Carb problems...need advice

[1sttimebrewer]

Hey all, so I bottled my red ale on 10/11/11(my 1st homebrew) and tried it two weeks later. everything tasted great with good carbonation. So...I put the rest in the frig for use on thanksgiving. have had a few since and all taste fine until today when i poured one the carbonation definetly was a lot lower and the beer did not have much of a head. i'm sure I screwed up somewhere or maybe diden't let them carb up enough at room temp. Should I take em out and let em sit at room temp to carb? Ideas, criticizms are appreciated! Thx

 

[BierMuncher]

21 days at 70 degrees is kinda the ideal target, depending upon the beer style.

Two weeks was probably too soon to put those yeasties into hybernation.

Problem now is that just a couple of days at room temp won't be enough time for the yeast to revive. Warming them up 7-10 days ago might have helped.

Maybe just the one bottle was the problem. I'd say remove half to a warm spot in the house and then rechill Thrusday morning. Leave the other half in the fridge and then sample each to see if it did any good.

 

[Clann]

A couple of inconsistant bottles in a bottled batch is nothing to worry about. You may not have distributed the priming sugar evenly when you bottled. Two weeks is plenty of time to carbonate.
Is that the only one?

 

[1sttimebrewer]

Cool thx for the advice

 

[1sttimebrewer]

Yea so far...I will try another tonight to see if it is consistent or not

 

[Ramitt]

Two weeks is plenty of time to carbonate.
Is that the only one?

That is clearly not universally true, my first beer tok 4 to fully carb, at two weeks no head and barely a bubble.

 

[Clann]

That is clearly not universally true, my first beer tok 4 to fully carb, at two weeks no head and barely a bubble.

If you store them at 70* for two weeks a regular gravity beer should be "Carbonated" but will not be ready to drink. They will still need another week or so to come together. Even my 1.090 Barleywine was carbed in two weeks. So while not universally true, most beers will have carbonation in two weeks or less.
I have had lots of batches that were carbonated in 4 days. While not ready to drink, there was plenty of carbonation.

If you had no head or bubbles rising in thre beer your glass may have been not clean or had some kind of residue on it.

 

[BrewerDon]

A agree with the others in that you shouldn't even think about worrying about your carbonation until at least 3 weeks at 70 degrees have passed.

Can you give more details regarding how you mixed the the priming solution with the the beer?

 

[wiescins]

A couple of inconsistant bottles in a bottled batch is nothing to worry about. You may not have distributed the priming sugar evenly when you bottled. Two weeks is plenty of time to carbonate.
Is that the only one?

I've had some carb in 2wks, others take 4+. The fact that some are carbed suggests inconsistent priming sugar. Let's hope the 1 was low and not that the others were high, because as stated earlier you don't have time to reactivate the yeast. Next time keep the batch @ 70 and move 1 bottle at a time to sample and only move the whole batch when they need to be chilled.

 

[1sttimebrewer]

Sure, I mixed 3/4 cup corn sugar with hot water and poured it into my fill bucket...then siphoned beer into the bucket while slowly swirling the bucket until all 5 gallons were in