Low carbonation. Is there a fix?

[citabria]

After 21 days I cracked open one of my German Alt's and was suprised to find very little carbonation. I used 4.5oz of priming sugar. Boiled it up and cooled to 70F before pitching into the bottling bucket. This is my 3rd beer and my first carbonation problem. The first week it was in bottles the room temp fluctuated between 66 and 69 degrees. After that it was a solid 70F. Was the early cold temp the cause of my relatively flat beer? I have heard that you can swirl the bottles to get the yeast back into suspension. Will this still work after 21 days?

This beer tastes soooo good. It just needs bubbles!

 

[SixFoFalcon]

Your temps are not an issue--mid to high 60s are hardly "cold" (I would call that the "ideal" range, actually). Even the low 60s would be OK... it would just take a little more time to carbonate than the upper 60s or lower 70s. 4.5 oz sounds fine for 5 gallons of beer. hmm...

Are your caps tight? Is there any yeast sediment in the bottom of the bottles?

When in doubt, wait it out. Sometimes that means resorting to <eek> commercial beer for a week or so.

 

[malkore]

how long did you chill them before opening? give it 48 hours to cool and absorb the CO2 in the headspace.

is it dead flat? or just weak? any 'hiss' when you crack it open?
is there sediment in the bottles, which indicates the yeast are consuming the priming sugar?

give it another week, try again. some yeast strains can be slow on priming depending on how long primary and secondary were.

I wouldn't agitate the bottles any further than rolling one on its side, gently, a few times.

if a week shows no improvement, there are other options: open bottle, add a carb tab and maybe a couple grains of dry yeast, recap, wait 3-4 weeks.

 

[citabria]

how long did you chill them before opening? give it 48 hours to cool and absorb the CO2 in the headspace.

is it dead flat? or just weak? any 'hiss' when you crack it open?
is there sediment in the bottles, which indicates the yeast are consuming the priming sugar?

It is weak, not dead flat. There is a hiss, but it is not a large hiss. I do see sediment at the bottom. The bottle was chilled for just over 1 hour. I'm starting to believe I didn't measure out the priming sugar correctly. It's the only thing that makes sense to me at this point

 

[EvilTOJ]

I usually measure out my priming sugar by volume instead of weight. Did it come out to 3/4 cup of sugar for a 5 gallon batch?

 

[SixFoFalcon]

Also make sure the priming sugar is evenly distributed. Usually just adding it to the bottling bucket first and then racking the beer on top is enough to mix it up well. If you added the beer first, then the priming sugar, and didn't stir well, you could have ended up with the majority of that priming sugar going into a few bottles and the rest not getting much.

 

[tagz]

it looks like you didn't add enough priming sugar. you added 1/2 cup and most people use 3/4 for a five gallon batch.

 

[scottab]

i have a similar problem but not sure if it is that i just put it into the fridge too soon. I make the brewers best pumpkin spice ale to mfg recommendations and primed with 5 oz of priming sugar. i placed into the fridge after a week without trying it first since i know from samples it is quite spicy when young and better once it has had a chance to mellow. i bottled the 2nd week of december i believe on the 11th then waited a week before placing into the fridge. i know with commercial beers temp variations can skunk your beer what should i do wait it out or should i remove back to the 65 temp basement?

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

It is weak, not dead flat. There is a hiss, but it is not a large hiss. I do see sediment at the bottom. The bottle was chilled for just over 1 hour. I'm starting to believe I didn't measure out the priming sugar correctly. It's the only thing that makes sense to me at this point

needs to chill longer that that. at least 24 hours but 48 or more would be better. you added plenty of priming sugar, so don't sweat that. just chill the beers longer to allow the co2 to dissolve into solution.

 

[cshamilton]

i have a similar problem but not sure if it is that i just put it into the fridge too soon. I make the brewers best pumpkin spice ale to mfg recommendations and primed with 5 oz of priming sugar. i placed into the fridge after a week without trying it first since i know from samples it is quite spicy when young and better once it has had a chance to mellow. i bottled the 2nd week of december i believe on the 11th then waited a week before placing into the fridge. i know with commercial beers temp variations can skunk your beer what should i do wait it out or should i remove back to the 65 temp basement?

Scottab try starting a new thread to get better answers (people are going to start responding to the OP which is 3 years old).

Yes you chilled to early, go ahead and pull them out of the fridge - you only need to worry about light for skunking - not temp changes. Give the a few weeks at room temp, you can swirl them a bit to rouse the yeast, and then after 14+ days chill a few to test them out.