IPA - No Carb and Sweet

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samvogel

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Hello!

I’m hoping someone could help me out here. I recently brewed a Fresh Squeezed IPA clone and I recently tasted a bottle after two weeks in the primary bucket fermenter and two weeks bottle conditioning.

When I opened the bottle, I first noticed there is very little carbonation. I poured it out to taste it and there was no head but the initial taste test was good, then finished pretty sweet.

I’m thinking this all of this is due to poor fermentation. I haven’t had issues in the past but I’d used lme as well as WyEast yeast. This time, I used white labs and dme.

This is also the first beer I’ve brewed at our new house and I think the temperature of the room I fermented it in is between 66 - 70 degrees. I think it might have been too low.

So what do you think? Is it the yeast, temperature, age of the beer or something else? Will this improve with time? I bottled half and keg the other.
 
two weeks bottle conditioning.

This is also the first beer I’ve brewed at our new house and I think the temperature of the room I fermented it in is between 66 - 70 degrees. I think it might have been too low.

These quotations suggest to me that you are trying to rush this beer. Two weeks with the temperature steady at 72 will carbonate beer but the beer will possibly not have good heading. Two weeks at cooler temperature may not carbonate well and won't create a good head on the beer. Warm it up and give it another 1 to 2 weeks.
 
I would bet it’ll carb given more time (although would think 2 weeks would have been enough). You would think 66F to 70 F would also be warm enough but it couldn’t hurt to move somewhere warmer.

There is definitely an element of unpredictability with yeast. I’ve had a few that never carb’d properly - they tend to be higher alcohol levels - 8% or up. Have better luck bottling with wine yeast in these cases
 
Yeah, time is a big deal with carbing in bottles. 3/4 C (do it by weight in the future since it's more accurate--if you're into that sort of thing) isn't going to give you a lot of "pop." It might after a while but not initially though I've never let a beer go that long. I'm assuming you're talking about a five gallon batch?
I purposely did 3/4 C (more or less 4oz) and it's performing as expected--lightly carbonated.
 
Did you warm up the temp for bottle conditioning as suggested above?
Good that the taste improved. Since you hit your FG, then it didn't stick to high. Sometimes, it can take a while to fully carbonate. It's not a high ABV beer either so that bodes well also.
 
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