A little help?

[jonaken]

Hello all,
I had a question about my latest homebrew that I was hoping to get some advice on. Here's the deal.

I recently brewed a 6 gallon extract 115 dream hopbursted IPA from Northern Brewer.com. Well all of it didn't fit into my carboy so I had a 1 gallon glass jug that I poured the rest into. Pitched the yeast into both containers. Then waited the suggested amount of time which was about 3 months, bottled normally, and waited the normal 2 weeks before trying it out.

My first opening was 2 weeks after bottling and it had no carbonation, no head, and no fingers(?). Tasted really flat and sweet like sugar and really hoppy (16oz of hops).

I waited another week and chilled and popped another but same results only a little less sugary. Still no carbonation.

Any suggestions on what this could be or how to fix? I really don't want to dump the whole brew considering the kit was quite expensive.

Thanks.

 

[unionrdr]

You let it sit for 3 months? In primary or secondary? You probably had most of the yeast settle out in that amount of time.

 

[duboman]

It is definitly possible there was not enough yeast left in the beer to carbonate but that being said, what was your bottling process and how much sugar did you prime with? If there was very little yeast left then carbonation might take a long time. You might have to pop these open, add some yeast to each bottle and re-cap as well.

 

[phuff7129]

Did you take gravity readings before and after fermentation? What were they?

 

[jonaken]

I let it sit in the primary the entire brew. I rarely use a secondary. I used a yeast starter to start the yeast the day before as directed. I didn't have enough corn sugar for the priming so I used table sugar instead. I used table sugar on a previous stout and that seemed to take a little longer to come to full carbonation but it still tasted great. Other than that I'm not sure what's going on.

 

[duboman]

I let it sit in the primary the entire brew. I rarely use a secondary. I used a yeast starter to start the yeast the day before as directed. I didn't have enough corn sugar for the priming so I used table sugar instead. I used table sugar on a previous stout and that seemed to take a little longer to come to full carbonation but it still tasted great. Other than that I'm not sure what's going on.

Assuming you used the proper amount of table sugar and got a good mix it probably is going to just need more time. 3 weeks at 70 is the recommended MiNiMUM amount of time required and a beer that say for 3 months may need a lot more than those 3 weeks

 

[jonaken]

I didn't use a secondary fermenter which I have done before with my stout and it came out great. I had to use table sugar because i didn't have enough corn sugar when I went to bottle. I used the amount of sugar the kit recipe suggested. I would have to look it up. I also used a yeast starter with this brew per the directions.

 

[ajm163]

The longer it sits in the fermenter the more yeast drop out of suspension. Bottling after 3 months in the primary I would expect it to take at least a month or two to carb. My usual rule of thumb although not scientific in the least is carb time in weeks = weeks in the fermenter. Using that logic I would give it 3 months to carb. If nothing after 3 months you may want to add a bit of yeast to the bottles.

 

[jonaken]

Thanks ajm. Good rule of thumb. I think I will apply that one. Except I'm anxious to taste this beer.

Also, the brews extremely cloudy. I'm not sure why.

 

[phatspade]

After reading the instructions, the yeast may have dropped out. Says 1-2 wk for primary and 4-6 wk in secondary. By now you should have some small hiss to show carbonation even after a couple of weeks.