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Confounding Carbonation?!

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Sprhntr

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Dec 29, 2008
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Location
Eau Claire, WI
I brewed my first batch of beer Jan 1, 2009. Amber Cerveza Style. Bottled it on 1/19/09 with corn sugar per the Brewers Best recipe. I bottled into a bunch of 12 oz bottles and 8-22 oz bottles. The first 12 oz I poured 11 days later was pretty flat; the next 12oz was perfect with a nice head on the beer. The remaining 12 oz have all been fairly flat, even if I just dump the beer into a pint glass. Here's what has me scratching my head: all the 22 oz bottles pour into a pint glass perfectly, with a nice 3/8" to 1/2" head on the beer. Al the beer tasted good, sans carbonation.

I soaked all the bottles in a solution of phosphate free TSP for 48 hours prior to bottling. All the bottles were soaked in clean 5 gal buckets with the tops up and covered in water/tsp solution. I then scrubbed (inside and out) and rinsed all the bottles with hot water. Some bottles had to be rinsed twice to get a film of TSP off of the bottles.

I filled the bottles to 1" to 1.25" from the top and capped immediately. The bottles were kept at about 68 degrees until opening.

I bought some star san and I plan on soaking my bottles in this before I bottle. I am preparing to bottle another batch in a few days, and I would like to know what I should do differently to avoid this problem.

Cheers!
 
Bulk primed the secondary when I racked into my bottling bucket. The only thing I can think of is that some of the sugar settled to the bottom, because I think that I bottled the 220z bottles last.
 
This happened to me. Did you stir the sugar well? In retrospect, that was my issue. Good news, it finally carbonated after about 60 days, but not all that well.
 
What did you prime with? Did you dissolve the priming sugar in water before dumping in the bottling bucket? Did you add the priming solution to the beer, or add the beer to the priming solution?
 
I used 5 oz priming sugar placed in boiling water for 5 minutes, then cooled to 70 degrees. I think I poured it into the bottling bucket, then racked my secondary into the priming bucket.

I'll just try stirring it up alot more next time, plus I plan on using DME next time instead of priming sugar.
 
I'm not sure what the issue is, but it's possible that the 12 ounce bottles are just coming along more slowly. Maybe it's related to headspace, maybe not, but I think they'll be fine in a week or two.

If you use DME, remember to use a bit more (1.25 cups per five gallons) because it's less fermentable. It'll also take a bit longer to carbonate, so give it plenty of time at 70 degrees.
 

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