Why Didn't my Beer Carbonate

[vindee]

I did an Amber Ale on Labor Day and bottled with 4.10oz corn sugar.
To date this stuff hasn't carbonated. I had it in the house for 2 weeks after bottling and the out to the garage where it is cooler.
Any thoughts?

 

[Yooper]

I did an Amber Ale on Labor Day and bottled with 4.10oz corn sugar.
To date this stuff hasn't carbonated. I had it in the house for 2 weeks after bottling and the out to the garage where it is cooler.
Any thoughts?

The only thing I can think of is that it's too cool to carb up. You can try turning them end over end (to resuspend any flocculated yeast) and then keeping them in a warm (70-75 degree) place again.

 

[JeffD1]

The only thing I can think of is that it's too cool to carb up. You can try turning them end over end (to resuspend any flocculated yeast) and then keeping them in a warm (70-75 degree) place again.

+1 sounds like they got too cold. Although there are many other variables that can affect the speed at which it carbs. Higher alcohol levels cause the yeast to work slower. Longer times in the fermentor (more than 2 months or so) may require more yeast at bottling time to carb in a reasonable amount of time. However, I read someone else's post that said the beer will always carb if given enough time. I would try to keep it around 75 degrees and give it more time.

 

[vindee]

Update:
I moved the beer into my fermentation room while my wine was fermenting. The fermentation room then was 78 degrees. After the wine was done I moved the beer into the house and have been keeping it at 70 to 71 degrees.
Although the flavor has improved, absolutely no carbonation has started. I bottled around September 21st.
I'm going to uncap two bottles and add 2.5 grams of corn sugar and check one in a couple of weeks.
Does anyone have any other ideas or possible causes?
This has turned out to be a good beer and I would hate to have to dump it.
Thanks for the help!

 

[Huds]

Did you cold crash after primary fermentation or secondary? What did you do from the end of the ferm to bottling. Any finings?

 

[feinbera]

Bizarre.

I know it's a dumb question, but, is it at all possible that, in the hustle and bustle of racking to the bottling bucket and getting your bottles sanitized and what-not, you forgot to add your bottling sugar? Maybe you weighed it out, and boiled the water to dissolve it in, but didn't add the sugar to the water and just racked onto boiled water?

Otherwise, maybe you got a bad batch of caps? Stick one of the bottles upside-down for a couple of days, see if any beer leaks out.

 

[vindee]

Did you cold crash after primary fermentation or secondary? What did you do from the end of the ferm to bottling. Any finings?

I used irish moss at the end of the boil. I racked to secondary after two weeks in primary. Bottled 1 week after secondary.
Kept beer around 70 degrees for two weeks then moved to garage where it was cooler, around 60 or so.

 

[vindee]

Bizarre.

I know it's a dumb question, but, is it at all possible that, in the hustle and bustle of racking to the bottling bucket and getting your bottles sanitized and what-not, you forgot to add your bottling sugar? Maybe you weighed it out, and boiled the water to dissolve it in, but didn't add the sugar to the water and just racked onto boiled water?

Otherwise, maybe you got a bad batch of caps? Stick one of the bottles upside-down for a couple of days, see if any beer leaks out.

Not a dumb question... I did go back and check my steps on the sugar addition. Whats left in inventory, my notes, and my memory tell me I added 4.1 oz when racking to my bottling bucket.
Thanks for all the input here.

 

[Hello]

Beer will carbonate providing you added the priming sugar so it's odd to me that they haven't. I would get them back to room temp and wait another couple of weeks. From what I've read, carbonation is nearly foolproof so long as you follow the basic steps.

 

[masskrug]

4 oz is a little low. How big was your batch? I usually hit my 5-6 gallon batches with 6 oz of sugar. Let them sit in a 75' closet for 3 weeks.

 

[vindee]

This was a 5 gallon batch.

 

[ballsy]

4 oz is a little low. How big was your batch? I usually hit my 5-6 gallon batches with 6 oz of sugar. Let them sit in a 75' closet for 3 weeks.

