hit or miss in the bottle

[americium]

A few months ago I brewed up a sierra nevada pale ale clone (extract). My OG was within 2 or 3 points of where it should have been theoretically. I pitched my yeast and everything was working as it should have been. I was getting bubbles about 18 hours after pitching and was at high krausen about a day and a half later. I let it sit around and do it's thing for about three weeks. Fermentation went normally, the closet where the fermenter lives smelled like a wet dog on a hop farm, so far so good. I took a sg measurment after 3 weeks and it was right where it was supposed to be, again within 2 or 3 points. I bottled and waited another 2 weeks. The first one I drank was great, citrusy and bitter but about half the bottles tasted like they'd never fermented at all and had very little hop flavor, aroma or CO2. My question is, what happened? It got pretty warm in my house over those 5 weeks and I had some trouble keeping things cool but if that was the problem shouldn't it have affected all the bottles? I'm brewing again this weekend and would like to know what I might have done wrong.

Many Thanks

 

[phatuna]

did the bad 1/2 have carbonation?

 

[americium]

No the bad ones typically weren't carbed, after a while I got to the point where I'd open bottles and if it didn't go "fffpt" I just dumped it and got another.

 

[WhamBreak]

Maybe your priming sugar didn't get mixed well. Have any been over carbed?

 

[maida7]

yeah I'm guessing either the bad bottles never got any priming sugar or the caps are not on tight and the gas leaked out.

Lack of carbonation will drastically alter the flavor to the point where the hops disappear.

 

[phatuna]

yep, I think that's your culprit. instead of dumping - you could try adding a little sugar and re-capping the bad ones. not sure if that would help, I'm just really anti-dump...

Some bottles don't work all that well for re-capping like Molson Canadian.

 

[khanti]

Sorry to hijack the thread... So priming and re-capping is a possibility? I have an IIPA that I bottled back in late October that just isn't carbing up. I strongly suspect I either forgot the priming sugar (shouldn't drink so much while bottling!) or I did a poor job with the capper. I was tossing around the idea of opening them tossing in a few of those priming tabs and then re-capping and forgetting about them for another month or two.... seem reasonable?

 

[phatuna]

Sorry to hijack the thread... So priming and re-capping is a possibility? I have an IIPA that I bottled back in late October that just isn't carbing up. I strongly suspect I either forgot the priming sugar (shouldn't drink so much while bottling!) or I did a poor job with the capper. I was tossing around the idea of opening them tossing in a few of those priming tabs and then re-capping and forgetting about them for another month or two.... seem reasonable?

Yep, a lot more reasonable than dumping :rockin:

 

[khanti]

Thanks! Dumping was never an option. It actually tastes OK flat, but would be much better carbed up! Sounds like a project for the weekend.