Carbonation Problem

[kman917]

My last two brews have been very slow to carbonate. I've never had this problem before. The first was a honey weisen and has been in the bottle for over a month and has very little carbonation. In fact most bottles are basically flat. The second beer is called Speckled Heiffer (Spotted Cow clone).
It's been in the bottle for over 3 weeks now and hasn't carbonated fully either. Here's the differences between these two and other batches I've done that have had no issues with... 1) These are both the first lighter beers I've done. 2) Both of these are the first beers I've used a yeast starter with. 3) Both of these were my first 10 gallon batches. I guess my question is... Are any of these factors causing slow or no carbonation? Or is it something else? All feedback is appreciated.

BTW, I use Brewers Best conditioning tablets. The honey weisen had 3 tablets per 12oz bottle, the Speckled heiffer had 4 tablets per 12oz bottle. I up'd the # of tablets on the second thinking maybe that would resolve my original problem. Thanks in advance everyone.

 

[audger]

the main thing that effects carbonation time is the gravity of the beer. higher alcohol content / "bigger" beers require more time. a 12% barleywine might not be carbonated for 3-6 months.

a lighter beer should go quickly, but if its not done by 3 weeks the overwhelming advice you are going to get is still to give it more time. if they are flat after 6-8 weeks, then you can start looking for a problem.

there are also a fair number of people who will say ditch the drops and use actual priming sugar. i have doubts about the sanitaryness of drops like that. they might be sterile from the factory, but once you open the package, they are no longer sterile. so unless you use the entire package in one shot, i would be worried about storing them and using them in the future. thats why you boil priming sugar right before adding it. you cant do that with drops.

 

[dinakarj]

Give it more time. I currently have a doppelbock which was flat at 3, 6 and 8 weeks. But finally a bottle I opened last weekend which is after 10 weeks was nicely carbed.

So I guess time is the secret

Dj

 

[kman917]

thanks

 

[Air_Force_FE]

Get a keg and force carbonate. Don't in 3 days if you want.

 

[Genjin]

Get a keg and force carbonate. Don't in 3 days if you want.

This is a question about bottling. You must be responding to a different thread.

 

[Air_Force_FE]

I know what it was about I was just offering a solution. He already has herd let it sit longer. My suggestion was to keg his beer and never have to worry about it again.

 

[Revvy]

the main thing that effects carbonation time is the gravity of the beer. higher alcohol content / "bigger" beers require more time. a 12% barleywine might not be carbonated for 3-6 months.

The third thing to factor in is temp. The 3 weeks we talk about is usually the minimim for average grav beers IF the beer is above 70 degrees. Even 5 degrees less can extend the time it takes for a beer to be ready.

Time is always your friend....Carbontaion is fool proof, EVEN if you don't keg

 

[Revvy]

I know what it was about I was just offering a solution. He already has herd let it sit longer. My suggestion was to keg his beer and never have to worry about it again.

Yeah this is REALLY oh so helpful to this situation.

Even if he decided to keg, it wouldn't help THIS batch would it? He would do more damage to the beer if he dumped it into a keg to carb it. There's no way to do that so that he wouldn't run the risk of oxydizing the beer.

I think the only answer from now on is to go every kegging question thread and post "If you bottled you'd never have this problem..."

Maybe then keggers would realize how freaking annoying it is to see this in every bloody bottling thread. Like we've never heard of kegs or something.

I'm building a kegerator for christsakes, and 1) I'm STILL going to bottle condition certain beers, 2) And if it's a bottling question, I'm NOT going to answer a question with "keg."

 

[Air_Force_FE]

Rolls eyes lmfao

 

[BrewThruYou]

Maybe then keggers would realize how freaking annoying it is to see this in every bloody bottling thread. Like we've never heard of kegs or something.

I agree. I do both, but when someone responds to a question with something that isn't remotely helpful, it's annoying.

Like when I had some BeerGun issues and all I got was links to BeerMuncher's bottle filler and people telling me to shove racking canes into picnic taps. I already had the BeerGun and I had a specific issue I was trying to work out!

 

[Revvy]

Like when I had some BeerGun issues and all I got was links to BeerMuncher's bottle filler and people telling me to shove racking canes into picnic taps. I already had the BeerGun and I had a specific issue I was trying to work out!

I remember seeing that. Did you ever actually get your issue resolved?

 

[Air_Force_FE]

I am glad my response gave you to something to complain about. So funny how many people complain and gripe in here. At least someone has not told you to look at the forums cause the question has already been answered but I am sure it's coming.

 

[BrewThruYou]

I remember seeing that. Did you ever actually get your issue resolved?

Yes, but I'm not exactly sure what it was...I was leaking air somewhere. I teflon taped everything I could and tightened everything down on the tape, then added nylon washers everywhere I could. Seemed to solve the problem.

 

[kman917]

Thanks for the feed back. Ok, So are any of my original 3 factors relevant to my problem? I store in a basement... But that basement is in El Paso. So, it's about 73 deg in there. Maybe a little warm. Also, my concern is both these beers have low FG. If I've read on here correctly, Higher FG beers take longer to carb. Just a few more observations I've made. Thanks for everyone's help though!

 

[Air_Force_FE]

As a last resort you could uncap, add a grain of dry yeast, and recap. I had to do that once- and used nottingham dry yeast. Literally one little grain is enough- that is still more yeast cells than the eye can see, so it's plenty. Just sayin.

 

[kman917]

cool, thank you