My First Homebrew Beer Adventure Part 4: Tasting - Houston We Have A Problem!

[Shadow56]

My First Homebrew Beer Adventure Part 4: Tasting - Houston We Have A Problem!

We tasted our beer yesterday.
The good news: it tastes great.
The bad news: It's flat as a pancake!

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCAgia2ubB8[/ame]


Terry

 

[LLBeanJ]

Enjoyed the vid.

You mentioned that the bottles were conditioning in the fridge for 2 weeks. Was that the entire time the brew has been bottled? Did you let the bottles condition at room temp for 2-3 weeks beforehand? If not, that's likely your problem, as the yeast will drop out and go to sleep once the beer is cooled down to fridge temps. Assuming they have been in the fridge the whole time, try taking them out and let them condition at room temp for 2-3 weeks. If they have already spent a few weeks at room temp, then maybe the caps weren't sealed all the way. Other than that, I don't have much else to offer.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Yep, if you conditioned in the fridge they're not going to carbonate. Your yeast all went to sleep.

 

[Shadow56]

I bottle conditioned at room temp for 2 weeks and then 2 weeks in the fridge. Caps were properly sealed. Everything was properly sanitized. No sour or off flavors in the beer. Flavor is actually very good. Yeast activity in the fermentor was very aggressive so yeast was alive. Here's a really weird thing; I took a bottle to my brew shop guy to taste and check. He put a bit of dextrose in the bottle and it instantly erupted like a science fair volcano. A foam fountain before he could even get his hand out of the way. Made a mess on his desk. He said he's never seen that before and has no idea what's going on.
He went through the list of reasons for failed carbonation and none apply. He's stumped.
Forced carbonation is going to be my plan B. First I'm going to try an experiment. I'm going to open 2 bottles, add just a tiny pinch of yeast, re-cap and place them in an empty ice chest for a week at room temp. If they carbonate I'll do the rest that way. I'll update you when I know something. Anyone have any idea what's going on with my brew?

Terry

 

[LLBeanJ]

Sounds like a plan. They definitely should be salvageable. You need either: more time, more yeast, more sugar, or some combination of those.

 

[MrTCS]

My first batch didn't really have much carb until after the third week of bottle conditioning. I'm 5-6 weeks out now and it's really starting to hit its stride. I say give the ones not in the fridge, if there are any, another week and try again.

 

[RM-MN]

I bottle conditioned at room temp for 2 weeks and then 2 weeks in the fridge. Caps were properly sealed. Everything was properly sanitized. No sour or off flavors in the beer. Flavor is actually very good. Yeast activity in the fermentor was very aggressive so yeast was alive. Here's a really weird thing; I took a bottle to my brew shop guy to taste and check. He put a bit of dextrose in the bottle and it instantly erupted like a science fair volcano. A foam fountain before he could even get his hand out of the way. Made a mess on his desk. He said he's never seen that before and has no idea what's going on.
He went through the list of reasons for failed carbonation and none apply. He's stumped.
Forced carbonation is going to be my plan B. First I'm going to try an experiment. I'm going to open 2 bottles, add just a tiny pinch of yeast, re-cap and place them in an empty ice chest for a week at room temp. If they carbonate I'll do the rest that way. I'll update you when I know something. Anyone have any idea what's going on with my brew?

Terry

For this to happen you have to have carbonation. The destrose or table sugar or salt or.....make a site for the CO2 to come out of suspension on, forming bubbles that get big (relatively) and then take up space forcing the beer out the top of the bottle. Thus you don't have beer that is lacking carbonation. You more likely have beer without heading. Check your glassware for soap residue, wash the beer glass and rinse 3 times, then try another pour. If you still don't get heading, think of how you treated your bottles. Did they get well rinsed after washing? Any soap residue in them will kill the head on the whole batch.

 

[Shadow56]

The bottles were brand new so I never applied any soap to them. I sanitized them with Starsan and placed them on the drying tree for half an hour or so before bottling. My first bottle was poured into 2 clean, clear glasses. No residue. Second bottle (the one that erupted) was poured into paper cups at the brewhouse. Third bottle was poured into 2 more clean glasses. There was not a hint of carbonation in any of them that either me, my friend or my brew guy could detect.

