Under carbonation in bottle conditioned beer

I bottled a standard bitter 3 weeks ago. I placed the amount of suger beersmith told me to in order to get 1.5 vols of carbonation. I was going for the low carbonation to try and match the style. I boiled the sugar and added it to the bottling bucket before racking the beer onto it. The beer has a small hiss when opened but you no where near enough carbonation and no head at all. Should i open the bottles and add more sugar or...?

Nottingham yeast
Stored at 71°

 

3 weeks at 71 degrees seems like plenty of time for a standard strength beer, so I'd consider the possibility of lack of sugar or lack of yeast in the bottle... 1.5 volumes is very low but do you think there was still enough yeast in suspension? It could be just a bottle or two are uncarb'd and the others are good, i.e. inconsistent priming sugar distribution. I'd try another bottle next week.

 

1.5 volumes is very low even for a bitter. Maybe go with 2 volumes next time. Pour the beer straight down the middle of the glass roughly to get a little head on it. You could open all the bottles and rebottle but that's a pain in the rear. I'd hope that this carbonates a little better in another week and otherwise just be sure to pour it roughly.

 

THIS ^.

Ordinary bitter calls for 1.6-2.5 volumes of CO2. You undercarbed it - next time add more sugar.
Still, there may be another problem lurking too.

 

Fair enough. I have had some bottle bombs in the past went too low in my worry. Thought maybe the sugar i was using was causing a little more carbonation. I guess not baha. Ill get it right next time... Hopefully. I might open a few and add some more sugar and see what happens.

 

Gotta disagree with those saying that 1.5 is very low for a bitter (see e.g. http://byo.com/malt/item/1214-ordinary-bitter-style-profile). It might simply be that you're not used to the levels of carbonation we have in bitters over in the UK. That said, I personally find it very difficult to get a British ale recipe to match what I really want, which is cask conditioned and dispensed through a hand pump / beer engine.

 

In my experience it is difficult to match style, in terms of carbonation, when bottle conditioning.

 

Adding sugar dry may cause the beer in the bottle to foam. Each granule of sugar will be a nucleation point for the existing CO2. Add the sugar in a solution if you decide to try this to see what the results will be.