer should take about 2-3 weeks at about 70-72 degrees!

Just sayin'

KevinW said:

It can certainly take several weeks for some beers to carb but the average ABV beer should take about 2-3 weeks at about 70-72 degrees!

Just sayin'

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Agreed = but note that the OP moved it to a cooler room with ambient temps of 55 degrees - which surely put the yeast to sleep. Sleep = no carbing.

OP, move them to a warmer room and reset your carbing timer. You'll be just fine in 3 weeks or so.

KevinW said:

Just a thought, if you have inconsistent carbonation it could either mean poor mixing of the priming sugar or some of your bottles could have been not so "clean" when filled!

It can certainly take several weeks for some beers to carb but the average ABV beer should take about 2-3 weeks at about 70-72 degrees!

Just sayin'

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Yeah, I considered that possibility. The first bottle was only about 2/3rds full so I attributed some of the foaming to that. The priming sugar should have been mixed properly, I boiled it and poured it into the bottling bucket after it cooled. Then I siphoned the beer on top of the sugar.

Some of the bottles did have some crud in them - I do know that my wife was getting PO'ed because I kept rejecting the bottles she washed and had to wash them multiple times if I saw anything in there. We also did sanitize them all with Star-San.

I guess I wont know until I have more.

I have the same problem with my house not getting warm enough. Give the bottles a shake, put them in a rubbermaid, throw a string of xmas lights over them and monitor the temp to see how open you need to keep the lid. With the lid completely closed I was at about 82*......with it half off I was right about 75*.

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.

And just because a beer is carbed doesn't mean it still doesn't taste like a$$ and need more time for the off flavors to condition out. You have green beer.

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."

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've carbed hundreds of gallons of beer, and never had a beer that wasn't carbed, or under carbed or anything of the sort (Except for a batch where I accidently mixed up lactose or Maltodextrine for priming sugar). Some took awhile, (as I said up to six months) but they ALL eventually carbed.

Move them to a warmer place and wait.

Nice point White Eagle. Or maybe a closet with an incandescent light bulb

Thanks. Good tip

Revvy,

Thanks for your post too.

My take aways:

Be patient
Try to move to warmer location
And, no I didn't "kill" the yeast by cold crashing at 55 degrees

Thank you all

This is exactly the post I needed! Very informative. Thanks!