staggerlee
Well-Known Member
Hey, all -
Brewed a Northern English Brown on Feb. 6, bottled on Feb. 21. The beer spent a week at 70º until next brew day (Feb. 27), when I chilled one bottle down to try. Was flat and tasted really green and off (as expected). No fear; I'm a believer in Revvy's 3 week rule.
The Brown spent the next two weeks in the same room as I was fermenting a Saison; ambient temperatures got really high (up to nearly 85º). After one week I pulled another Brown off the shelf and tried it - the green flavour was gone and it was, if anything, overcarbonated.
As of a few days ago I pulled the Brown out of its hotbox and chilled down a couple. The first one I tried was almost totally flat. I thought it was probably the seal on the bottle (I use Grolsch-style EZ Cap bottles and haven't had a problem in either of the previous two batches, but there's always the possibility). A day later I tried another. Flat, too. Damn!
Last night I dragged out a couple more: both flat. What the hell?! At this point I'm not thinking it's the caps anymore. The only hypothesis I came up with last night was that I insufficiently stirred the priming sugar into the beer before bottling, but I rack the beer onto the sugar solution so it should mix pretty well. I still haven't completely ruled out this thesis, though. (This would explain why the one I tried earlier was overcarbed and none of the others seem to be carbed at all.)
This morning I had a brainflash: maybe the high temperatures in the conditioning/fermenting room caused the yeast to stall out and fail to carbonate. I'm going to test this thesis by returning the fermenting room to 70º, rousing the yeast in all the bottles, and giving it another three weeks. I don't think a temperature of 85º should have killed the yeast, right? If that doesn't work, I guess the next try is trying a bit of dry yeast in each bottle.
Anyone have any similar stories or can come up with an alternate idea or solution here?
(I really want this beer to come out well - it's the first one I've brewed that tastes good enough to give to friends or enter into competition. It's a tasty little sucker, just flat like pancake.)
Brewed a Northern English Brown on Feb. 6, bottled on Feb. 21. The beer spent a week at 70º until next brew day (Feb. 27), when I chilled one bottle down to try. Was flat and tasted really green and off (as expected). No fear; I'm a believer in Revvy's 3 week rule.
The Brown spent the next two weeks in the same room as I was fermenting a Saison; ambient temperatures got really high (up to nearly 85º). After one week I pulled another Brown off the shelf and tried it - the green flavour was gone and it was, if anything, overcarbonated.
As of a few days ago I pulled the Brown out of its hotbox and chilled down a couple. The first one I tried was almost totally flat. I thought it was probably the seal on the bottle (I use Grolsch-style EZ Cap bottles and haven't had a problem in either of the previous two batches, but there's always the possibility). A day later I tried another. Flat, too. Damn!
Last night I dragged out a couple more: both flat. What the hell?! At this point I'm not thinking it's the caps anymore. The only hypothesis I came up with last night was that I insufficiently stirred the priming sugar into the beer before bottling, but I rack the beer onto the sugar solution so it should mix pretty well. I still haven't completely ruled out this thesis, though. (This would explain why the one I tried earlier was overcarbed and none of the others seem to be carbed at all.)
This morning I had a brainflash: maybe the high temperatures in the conditioning/fermenting room caused the yeast to stall out and fail to carbonate. I'm going to test this thesis by returning the fermenting room to 70º, rousing the yeast in all the bottles, and giving it another three weeks. I don't think a temperature of 85º should have killed the yeast, right? If that doesn't work, I guess the next try is trying a bit of dry yeast in each bottle.
Anyone have any similar stories or can come up with an alternate idea or solution here?
(I really want this beer to come out well - it's the first one I've brewed that tastes good enough to give to friends or enter into competition. It's a tasty little sucker, just flat like pancake.)