Flat bottles

So for the longest time I had given up on bottles cause after my third brew ever, the bottles just stopped carbonating. I switched to corny kegs and force carbing for the last year. That works wonders, however, I did a pumpkin beer like most everyone else does this time of year and wanted to share, so no kegging. I thought that maybe, just maybe the bottles would carb. Well I know its only been a week since capped, but no carbonation yet and I am starting to worry that there will be no carb still by Thanksgiving.

OG was 1.070
FG was 1.018 after 2 weeks
Used priming sugar

What could be the problem? Any suggestions? I was thinking overworked yeast, but OG doesn't seem that high, but again FG stopped kinda high. Should I have added more yeast just before bottling? Help!! I want to share the tasty goodness that is bottled home brew.

Need more info. How many gallons of beer? Describe your priming and bottling process. What type and quantity of sugar did you use?

I've never had a bottle that didn't carbonate. The only reason I can think of that your beer wouldn't carbonate is if your yeast were completely dead, which is pretty unlikely, or you forgot to add the priming sugar.

Read John Palmer's How To Brew chapter 11 - Priming and Bottling

I have heard that if you get soap residues in your bottles then they may not carbonate well? Just an idea to research.

What info you fail to tell us, is how long were the bottles carbing for before you opened them and declared them dead, and at what temp they were stored at?

My suspicion would be that the priming solution wasn't completely mixed into the beer before it was bottled.

kmat123 said:

My suspicion would be that the priming solution wasn't completely mixed into the beer before it was bottled.

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I believe that if the solution is boiled and added to the bottom of buckets it mixes itself just fine. I've found most of the time that when new brewers have carbonation issues, it not that...it's simply not giving the beer enough time to carb up....that's the case about 99% of the time.

I see that it has only been a week since capping them...

i can see rev's skin turning green and his purple pans starting to rip. You wouldn't like Revvy when he's mad... btw, why are you wearing purple pants?

The time thing could be it, I admit that it has only been 8 days when I opened it. But I have had success with others in that time.
Batch size was 4gals.
Did the priming sugar in the bottom of the bucket and racked beer ontop.
Amount of priming sugar I think was 3/4 cup, my HB shop sells prepackaged for 5gal batches.
Storing temp is between 70 and 75. I don't have very many cool places, being it in AZ.
Let me know if you think of anything else it could be. I am going to wait a couple more weeks before losing all hope.

socommaker said:

The time thing could be it, I admit that it has only been 8 days when I opened it.

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Well you've answered your own question then...

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that 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."

Read the above blog, and come back to the beer in a couple more weeks.

The time thing could be it, I admit that it has only been 8 days when I opened it. But I have had success with others in that time.
Batch size was 4gals.
Did the priming sugar in the bottom of the bucket and racked beer ontop.
Amount of priming sugar I think was 3/4 cup, my HB shop sells prepackaged for 5gal batches.
Storing temp is between 70 and 75. I don't have very many cool places, being it in AZ.
Let me know if you think of anything else it could be. I am going to wait a couple more weeks before losing all hope.

billtzk said:

Need more info. How many gallons of beer? Describe your priming and bottling process. What type and quantity of sugar did you use?

I've never had a bottle that didn't carbonate. The only reason I can think of that your beer wouldn't carbonate is if your yeast were completely dead, which is pretty unlikely, or you forgot to add the priming sugar.

Read John Palmer's How To Brew chapter 11 - Priming and Bottling

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A buddy of mine sent me a 6 pack of some stuff he made... It had been in the bottles for months... I opened one and it was dead flat not even a psssst when I popped it open.. I kept them for probably 3-4 more months and still flat as a pancake. He is an experienced brewer but tried to get a beer up in the 20% range. It was REALLY bad too.

billtzk said:

I've never had a bottle that didn't carbonate. The only reason I can think of that your beer wouldn't carbonate is if your yeast were completely dead, which is pretty unlikely, or you forgot to add the priming sugar.

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Another thing, which I have done is accidentally used lactose instead of priming sugar. But I, like you, when I've actually added the right stuff have never had a beer not carb up eventually.

I'm sort of embarrassed that I didn't ask the most important and, in hind sight, obvious question, which you brought up right away Revvy. That is, HOW LONG the beer had been left to carb up before pronouncing it flat!

billtzk said:

I'm sort of embarrassed that I didn't ask the most important and, in hind sight, obvious question, which you brought up right away Revvy. That is, HOW LONG the beer had been left to carb up before pronouncing it flat!

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But that should ALWAYS be the first question one asks...Before we come up with some elaborately complicated reason/solution.

I have YET to find a thread like this where the op didn't open the beer too soon, and consequently when they waited it carbed fine. That's the reason I wrote a block called "Of Patience" to begin with. After the first 100 or so threads I got tired of typing the same thing over and over...Just about all my writing on here came from that situation, same question, same answer, same results....

It's called understanding human nature.

Yeah, I figured as much. Its just that my first beer was a New Castle clone and only sat for 1 week in the bottles and carbed up just fine. I guess as I get higher in OG I need to give it more time. The second and thirds in bottles were fine, but I was still drinking the clone so I didn't care.

I guess its the when you don't have anything to drink and all your friends are waiting and asking for it, that you kinda want to rush it.

It does taste mighty good already, but I think I need to just wait a few more weeks like you all said. Thanks for the feedback and not beating me up to much. I have brewing for 3 years now and I guess I am still a newbee in certain things. Thank you again.