Does corn sugar go bad?

[audiophool]

I have a new brewing buddy who wanted to bottle the batch of Edmund Fitzgerald Clone porter we made, sine he has no kegging capability (yet). I haven't bottled my home-brew since the 1990s, but had a bag of corn sugar that I bought sometime in the 1997-1998 time frame but never used.

Anyhow, I went ahead and used that sugar, calculating the amount using the Northern Brewers calculator, which worked out to 1/2 cup for the 5.5 gallon batch (for a 2.1% carb level). In reality we only got about 4.75 gallons to bottle from the fermentor.

Now, 2 weeks later at room temp the beer has no head. The carbonation tastes low, but still has some of that carbonic acid bite. The sweetness from the bottling sugar lessened, compared with the sample I tasted that did not fill the last bottle.

This is a long story for a little question. Could the sugar have "gone bad?" Or, is 2 weeks in the bottle at room temp not long enough to carbonate? Or, what???

Thanks for any input.
Mike

 

[freisste]

So far as I know, if it doesn't get wet it doesn't go bad.

Two weeks often is not enough time.

 

[Macdonald87]

IMO I did a black IPA and did my sugar calculations and I tried a bottle right at 2 weeks after 3 days in the fridge low carb - now its 3.5 weeks and the bottles are much better after sitting in the fridge for 3 days so i generally leave a little longer. ITs a Black IPA that I did !

 

[unionrdr]

In my experiences,porters & stouts can take longer to carbonate & condition. give them another week or two at room temp. Then fridge for a week. 3 weeks @ 70F or better is the norm anyway.

 

[audiophool]

Thanks. I'll wait a little longer. I told my buddy that the hardest thing about home brewing was being patient.