failed secondary fermentation

[lightweight52]

Hi all – as a newbie, (returning to brewing after many years) I've hit a problem with a batch of dark beer that failed its secondary fermentation in the bottles. I put in half a teaspoon of sugar into each bottle and maybe this wasn't enough, but I didn't fancy having bottles exploding all over the place. Any advice on my next course of action would be greatly appreciated. What yeast should I try adding and should I bottle again when there's evidence of the yeast starting or should I transfer it to a pressure vessel? The reason I stopped home brewing some years ago was that two successive brews failed in the pressure vessel as the pressure leaked – due I reckon to a faulty seal (having changed the sealing washer for the second batch!) I'm loathe to dump this batch without trying to rescue it as though it's flat, it tastes quite good – just not good enough to drink flat or with lemonade as the fizzer!

 

[hotbeer]

What sort of bottles did you use? If bottles for crown caps, are you sure you crimped them completely? The sides of the crimped cap should be vertical. If they are flared out, you didn't get a good crimp and they might leak CO2.

The Brewing software link at the top of any page here will take you to Brewer's Friend. They have a bunch of calculators that you can use. One being the priming calculator. Or you can find any of many other priming calculators elsewhere to use. Keep the calculated CO2 volumes below 3 vols and you should be good for most bottles. Though I have gone higher. Some will recommend no more than 2.5 vols which is safer still. So you decide.

Regardless of whether you are extra safe and use just 2 vols or not, you should always store your beer where it won't be a issue if they do turn into grenades. Mine are always in a box with a lid. And where a box leaking beer won't make a mess to damage anything. And a modicum of care and caution anytime when handling.

I'd go by weight and not volume measures just to be more accurate. I make a solution with the priming sugar and add it to the beer before bottling, but if you like to separately dose each bottle, then many do. But weigh each. Or make a solution you can put in a syringe and that measures in milliliters.

The little bit more water you use to dissolve the sugar isn't going to make a big difference to the beer. I do a 1/4 cup water for my <3 gallon batches. If that results in too thick a solution for a larger batch, then 1/2 cup of water isn't going to be a big deal for a 5 gallon or 80 cups of beer. But you can calculate the differences if that precision matters to you.

If you are using glass screw top bottle with crimp lids. Many say they have a high chance of failure. I've never tried. Also, a lot more are using screw top bottles made from PET or other plastic. So consider those. Especially if you have to get more bottles.

 

[lightweight52]

Hi – thanks for the reply. I used beer bottles, properly sterilised, and crimp caps fixed with a two-handed crimper, being overly heavy-handed as I thought, but only put in half a teaspoon of sugar into each bottle. there was just the most tiny 'phtt' as each cap was released and though the beer tasted reasonable with the addition of lemonade to give it some fizz it still tasted mostly flat and the hydrometer reading now looks to be 1010 – though that's after putting in more sugar after emptying them all back into the fermenting bucket! I like your suggestion for making a sugar solution and dosing each bottle with an identical amount via a syringe by the way.
My next move is to add another dose of yeast and then put it all into a pressure vessel when I'm sure it's fermenting again - what do you think?

 

[mac_1103]

I put in half a teaspoon of sugar into each bottle and maybe this wasn't enough

What size bottles? What kind of sugar?

 

[hotbeer]

I'd just put up with it as it is and do something different for the next batch. Opening them all up and trying to keep out the additional O2 that it's going to be exposed to will seem to me as likely to have you drinking cardboard tasting beer

If you also were to keg, I might say put it in a keg, let it carbonate with CO2 and then drink it all ASAP.

In the past I have had some issues with beer carbonated to lower vols that seemed flat when they came directly from a very cold refrigerator. However after they warmed up to better than 50°F (10°C) they were much better to drink and didn't seem flat anymore.

 

[mac_1103]

I'd just put up with it as it is and do something different for the next batch. Opening them all up and trying to keep out the additional O2 that it's going to be exposed to will seem to me as likely to have you drinking cardboard tasting beer

Too late:

it still tasted mostly flat and the hydrometer reading now looks to be 1010 – though that's after putting in more sugar after emptying them all back into the fermenting bucket!

addition of lemonade to give it some fizz

?

 

[hotbeer]

I was wondering if the lemonade addition was real lemonade in liquid form or a powder of some sort. Adding powdered anything to beer might just act like nucleation sites to have the beer gas off most all of it's C02 quickly.

And at it's most impressive, be like all the youTube videos of Mentos added to other carbonated beverages.

 

[hottpeper13]

Just tell everyone it's an British beer!

 

[lightweight52]

cruel!

 

[Bramling Cross]

Just tell everyone it's an British beer!

Damn, man, that's savage!

 

[Bramling Cross]

cruel!

So, by your own admission, you're a noob. There's nothing wrong with that. We all started at ground zero.

You, however, have a leg up on us insofar as you've got a nice tasting beer on your hands--that's a rare feat. Good job, sir! You're well ahead of the curve.

At this point, you've determined that you can brew beer that you want to drink, that's the biggest hurdle. The next hurdle for most brewers is making the jump to kegging. Your beer suddenly becomes a lot better because it is exposed to much less oxygen and you don't have to mess around with sanitizing bottles, the threat of bottle bombs, all the fiddly work that goes into bottling, and a temperamental bottle capper. Better yet, all that money that you waste on hops...now you can taste their aroma and flavor, not just their bitterness.

I'm not sure what your budget is, but I do know this: I've helped many new brewers over the years and not one of them has ever regretted making the jump to kegs.

Sure, it seems daunting now, but it's worth thinking about. Many brewers quit the hobby because of bottling, I'll be damned if I know anyone that quit the hobby over kegging.

 

[hottpeper13]

Why is that savage? When a brew doesn't work out for me ,I've found it better to just change the name or style. Trying to fix it generally messes it up. Live and learn.

 

[Ingo]

Damn, man, that's savage!

Or you can say it's REAL beer. Not a tropical fruit sodapop like all those american IPA's