Last few batches have been "off"

[mattymatt79]

So like the title says, my last few batches have been quite off. I've let them sit in bottles for awhile and they're all coming out a bit flat and very lemonny tasting. Granted I have been using hefe strains of yeast but even the scotch wee heavy I cracked into lastnight had lemon flavors and was flat. It's been in a bottle now for almost a year and it's just flat. Am I doing something wrong with my sugar when I add it to my bottling bucket? I'm doing kits only so I'm using the sugar packs that come with the kits. Could it be I'm not getting a good seal with my capper? Could that be the problem?

Any ideas?

 

[duboman]

A year with no carbonation???
Explain how you are priming and your bottling process.

The lemony flavor is not very descriptive, could be anything but first thought is your fee notation temperatures. Do you have any temperature control? What are typically fermenting at?

 

[jonnyp1980]

How did you prepare the sugar? What was your recipe? Any possibility you might have forgot to add it bottling day??

 

[TopherM]

Take one of the beers in question and shake the crap out of it. If you don't hear it squealing, it isn't leaking CO2/air, and your capper is fine!

Once you eliminate that possibility, then you know that if you added priming sugar properly, and didn't apply a fine filter that filtered out your yeast, then your bottles would have carbed, so you likely did something wrong with your priming sugar procedure.

 

[mattymatt79]

The sugar is the priming sugar from the kit. I heat 2 cups of water to boil and then add the sugar and stir. I move the beer from my primary to my bottle bucket and add the sugar mixture.

Let sit a second and then bottle. Put them in the basement where it stays around 65 degrees year round in the dark.

This just started happening, I'm in my 4th year brewing extract kits and have never had this problem in the past.
I'll try shaking the beer tonight when I get home from work and see what happens with that.

 

[duboman]

The sugar is the priming sugar from the kit. I heat 2 cups of water to boil and then add the sugar and stir. I move the beer from my primary to my bottle bucket and add the sugar mixture.

Let sit a second and then bottle. Put them in the basement where it stays around 65 degrees year round in the dark.

This just started happening, I'm in my 4th year brewing extract kits and have never had this problem in the past.
I'll try shaking the beer tonight when I get home from work and see what happens with that.

You should be putting the priming sugar syrup in the bottling bucket first, then rack the beer onto it, when complete give it a gentle stir with a sanitized spoon to ensure its mixed we'll and then bottle.

In addition you might want to try a warmer location, 70-75 is more ideal for carbonating.

 

[novahokie09]

CO2 solubility increases with decreased temperatures, so increasing temperature will reduce the effective dissovled CO2 in solution. If you're having troubles at 65F, I wouldn't suggest going higher, definitely go lower.

 

[duboman]

CO2 solubility increases with decreased temperatures, so increasing temperature will reduce the effective dissovled CO2 in solution. If you're having troubles at 65F, I wouldn't suggest going higher, definitely go lower.

Not trying to create an argument, the overall consensus in bottling circles is when you are having difficulty getting bottles to initially carbonate it is best to raise the temp to around 70 so the yeast activity increases to consume the sugar present. Once carbonated then place the bottles in a colder environment to force the CO2 into a fully absorbed state to avoid the possibility of gushing. If the yeast are kept too cold they will not be active enough to properly consume and carbonate bottled beer.

 

[mattymatt79]

Thanks for all the good ideas. I have other places I can store at, so maybe a room with a little high temp would help.

Thanks.