Terry

 

[andrewmaixner]

For this to happen you have to have carbonation. The destrose or table sugar or salt or.....make a nucleation site for the CO2 to come out of suspension on, forming bubbles that get big (relatively) and then take up space forcing the beer out the top of the bottle. Thus you don't have beer that is lacking carbonation. You more likely have beer without heading. Check your glassware for soap residue, wash the beer glass and rinse 3 times, then try another pour. If you still don't get heading, think of how you treated your bottles. Did they get well rinsed after washing? Any soap residue in them will kill the head on the whole batch.

There ya go, added the word and a sciency link to it. And you are of course 100% spot on, that there had to have been some dissolved gas in the liquid.

I don't recall though, if the average 0.7 volumes when it comes out of the fermenter would give that violent of a reaction, or if it would have had to further carbonate in the bottle. I know that a beer bottle is the exact shape you want for making a volcano, though

 

[LLBeanJ]

The more I think about this, the more I'm leaning toward the bottles just needing more time. There should be plenty of viable yeast to do the job and one carb tab per bottle should be more than adequate for moderate carbonation. I'd take all the bottles out of the fridge and let them sit at room temp for another 3-4 weeks then chill one and try it.

 

[sboyajian]

1. Take your bottles out of the fridge. Keep them in a room that stays around 70-74.
2. Flip the bottles over (if you have bottle cases this is much easier) and let them sit on the tops for about 3-4 days.
3. Flip them back onto their bottoms and let them sit another 3-4 days.

I don't have much experience with the tabs, but from my understanding, 1 tab for 12 oz should be enough. Assuming your yeast is still viable, it seems like it's just taking a bit extra time. It happens sometimes. Some beers like pumpkin ales take a long time to carb up. The bourbon vanilla could have slowed down the process, or possibly even hurt the health of the yeast (if there is real bourbon in it).

Using the steps above, should help re-suspend any healthy yeast you have and eat some additional sugars.

Best of luck.

 

[TheHappyHopper]

1. Take your bottles out of the fridge. Keep them in a room that stays around 70-74.
2. Flip the bottles over (if you have bottle cases this is much easier) and let them sit on the tops for about 3-4 days.
3. Flip them back onto their bottoms and let them sit another 3-4 days.

I was going to suggest flipping the bottles but you beat me to it. I did this on an Irish Red that I brewed and it worked surprisingly well. They didn't carbonate after 2 weeks, so I gently shook the bottles to get the yeast back in suspension and moved on top of our fridge. After another week or so, they still were not showing much in the way of carbonation. I remembered reading about flipping them upside down for a few days so I tried that - the rest of my batch is perfectly carbonated now.

The only downside is that when I open a bottle, it has a bunch of yeast residue at the cap, where it would normally all be stuck to the bottom of the bottle...but I will take that over having a flat beer any day.

 

[sboyajian]

The only downside is that when I open a bottle, it has a bunch of yeast residue at the cap, where it would normally all be stuck to the bottom of the bottle...but I will take that over having a flat beer any day.

I figured this trick out when I had a cream ale that didn't carb. I realized in my haste I forget to boil/dissolve my corn sugar and most was still sitting at the bottom of the bucket. 5-6 weeks later and no carbonation. Did the flip and by week 8 I was fully carbed, but yes, I definitely had yeast on the cap.

 

[PrinceOfThePoint]

You shouldn't have put the bottles in the fridge so soon without opening one first. The tabs are also much slower to act. Take them out for 2-4 weeks, testing one each week.

 

[spacey32]

I was going to suggest flipping the bottles but you beat me to it. I did this on an Irish Red that I brewed and it worked surprisingly well. They didn't carbonate after 2 weeks, so I gently shook the bottles to get the yeast back in suspension and moved on top of our fridge. After another week or so, they still were not showing much in the way of carbonation. I remembered reading about flipping them upside down for a few days so I tried that - the rest of my batch is perfectly carbonated now.

The only downside is that when I open a bottle, it has a bunch of yeast residue at the cap, where it would normally all be stuck to the bottom of the bottle...but I will take that over having a flat beer any day.

I'm still new to brewing and I recently had a carb question on here. Could someone please elaborate on flipping the bottles? I've never heard of this.

 

[sboyajian]

I'm still new to brewing and I recently had a carb question on here. Could someone please elaborate on flipping the bottles? I've never heard of this.

Basically just flip them over and let them sit on their tops for a few days (the bottle caps). Then after 3-4 days, flip them back and let them sit back on their bottoms (base). The idea is to resuspend the yeast and get it active again. It will find some new sugars and pick up the carbonation process a bit by causing it to fall through the beer in the bottle passing by any remaining viable bottling sugars.