Is it too late to add sugar?

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cradleinflames

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So, I was making my first brew and the instructions said to dissolve the sugar in but didn't mention anything about boiling it in. Realistically, I should have double checked by hindsight is 20/20.

Anyway, I opened my first beer 2 weeks later and it tastes good but it's flat. Is it too late to add some sugar in and wait it out? Is there anything I can do at this point or is this flat beer the best I'm going to get from it?

Let me know when you get the chance. Thanks!
 
A couple possibilities here...

I'm assuming that the sugar you are talking about was the priming sugar to carbonate your bottles.

Sounds like you just dumped sugar straight into your bottling bucket then bottled your beer. If this was the case then it is not unlikely (depending on the type of sugar you used) that most of the sugar sank to the bottom and didn't actually get bottled. In this case you can definitely add some more sugar to your bottles and carb them up. If you stirred your beer once the sugar was added (or used a non-granulated sugar) then a decent amount of sugar was probably still suspended in the beer and got into the bottles. If this was the case then you might just want to give it a couple more weeks to see if anything happens.
 
Yeah, I put in the sugar and stirred it in and it looked like it dissolved but I didn't actually boil it . . . I had it sitting in the bottles for about 2 weeks.

So right now I'm not sure if some of them got carbonated and some of them didn't or if they're all likely to be undercarbonated. Should I just leave them for another 2 weeks or so? Or should I try them and find out if they're all undercarbonated? I assume if it's opened, it can be closed up again and just put back for longer but I'm still pretty new at this.

Thanks for the quick reply! It's sad having a great tasting beer that is flat . . . :(
 
Hmm. Good to know.

Dumb question, I already opened this beer. Can I just close it up and put it back? And does it matter that I refrigerated it for half the day already?

Should I do anything else, knowing that I didn't boil the sugar in to dissolve it?

Sorry for all the questions. Unfortunately, I don't have a local resource to bounce these questions off of. Thanks!
 
What temperature have you kept the bottles at? For bottle carbing, you want to keep them at 70 degrees or above ideally for 2-3 weeks. Cooler than that and it will take quite a bit longer. Otherwise, yeah just uncap them, add a bit more sugar and recap them. It may be difficult to figure out the correct amount of sugar to hit the right level of carbonation, but there are products available that might make it easier: http://home-brewing.northernbrewer.com/search?asug=&view=grid&w=carbonation
 
It's about 65-70 degrees. I have it in my garage in a foam ice cooler (in case it blows up and to keep it a consistent temperature). So it's about the right temperature. I guess I'll give it another 2 weeks or so and see where we're at. Then I can think about potentially tossing some more sugar in.

Does that sound about right?

Oh, one other side note . . . i tossed some jalepenos in some of the bottles . . . Do I need to worry about those going bad over time? Or will they just be preserved by the beer?
 
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