Help! My beer is flat..

[jwill911]

Hello,
First time poster here. I've been extract brewing for ~8 months, have made some pretty good beer. My most recent batch Pliny the Elder is totally flat. It tastes fine but flat. I've made the same MoreBeer extract kit previously and it came out awesome. I know I didn't forget to add the corn sugar when bottling so I'm stumped as to what happened. Any other reason to come out flat. I bottled mostly 500 ml bottles and some 12 oz. All are the same.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
John
Alameda, CA

 

[DuncB]

How long did you wait for the beer to condition?
What temp were the bottles at during conditioning?
Was the beer really quite clear when you bottled it?

 

[NGD]

Could be several things.
Loose caps, not enough time, stored to cool, old yeast, didn’t actually add priming sugar but thought you did etc.


i would test a bottle and see if the gravity is higher than the FG. That should
Give you an idea if the priming sugar was actually consumed.

 

[jwill911]

Thanks for the reply.
I now know I should have searched first. I just check, then moved to a warmer spot. I store in closet under the house. The beer is 61-62 degrees, fermented at 66 degrees. I'll give it a little longer, then sacrifice one to check gravity. It's really good beer hate for it to be flat.
Oh, I bottled on 4/6. The first time I racked to a secondary, I was pretty careful about introducing oxygen.
Thanks again,
jw

 

[NGD]

That should help. I shoot for 68-70f when I bottle. How long has this batch been in bottles?

 

[DuncB]

I'd move it somewhere a bit warmer for a week or so then back to the 61 degrees which isn't a bad keeping and maturing temp.
Pliny is quite a big beer so the yeast may well be a bit lazy to get going with all of that alcohol.

 

[RileyDog]

Hello,
First time poster here. I've been extract brewing for ~8 months, have made some pretty good beer. My most recent batch Pliny the Elder is totally flat. It tastes fine but flat. I've made the same MoreBeer extract kit previously and it came out awesome. I know I didn't forget to add the corn sugar when bottling so I'm stumped as to what happened. Any other reason to come out flat. I bottled mostly 500 ml bottles and some 12 oz. All are the same.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
John
Alameda, CA

We had the same problem. The Pliny was only partially carbonated. Really a bummer when you pay $100 for all the hops. We read to try and rotate the bottles agitating them carefully. So we did that by picking up each bottle with the cap up and turning it upside down gently with the cap down then back up and then returning them to the crate. We waited two weeks and it was much improved and by three weeks it was perfect. Good luck

 

[jwill911]

I'm happy to report all is not lost.
Using the advice from several members (thanks) I moved the batch to a warmer place, on the bed in extra room. And agitated it a bit to get the yeast in suspension. After two days I tested one there's some carbonation, two more days and nearly normal. Things are looking up, drinking one now.
Thanks,
John
Oh today I bottled an extract Morebeer kit, "American Ale II" ABV 5.25 % This time I'll store it in a warmer environment