Slow conditioning? Temperature problem?

[Fatherof4]

Hi there. I have made an extract based English Brown Ale from a kit. OG was 1.084 and FG was 1.009. Everything went well... or so I thought. Now it is has been bottled for exactly two weeks. I tried it at one week and it was totally flat, no conditioning at all. Just last night, a week later, I tried another and it had a few bubbles but still flat. I have them stored at about 65 degrees F in a box. Are they too cold or am I just too impatient?
If I left out any info that may help pin down what went wrong, let me know and I'll share it. I'm really hoping it isn't kaput. I want to drain the beers, not pour them down the drain.
Thanks Much!


Primary: Nothing
Secondary: Cranberry Wine
Bottled: Eng. Brown Ale

 

[SiriusStarr]

Give it another week at least and get it a bit warmer. I've had beers sit basically uncarbed for 3 weeks before carbing up in a week once I raised the temperature a bit. It will be fine.

 

[krenshaw]

just a bit impatient.. 2 weeks is really the bare minimum, though a month is a safer bet.. that temp should be fine.. should be better pretty soon, but don't waste too many "checking" them

 

[unionrdr]

The excepted norm is 3 weeks @ 70F to carb & condition. Sometimes longer. But 65F is a bit cool usually.

 

[jlg4398]

62 degrees is about the lowest to go for an ALE.
Are you sure you got the correct amount priming sugar into your bottles?

 

[Fatherof4]

Thanks all for sharing your experience. Should I have opted for individual doses per bottle in lieu of added the corn sugar into the bottling bucket after dissolving it? I read a thread that said inverting the bottles helped too? Thanks for your replies again.


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[petrolSpice]

I think corn sugar in the bottle bucket is the preferred method. Make sure it mix it well or else some bottles with carbonate while others won't.

 

[SiriusStarr]

Thanks all for sharing your experience. Should I have opted for individual doses per bottle in lieu of added the corn sugar into the bottling bucket after dissolving it? I read a thread that said inverting the bottles helped too? Thanks for your replies again.

It's easiest and most consistent to just dissolve the sugar in a small volume of water (boil it) and then gently stir that into the bottling bucket. And yes, some people suggest rousing the yeast by inverting the bottles; not sure it's going to help, but it wouldn't harm.

 

[JimRausch]

OP: Also 1.084>1.009 means you have a pretty high alcohol brew there and they usually take abit longer to carb up. If it were mine, I'd try to warm her up to 70-75, invert to resuspend the yeast, and give her another week or two.

 

[dnslater]

The third week is usually important for me, and the temps of at least 70 degrees. Also, brown ales are supposed to have light carbonation.

 

[unionrdr]

It's also important to remember here that primary temps aren't the same as bottle conditioning temps. Save for temps getting down to 65 or lower,where the yeast slows down or goes dormant. Higher temps won't hurt it in the bottles.

 

[Fatherof4]

Just thought I would do a follow-up. After kicking up the temp around the bottles to 72 degrees and inverting them just to make sure the yeast was "awake", the beer has conditioned. With an ABV of 9.3% and a temp of 63-65 it just didn't want to condition. No more flat taste. Sadly, this means that is ready to be gifted away as a birthday present to a brother. 40 beers for 40 years.
Thanks fellas. Cheers.


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Fatherof4

 

[RM-MN]

Just thought I would do a follow-up. After kicking up the temp around the bottles to 72 degrees and inverting them just to make sure the yeast was "awake", the beer has conditioned. With an ABV of 9.3% and a temp of 63-65 it just didn't want to condition. No more flat taste. Sadly, this means that is ready to be gifted away as a birthday present to a brother. 40 beers for 40 years.
Thanks fellas. Cheers. View attachment 195201


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Fatherof4

Congrats on getting it to carbonate properly but when you mentioned the gifting to the brother of such a fine beer, I think you have the math wrong. It's one beer per decade, not one beer per year.

 

[JimRausch]

Hey congratulations. Hope you (and your brother) enjoy it!

 

[jfk69]

Want to be my brother??