I can't seem to get my carbonation right. I used "fizz drops" from northern brewer and my beer is flat. I payed $70 for all my ingredients, and now I have 5gal of flat beer bottled. What the hell do I do next time that's better then fizz drops
Carbonation
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treacheroustexan
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How long have they been in bottles, and what temperature have they been? Is it a higher gravity beer?
Use a carbonating formula, you can find them online. Then add table sugar to your bottling bucket like most of us do. It's has only failed me twice in 5 years and is cheap to boot.
Easycreeper
Well-Known Member
^This.
Went through the same thing with my first two batches. Both finished north of 10.6%. Neither carbed after a couple of months, so I pulled the caps and added more sugar thinking that might have been the problem. Fast forward another month or so and still nothing. Opened them all again (running low on caps by this point...) And added some wine yeast with a high alcohol tolerance. A week after that, I started seeing some bubbles when I'd open one.
I'm guessing the original yeast were just a little tuckered out after initial fermentation. I've since learned my lesson and now pitch fresh yeast on high abv brews come bottling time.
How long have they been bottled tho? I've heard of those fizz drops taking much longer to work.
Also, what yeast did you use for primary fermentation?
Also, what yeast did you use for primary fermentation?
flars
Well-Known Member
How long has the beer been in the bottles? What temperature are you holding the bottles at for conditioning?
Low conditioning temperatures will increase the length of time for natural carbonation to occur.
I had that same problem. if you haven't chilled them yet bring the bottles into a warmer environment for a week or so and give each bottle a little shake chill them longer before drinking them and that seemed to work.
Check your capper and make sure it is capping the bottles fully. You may not be getting a good seal. I've had that on a few bottles but not an entire batch.
Go ahead drink them all today. As a scientific study
xico
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I agree with what has been suggested already. When bottle conditioning I always use a bucket with a sugar (table, corn, or fruit) dissolved in boiled/cooled water and fresh yeast. Both are critical I've found for consistent conditioning. Finished beer is a hostile environment for microbes. Acidic, alcoholic, anaerobic, and void of much easy energy. The yeast that did the heavy lifting have settled out after expending their resources on metabolizing the last bits of usable energy. They are tired and ill-equipped, and often already resting on the fermenter floor.
Fresh yeast will be stressed by the conditions, but as mentioned, champagne and other wine yeast are accustomed to lower pH and higher alcohol content and can scavenge the remaining sugar and carb up your beer. Also, if you are into farmhouse ales, I like to use saison yeast for conditioning. Cool conditioning with it will be neutral to the existing flavor, but warm conditioning will add some phenolic and ester character indicative of the strain without the risk of fusel production.
I am not fond of adding sugar to bottles. I've had bottle bombs before and been cut badly by them. The stuff just goes right through skin and I don't think it's worth it. A bottling bucket with dissolved sugar distributes much more evenly than my scale or eye can calculate sugar by mass or volume.
Fresh yeast will be stressed by the conditions, but as mentioned, champagne and other wine yeast are accustomed to lower pH and higher alcohol content and can scavenge the remaining sugar and carb up your beer. Also, if you are into farmhouse ales, I like to use saison yeast for conditioning. Cool conditioning with it will be neutral to the existing flavor, but warm conditioning will add some phenolic and ester character indicative of the strain without the risk of fusel production.
I am not fond of adding sugar to bottles. I've had bottle bombs before and been cut badly by them. The stuff just goes right through skin and I don't think it's worth it. A bottling bucket with dissolved sugar distributes much more evenly than my scale or eye can calculate sugar by mass or volume.
That's not a lot of time, especially with carb tabs. They have a much lower surface area to volume ratio than dissolved corn sugar and thus take a lot longer to work.
How is the beer stored now? If they're chilled at this point, they won't carbonate further, as the yeast will have gone dormant. You'll need to pull them out and let them return to room temperature.
I mean... I wouldn't make a habit of it, but it shouldn't negatively affect the beer. My bigger concern would be that the yeast might not "wake up" after having been chilled. Try bringing the beer up to 70-75, then give each bottle a *gentle* swirl (not shake) to stir up some of the yeast.
xico
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Agreed, I used to believe warming and cooling beer will affect flavor drastically. I think you would need to hit some temps you don't seek in cellaring of beer before that happens (below 32 and above 90 for example). Some breweries warm condition their bottles and kegs (pFriem I think peaks out at 82-85 degrees F). They are doing that because they want the Belgian yeast strains to push out a few more esters without risk of fusel production. I agree with Calypso, 70-75 will wake your yeast if they are able to get going again. Swirl is a great idea too, the grunt I am, I've always shaken and left to clarify for a few weeks.
