Inconsistent Carbonation?

[brandonman]

Hey folks! A few months ago (I want to say March or so), I cracked the first bottle of my Brewer's Best wheat beer kit, and it was flat. I knew I had primed it, and that the yeast were still probably ok, since they had done their fermentation just fine and hadn't had any weird temperature shocks or anything. So I got discouraged, but knew I'd have to plow through them. I gave it a couple more weeks, and same thing happened.

Now here in the past week or so, I decided "It's time" and cracked through a night's worth, successively. It turns out that about half of them are under-carbonated, a quarter are overcarbonated, and a quarter are not carbonated at all.

They all came out of the same bucket, racked into the same bottling container (my kettle), and were racked into bottles successively through the same equipment. There's no rhyme or reason to it - nothing to do with bottle shape, filling amount, etc.

Has anybody ever experienced this??

 

[sfgoat]

Did you dissolve your priming sugar in boiling water before mixing? And did you mix well?

 

[andy6026]

They've certainly had time to carbonate, so the usual answer to 'wait' is long past useful.

1) Are you using screw-top bottles? If so, many say they are unreliable. Having some "over-carbed" though suggests this isn't the case.

2) Did you measure the priming sugar correctly? Having some "over-carbonated" again suggests that you did at least get in the right ballpark.

3) Did you boil the priming sugar in some water and mix it in? Usually, most brewers do that and then pour it into a bottling bucket before racking the beer on top of the priming sugar solution. We also try to lay the hose in a way that the beer going into the bucket (or kettle in your case) forms a little swirling motion to mix it in natural. Sometime we also give it a gentle stir with a sanitized spoon in order to ensure it's mixed, but avoid splashing as this will oxygenate the beer.

4) Is perhaps your capper not sealing the bottles properly? Try capping a number of empty bottles and submerging them under water to see if there are any leaks.

Other than those I'd be stumped, although sure enough someone else will come along and point out the obvious problem, haha.

 

[Wolfbrau]

There are two places you can look to for inconsistent carbonation: Sugar admixture and inconsistent capping.

Sugar admixture usually has a continuum of carbonation, if you will, where some are awesome, some are overcarbonated, others are flat.

Inconsistent capping results in a random assortment of non-carbonated vs. carbonated beers.

sfgoat already mentioned admixtures. But I bet Andy hit it with screw top bottles.

 

[brandonman]

Wow I forgot I had made this thread. I'm positive I used boiling water for the sugar that I allowed to cool before pouring into bucket and racking beer into it. I'll try the bottle capping leak test after work. The sugar amount should be right - it was straight from the bag given with brewers best kits

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[stevehardt]

Did you gently stir the cooled priming solution into the beer before you bottled it?

 

[Gnomebrewer]

I was getting inconsistent mixing of the sugar when I racked with a hose going into the bottling bucket (even when I stirred). I get much better consistency by having the fermenter on the bench, bottling bucket on the floor, connecting the tap of the fermenter to the tap of the bottling bucket with silicon hose and transferring that way. The bucket I use for bottling (just another fermenter) has a little tube on the inside of the tap with a slot in it (I forget what it's called), that I direct sideways. This makes a whirlpool as the beer comes in from the bottom with the sugar solution added before the beer. Gives really good mixing.

 

[NickL]

So I got discouraged, but knew I'd have to plow through them.

No shame in dumpin it. As long as you learn what not to do, this is a major win.
Life is too short for bad beer.

 

[brandonman]

I'll be honest, I don't remember if I stirred it or not. I'll be keeping this in mind when I do my next batch, though. Planning on taking the Brewer's Best English Ale kit that I started out on (that turned out pretty good) and making some modifications (it ended up being too bitter), and adding a little bit (considering some sugar and honey to increase ABV some and impart a honey flavor, maybe?, plus a smidge of cinnamon and vanilla, but not much)

 

[stevehardt]

Just remember to stir it nice and easy. Just a few gentle stirs to make sure its mixed well.

 

[brandonman]

For any other newbies who happen upon this thread using the search feature (THE go to feature of any forum):

stirring this new batch made everything consistent. If you're not sure, don't rely on setting up a tengential racking tube to create a slow whirlpool! Sanitize something and stir good once priming sugar is in!! :rockin:

 

[michael61182]

I was talking to my wife today about my first batch which I bottled yesterday. I too did not stir it and was telling her I may have screwed up the carbonation.
The problem I had is I stirred it during the cooling process, so when I transferred it to the fermenting bucket a lot of particles were poured in. So when I bottles I didn't want to mix any particles, so it wouldn't make it to my bottles.
Thanks for this thread.

 

[brandonman]

I was talking to my wife today about my first batch which I bottled yesterday. I too did not stir it and was telling her I may have screwed up the carbonation.
The problem I had is I stirred it during the cooling process, so when I transferred it to the fermenting bucket a lot of particles were poured in. So when I bottles I didn't want to mix any particles, so it wouldn't make it to my bottles.
Thanks for this thread.

Interesting. I guess remedying yours and my problem comes down to doing the best we can to prevent from trub from reaching into the bottling bucket? Frankly I just pour slowly until things get rather cloudy. I suppose I'd rather have bottles be slightly more sedimentary than lose a bunch of bottles to being TOO careful pouring to the bottling bucket.

Essentially: I'd rather have that extra beer from INSIDE the trub and have it fall out into sediment in bottles than miss a lot of pure beer AND trub.