No carbonatation at all

[mjardo]

Hi everyone!
I opened 3 different bottles of my latest IRISH RED. None of them had any gas at all. I don´t really know why.
Is there any way of "saving" the beer? the flavour is good, but no gas.
What I only think is to open bottles, add sugar and recap them.
Is that the correct thing to do? I know there is a risk of contamination, but I don´t know any other way if there is.

Thanx everyone in advanced.

Mariano from Argentina

 

[friarsmith]

How long, and at what temp have they been stored? Meaning, refrigerated or room temp? If they've been stored cold, consider storing them at room temp for a week or so. If they've been stored at a warmer temp, you could try two options:

1. Gently turn the bottles upside down for 30 seconds. Then return them to upright, store at room temp for a few days, then refrigerate ONE bottle for at least one day and test it.

2. Go to your local pharmacy, purchase a cheap child's medicine dropper, mix up some bottling sugar as usual, then inject a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar mix (or so) into each bottle and recap. If you keep everything here sanitized, including the dropper, you should be just fine. Store the bottles a week or so at room temp, then refrigerate and chill one test bottle for a day or so. I usually use the medicine dropper method to bottle condition beer as opposed to mixing the whole lot of sugar water in the bottling bucket. Ensures uniform carbonation.

Side Note: Remember that CO2 will fill the headspace of a bottle conditioned beer while it is stored near room temp. CO2 will only partially absorb at warmer temps. If you give a bottle a day or two in a refrigerator, much of this gas will reabsorb into the colder beer, as opposed to escaping when you pop the top. So the beer will present better. IMO, crash chilling a tester bottle of warm bottle conditioned beer in the freezer for 30 mins doesn't give the CO2 enough time to reabsorb and might lead you to believe the beer is not carbonated. Patience....

 

[Aristotelian]

Tell us more about your bottling process. Could be a problem with the yeast or with the sugar but it's impossible to tell you what to do unless we know what is wrong. Any reason to suspect sugar didn't get in the bottles or yeast might be dead?

 

[ncbrewer]

How long and at what temperature have the bottles been conditioning? Rule of thumb is three weeks at 70F.

 

[mjardo]

Thanks everyone for your answers.
I've botteled two weeks ago and the bottles are at 16 °C

 

[ncbrewer]

I've botteled two weeks ago and the bottles are at 16 °C

Bingo

 

[seabrew8]

Yeah you want the temp over 20C.