Bummed about a flat APA

Been brewing for over a year - all extract kits. I know the rule of thumb of 3 weeks @ 70. I've also had plenty of batches that were carbed at 2 or less. This NB Extra Pale Ale kit though has me baffled. I tried one on Friday and it was fine, carbonation wise. However, the two I've had since then were flat as a board. I always give my priming sugar (5 oz.) a gentle swirl in the bottling bucket when I'm done to try to evenly distribute the solution to the beer. Is this just an odd case of this individual batch - for some unknown reason - not being carbonated enough yet? I'm planning on just waiting another week and see if the next one is like the Friday brew, but it's just odd that one was fine, but the other two were not. Do bottles eventually lose the ability to cap properly or something? Just odd this batch - at least batch no. 20.

I'm not an expert, but I would leave it a little longer and maybe even try to warm it up? When you add the priming sugar, add it to the sanitized bucket and rack the beer on top of it. I'm not sure if they lose the ability to "cap properly", but I always replace them between 5-10 batches just to be safe.

I did a 10 gal split batch a few months ago. Same wort, but half fermed with 001 and half fermed with 090. The 001 carbed up in 2 weeks, the 090 took forever!! It eventually reached proper carb after 6 weeks. What I'm saying is that sometimes you just have a batch that takes a while for some reason. RDWHAHB.

The bottles should not be the source of the problem unless there is debris on the rim or nicks. Did you use caps from a different source? Look at the inside and make sure the plastic seals look good. Check the caps and see if they are tight. I have read threads where the capper stopped getting the caps tight.

This was done with a 1.5L starter of harvested US-05. I don't know if washed yeast sometimes takes longer, though I doubt it because my C. Slobber and chocolate stout were carbed in 3 weeks and they had the same bottling/priming technique and they were also made with harvested yeast + starter. The beer was racked on top of the priming sugar solution. It's been 3 weeks in the warmest place in my house - I'll just give it a few more weeks - annoying though...

If your fermentation went OK or normal and the beer was bottled in a reasonable amount of time, it seems like your yeasts would not be a problem.

Have you looked at the capper to see it it there is any wear or something loose? I started with one of the cheap two handed plastic models and some how the bell got loose which caused some types of bottles to not seal. I was able to identify those as they did not have a indent like the others.

I guess it's possible it might be the capper - 20 batches - maybe it's just lost something over time? I have noticed that there isn't that same sound when I open 'em as there used to be, but until this batch, the carbonation still was okay and the sound has been less prominent for several batches now. Maybe it's just time for a new capper...

I looked carefully at the caps from my extra pale ale (the flat batch) and caps from other batches that are carbonated fine and I can not see any difference. I tipped all the pale ales upside down yesterday for a second in hopes of getting the yeasties activated again. I'll try another one Sunday and see where they're at. I have plenty of other beer, so it's not a big deal. I just hope they carbonate eventually.

Assuming since an IPA a fairly high OG? Bigger beers will usually take more time. Try to forget about them for 3 weeks, as hard as that will be.

It was an APA - not an IPA - with an OG of around 1.045 - certainly not a big beer.