Little carb after 3 weeks.

[b1021]

First batch I've ever made and I'm waiting for this to carb in my bottles, its been three weeks since bottling and only get a little hiss when I open a bottle and a tiny bit of head. Also, it has a little bit of a watered down taste - which leads to my question.

When I added my primer, I used 5 oz of dextrose and a cup of water..my directions said to just use enough water to cover the dextrose..so could I have added too much water which is delaying the carbination?

Just curious as it doesn't taste as good as when I was tasting my hydrometer testing. Just a mellow flavor, which I'm bummed about.

Thanks for any replies!

 

[brewmasterpa]

this one is tough. theres a lot to know about what you made before detemining what the problem might be. what kind of beer, what ingredients, what was the brew technique, how long did it ferment at what temp, what kind of yeast, how big a batch. very tough to detemine a carbonation problem without knowing what you made. watered down taste comes from too much water in the brewing process, and low carbonation could be low priming sugar for amount primed, or low yeast yield which could be caused by lots of things. let us know what you made and how you made it and thatll help us help you a bit.

 

[rsmith179]

Make sure that your temps are as close to as 70F as well. It will take up to 3 weeks at that temp, even longer if you're storing them on the floor or in a cool place.

 

[XXguy]

List your recipe, final gravity reading & your conditioning temps - you'll get more accurate advice.

At first glance - I agree with rsmith - you probably need to bump up your temps to complete the bottle conditioning. The good news is, you probably have good beer, it just needs more time.

 

[supermoth]

A couple months ago I was posting on here with the same problem as you! I discovered just a few days ago that what my beers needed to carb up was a couple months at room temperature (since my apartment is cold), and at least a week in the refrigerator. After that, perfect!

Just wait it out, and in the meantime, rationalize your storebought beer as adding to your bottle collection!

 

[b1021]

6lbs. DME Muntons Light
1/2 lbs Crystal 20l Grains
1/2 lbs Carrpils Grains
1 tsp Brew Saltz
1 tsp Irish Moss
1 oz Warrior Pellot Hops
1 pack SafAle Yeast

2 Gallons of Water @ 160

Added brew saltz - Steeped for 25 min. Added DME, 1/2 oz hops. Boil for 50 min. Added hops & moss for 10 min.

Ice bath down to 70 degrees, added 3.25 gallons of water. Added yeast and airated.

OG - 1.058
Primary - placed primary bucket in bucket of water cause I was worried that our house would be too warm with our heater on, water was around 65.
6 days in P - 1.018
8 days in P - 1.018
Racked to secondary - Just left it on the floor, basically low 70s.
9 days in S - 1.016
13 days in S - 1.020

Bottled - I'm in AZ and the house has been in the low 70s since botting.

Thanks for your comments...just wanted to make sure I had everything down right before I started another batch.

 

[brewmasterpa]

your gravity readings are a bit high. did you strain your trub when you aerated into the fermenter and before you pitched your yeast?? did you use safale 04 on this? and did you pitch it dry, or make a starter?

 

[b1021]

Yeah I was thinking they were kind of high, but was going off my kit directions; and they didn't move in my primary so I figured I was good to go. I didn't strain at all. I used SalAle 56 yeast. Pitched dry.

 

[duskb]

First batch I've ever made and I'm waiting for this to carb in my bottles, its been three weeks since bottling and only get a little hiss when I open a bottle and a tiny bit of head. Also, it has a little bit of a watered down taste - which leads to my question.

When I added my primer, I used 5 oz of dextrose and a cup of water..my directions said to just use enough water to cover the dextrose..so could I have added too much water which is delaying the carbination?

Just curious as it doesn't taste as good as when I was tasting my hydrometer testing. Just a mellow flavor, which I'm bummed about.

Thanks for any replies!

Don't worry about it...I had similar batches when I first started out.... (I even added in an extra .5 gal of water to the bucket without realizing it.) At first I was very dissapointed with it. After a few months in the bottle the flavor turned out great.

Wait, it should be ok.

 

[Blender]

You could roll the bottles around a bit to bring the yeast into suspension. I would bet in a week or two they will be much better.

 

[b1021]

I've been shaking them up a bit to move the yeast around, hopefully it will work.

 

[Homercidal]

If you didn't stir well, then perhaps the sugar mix is uneven. Possible that soem bottles got too much and some got too little?

 

[b1021]

I didn't stir at all..I added the primer into the bottom of my bucket, then racked on top of that. I read on here that the whirpool action whould mix it up enough.

 

[rsmith179]

Very true... You could just take each bottle out and swirl the yeast in the bottom around a bit to get it back into suspension. This may help carb up your bottles a bit quicker...