I use about 4.2 oz and never had a prob w/ carbing, something else is awry here...

 

[Hello]

I did use 4 oz in a 5 gallon batch once and my bottles carbed. It's very hard to say what is happening here, but I agree with ballsy that something is awry.

 

[vindee]

I tried to reprime a bottle last night and something interesting happened.
I popped the cap, measured out 2 grams corn sugar, and put a small funnel in the bottle to add the sugar. As soon as I added the sugar the beer started foaming out. I lost about 1/4 of the beer. I recapped it and the foam settled in the bottle.
In my opinion this would confirm that I had definitely added my sugar at bottling.
Does this however shed any light on the subject?

 

[ballsy]

I tried to reprime a bottle last night and something interesting happened.
I popped the cap, measured out 2 grams corn sugar, and put a small funnel in the bottle to add the sugar. As soon as I added the sugar the beer started foaming out. I lost about 1/4 of the beer. I recapped it and the foam settled in the bottle.
In my opinion this would confirm that I had definitely added my sugar at bottling.
Does this however shed any light on the subject?

My limited experience has absolutely nothing to add here. ...that's just bizarre.

 

[vindee]

Bizarre.


Otherwise, maybe you got a bad batch of caps? Stick one of the bottles upside-down for a couple of days, see if any beer leaks out.

I'm going to be opening a bottle for dinner tonight which was capped with caps left over from last year. I have only opened bottles capped with the new ones just purchased.
I will report back.

The spaghetti sure smells good out there in the kitchen, I'm hoping the beer will be a nice (carbonated) compliment to dinner.

 

[Dougie63]

how long were they in fridge, you should have them in a couple of days for the liquid to absorb co2

 

[vindee]

Well it appears the beer is finally slightly carbonated. Based on last nights foam over experiment and tonight's beer tells me it was definitely primed at bottling. Like some of you said, it's just going to take time.
I have never had a beer take this long, so I was getting concerned.
Thanks for all the help!

 

[vindee]

how long were they in fridge, you should have them in a couple of days for the liquid to absorb co2

I put this one in only a few hours before opening it.
So your saying the C02 doesn't get absorb unless it's been in the fridge for a while? I'm not sure I'm following you on that one. Can you explain?

 

[pdxal]

Beer/liquid can dissolve a larger amount of CO2 when cold. Putting bottled beer in the fridge for several days enhances carbonation over just putting them in the fridge for a few hours enough to get them cold. I think there's a sticky on it, or mention of it in another thread on here.

 

[Setesh]

Maybe this has been mentioned, but I would think the cap to bottle seal could be the culprit. What kind of bottles did you use? Were they the screw top kind? These are very hard to get a good seal on. They may hold enough pressure to give you a very low level of carbonation, but not what you are after. The extra pressure would bleed off making your bottles under carbed. Just a thought.

 

[ballsy]

how long were they in fridge, you should have them in a couple of days for the liquid to absorb co2

It is not so dramatic to make a beer go from no carbonation what so ever to carbonated. You can take a warm beer never in the fridge and pour it, and it will be carbonated.

 

[Dougie63]

It is not so dramatic to make a beer go from no carbonation what so ever to carbonated. You can take a warm beer never in the fridge and pour it, and it will be carbonated.

But if you notice the carbonation will not last very long, I have, I am also just reverbing info I have learned on this forum, I also notice if I over carb a beer (I dont do this often) when the beer is warm it shoots out all over the place but stick it in the fridge a couple of days it calms dow quite a bit.

 

[ballsy]

But if you notice the carbonation will not last very long, I have, I am also just reverbing info I have learned on this forum, I also notice if I over carb a beer (I dont do this often) when the beer is warm it shoots out all over the place but stick it in the fridge a couple of days it calms dow quite a bit.

OP was re: "absolutely no carbonation" so I was sticking to that. The issue you bring up is more whether someone has excessive head with their beer which is not a problem with "no carbonation". I was just trying to save on confusion by sticking with the OP. It's all good though!