HELP! IPA did not corbonate

[abdoyle]

I started with a brewer's best IPA kit and did some tweaking. i added 1 lb corn sugar, 2 lbs pure agave nectar, and additional cascade hops. It ended up taking 3 weeks in primary til the bubbling stopped. i transfered to the carboy and the next day it started bubbling again. in my experience i've never seen that much activity in secondary, but thought maybe since there were so many extra fermentables it had more work to do. i left it in secondary for 3 weeks. noticed a ton of sediment and decided to transfer to a second carboy and sit another week to improve the clarity. after that last week i bottled. i tasted and seemed ok but a slight "plastic" aftertaste. at that point i realized i had used "drinking water" from the store versus the distilled, which probably made that taste. i let the bottles sit for 2 weeks and popped open one to find no carbonation. i waited another week and tried another bottle and still nothing. now at this point the plastic flavor has seemed to go away and the flavor is very good. very hoppy with a suttle sweetness. life got busy and it has been 2 weeks since that last bottle (5 weeks total) and still no carbonation. with the flavor improved i'd hate to have to dump the whole batch. is it worth dumping the bottles into a bucket and pitching more yeast and rebottling? any suggestions? the bottles have been in an unfinished basement which holds a steady 62-65 degrees. i think that covers most of the details. any help would be great.

 

[fuelish]

Maybe bring 'em upstairs to a warmer environment for a few weeks??? You DID add priming sugar of some form, yes?

 

[jerrya100]

How much corn sugar did you use at bottling?

 

[cannman]

If it took over 3 weeks to finish fermenting, the amount of alcohol may have killed all the yeast or at least made it an inhospitable environment for the yeast and therefore no yeast would be available to convert that priming sugar... I would create a yeast starter next time to make sure you pitch enough yeast to combat yeast death due to their own product (hit target before everybody dies).

 

[beergolf]

62-65 is too cold for it to carb up properly. Get them someplace warmer and give it some more time. Also higher gravity beers can take longer to carb up.

 

[CUrchin]

Carb warmer. 3 weeks at 70 degrees minimum.

 

[abdoyle]

thanks! i'm going to move them to a warmer spot for a bit and see if that works. i'll follow up with the results.

 

[EJay]

I see no mention of adding priming sugar at bottling time. Did you?

 

[abdoyle]

I did prime. Moved the bottles up to a 70 degree room. Hopefully I'll get some carb

 

[abdoyle]

i moved the bottles upstairs where the temp has been consistently around 70-72. i popped one on sunday and didn't notice much difference in carb. luckily i was making a corned beef brisket and used the opened bottle for the liquid which turned out great but still no carb. i'll give it another week and i'll update, but if there's no noticeable difference i'm leaning towards emptying the bottles to a bucket, repitching yeast and rebottling. any input?

 

[Yooper]

i moved the bottles upstairs where the temp has been consistently around 70-72. i popped one on sunday and didn't notice much difference in carb. luckily i was making a corned beef brisket and used the opened bottle for the liquid which turned out great but still no carb. i'll give it another week and i'll update, but if there's no noticeable difference i'm leaning towards emptying the bottles to a bucket, repitching yeast and rebottling. any input?

That will ruin the beer by oxidizing it. If the beer is over the yeast alcohol tolerance limit, it won't carb up and a new yeast is unlikely to help. Did you take any OG readings so you know the approximate ABV?

If it's only been at 70 degrees for a week, it may just need more time. I haven't ever had a beer carb up at 65 degrees, but they do carb up when they are above 70 degrees. It takes about three weeks for a higher ABV beer, though, at 70 degrees, sometimes a bit longer.

 

[lmeforlife]

If, after letting them sit for a couple weeks in a minimum 70F environment, you see no improvement in carbonation, I would get a small sanitized syringe (without needle), mix up a small batch of priming sugar, uncap a few bottles, put a few (less than 5) milliliters of the priming solution in the opened bottles and recap them with new sanitized caps.

If those bottles carbonate, do it to the rest of the batch.

 

[Brew_G]

It's interesting to see the references to people not getting bottles to carb at 60-65F. I've had a couple beers that carbed up fine in my 60F basement, but maybe I was just lucky!

 

[CUrchin]

If 3 full weeks at 70 degrees doesn't work then you either have 1) no viable yeast, 2) no sugar for the yeast to eat or 3) a bad seal on your caps.

But before you try to debug the problem, go 3 weeks at 70 degrees and then chill at least 24 hours before opening.

I have had beer carb at lower temps, but 3 weeks at 70 degrees has never, ever failed me.