Beer not carbing

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

Brewed an ale a few months ago. Cold crashed about a week @35 or so degrees. Bottles with 4.5 oz or so of corn sugar.

3 weeks later, beer is flat - just a slight psssft and absolutely no carbonation. Let sit for perhaps 3 months and still no carb.

Thinking I somehow screwed up and forgot to add sugar, I experimented by adding 2.2g corn sugar to each of 3 bottles. Capped with new caps to eliminate possibility of faulty caps. Almost 3 weeks later still absolutely no sign of carbonation when I popped the top on one. Again, just a short pssft and no bubbles.

Brewed with us-05 or the white labs equivalent wp001
stepped up with starter.

I'm thinking that cold crashing for a week killed all the yeast, but can't figure out how in such a short period of time .

Any suggestions or other possibilities? What steps should I take next? Thanks.

 

[deadwolfbones]

Get the bottles warmer (70F+). Swirl them every few days.

 

[FatDragon]

Is it possible there's an issue with your caps or capper so the bottles didn't seal perfectly?

Cold crashing shouldn't have removed nearly enough yeast to prevent bottle carbonation. Is it a strong beer? Is it possible the beer has exceeded the yeast's alcohol tolerance?

 

[RM-MN]

Almost 3 weeks later still absolutely no sign of carbonation when I popped the top on one. Again, just a short pssft and no bubbles.

Since you got the pssft when you opened the bottle you have carbonation and adding more sugars at this point can lead to bottle bombs. The lack of bubbles points toward a bit of detergent residue somewhere in your system. That most likely is in your glassware as many people wash the glasses in the dishwasher that has an anti-spotting agent which leaves a tiny trace in the glass and positively destroys any heading. It also could be detergent residue in the bottles or even in your boil kettle. For starters, hand wash the glass you want to put beer into and rinse it very well, then let it air dry.

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

Get the bottles warmer (70F+). Swirl them every few days.

This is what I did recently over the past few weeks.

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

Is it possible there's an issue with your caps or capper so the bottles didn't seal perfectly?

Cold crashing shouldn't have removed nearly enough yeast to prevent bottle carbonation. Is it a strong beer? Is it possible the beer has exceeded the yeast's alcohol tolerance?

I have a pretty nice capper that seems to operate smoothly, so I don't believe it's that, although possible. I did try some different caps in order to eliminate that possibility.

I believe that it came out around 8-9%. White labs says it can tolerate 10-15%, so if my math was off by a percent or 2 and it was on the lower end of the range, this could be possible.

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

Since you got the pssft when you opened the bottle you have carbonation and adding more sugars at this point can lead to bottle bombs. The lack of bubbles points toward a bit of detergent residue somewhere in your system. That most likely is in your glassware as many people wash the glasses in the dishwasher that has an anti-spotting agent which leaves a tiny trace in the glass and positively destroys any heading. It also could be detergent residue in the bottles or even in your boil kettle. For starters, hand wash the glass you want to put beer into and rinse it very well, then let it air dry.

Now this is a possibility. I delabeled the bottles using oxyclean free and rinsed twice as I usually do. Maybe I didn't get it all.

Any possibility of saving it if this is the case?

 

[ncbrewer]

I have a pretty nice capper that seems to operate smoothly, so I don't believe it's that, although possible. I did try some different caps in order to eliminate that possibility.

I've had two different problems with a bench capper. The first time, I found the caps were sticking to the capper bell a little when I lifted it. Apparently it pulled on the cap and broke the seal sometimes. Now I rub some paraffin wax on the inside of the bell before starting each case of bottles.

The second time, I was trying to improve the process by pushing down on the lever extra hard to get a better seal. Turned out it deformed the seat and cause many of the bottles to not seal well - flat beer. I went back to just a normal push on the lever, and no more flat beer.

 

[RM-MN]

Now this is a possibility. I delabeled the bottles using oxyclean free and rinsed twice as I usually do. Maybe I didn't get it all.

Any possibility of saving it if this is the case?

When I used too much Oxiclean and only single rinsed it affected the entire batch....and the next one because I did them so close together in time that I had the second one bottled before I sampled the first. I hope you have better luck.

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

I've had two different problems with a bench capper. The first time, I found the caps were sticking to the capper bell a little when I lifted it. Apparently it pulled on the cap and broke the seal sometimes. Now I rub some paraffin wax on the inside of the bell before starting each case of bottles.

The second time, I was trying to improve the process by pushing down on the lever extra hard to get a better seal. Turned out it deformed the seat and cause many of the bottles to not seal well - flat beer. I went back to just a normal push on the lever, and no more flat beer.

I'll have to break out the old hand capper and experiment with a couple. Thanks.

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

When I used too much Oxiclean and only single rinsed it affected the entire batch....and the next one because I did them so close together in time that I had the second one bottled before I sampled the first. I hope you have better luck.

As I recall, some of the bottles felt maybe a little slick after 2 rinses. Perhaps I added too much Oxyclean. I'm leaning more towards this possibility.

 

[ncbrewer]

I'll have to break out the old hand capper and experiment with a couple. Thanks.

I didn't mean to discourage you from using a bench capper. I love mine - just avoid the errors that I made. There have been plenty of wing capper problems, too.

 

[FatDragon]

Now this is a possibility. I delabeled the bottles using oxyclean free and rinsed twice as I usually do. Maybe I didn't get it all.

Any possibility of saving it if this is the case?

I may be mistaken, but shouldn't a detergent issue only affect head retention and not the actual carbonation of the beer?

 

[Soulshine2]

Brewed an ale a few months ago. Cold crashed about a week @35 or so degrees. Bottles with 4.5 oz or so of corn sugar.

3 weeks later, beer is flat - just a slight psssft and absolutely no carbonation. Let sit for perhaps 3 months and still no carb.

Thinking I somehow screwed up and forgot to add sugar, I experimented by adding 2.2g corn sugar to each of 3 bottles. Capped with new caps to eliminate possibility of faulty caps. Almost 3 weeks later still absolutely no sign of carbonation when I popped the top on one. Again, just a short pssft and no bubbles.

Brewed with us-05 or the white labs equivalent wp001
stepped up with starter.

I'm thinking that cold crashing for a week killed all the yeast, but can't figure out how in such a short period of time .

Any suggestions or other possibilities? What steps should I take next? Thanks.

where,when,and how did you add the sugar the first time?