First 5 gallon brew, little carbonation, no head, what happened? Is all hope lost? :(

[Muskogeee]

I bottled my first 5 gallon brew last Monday. Yesterday morning I put one bottle in the fridge to test and when I got home from work I poured it and there was very little carbonation and absolutely no head. I'm very disappointed because I love the flavor. Here is my recipe and process:

4.5 lbs. Amber Malt Extract
8 oz. Chocolate Malt
4 oz. Caramel 90L
4 oz. Special Roast
4 oz. Carafa I
3/4 oz. Kent Goldings Hops
Wyeast Whitbread Ale Yeast
6 oz priming sugar, 1 oz more than called for.
Everything sanitized with star-san
OG was 1.050
FG was 1.011

Fermentation took place between 66-71 degrees for two weeks, peaking very briefly at 75 degrees when it was most active.

At bottling time I racked it all into my bottling bucket with 6 oz priming sugar dissolved into 16 oz of boiling water then cooled, everything seemed to go smoothly.

The bottles have been sitting for over a week at 71-75 degrees.

Will letting them sit longer help? What if I put them somewhere even warmer? Is there anything that can be done?

I'm curious as to how we're supposed to know that there is enough yeast left in suspension to carbonate properly?

Thanks :-/

 

[beergolf]

Give it more time. It is usually reccomended to give it three weeks to fully carb up. Then after 3 weeks put a bottle in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours and report back then.

 

[jjw5015]

Co2 built up in the headspace needs to drop back into solution once i gets cold. This will take at least a week

 

[doug293cz]

Give it more time. It is usually reccomended to give it three weeks to fully carb up. Then after 3 weeks put a bottle in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours and report back then.

+1 ^^^^^ what he said.

Brew on

 

[ericbw]

Was there a hiss of gas when you opened it?

 

[aprichman]

If you used 6oz of priming sugar and have SOME carbonation built up you should be fine. One week isn't enough time, give them another week or two and try to keep the bottles in the fridge for 3 days. I recommend 4 weeks at room temp and 1 week in the fridge for best results.

 

[ericbw]

Oh, and a day in the fridge is too short. At LEAST 1 whole day. A week is better. 2-3 weeks at 70; 3-7 days in the fridge.

 

[Muskogeee]

Was there a hiss of gas when you opened it?

Yeah there was a hiss and some carbonation.

I'll give it a good amount more time as you guys have suggested and report back later.

 

[doug293cz]

Co2 built up in the headspace needs to drop back into solution once i gets cold. This will take at least a week

With a properly filled bottle, the headspace is quite small, and most of the CO2 generated from the priming sugar is already in the beer (where it was originally created.) Two days is adequate to get most of the excess CO2 in the headspace dissolved back into the beer.

Kegging using the "set and forget" forced carbonation method is different. In this case, the beer starts out with very little CO2 already in solution (~ 0.8 volumes typically.) So, most of the CO2 required for carbonation must diffuse from the headspace into the beer, and this can take a few weeks to reach equilibrium.

Brew on