No carbonation and tastes like wine... Infection?

[JonJazz]

My wife and I have brewed a witbier (Hitachino Nest White clone) and bottled it 15 days ago. Today we put one in the fridge and tried it to see how things were going.

When we cracked it open, there was absolutely no sound. The beer, the color of a blonde ale, clear and everything, had not a trace of carbonation in it. The taste could only be described as white wine with a bit of sourness ; overall, it was undrinkable.

So is there anything we can do? Or is it officially our future first dumped beer ever?

Some more details :
- there seems to be a yeast cake at the bottom of each bottle (dead yeast?)
- the wine-y taste was present at bottling. In fact, it looked and tasted pretty much the same as on bottling day
- fermentation was normal, if slow to start (lasted visibly from day 3 to 10, healthy krausen and all). Nothing looked like an infection at any stage

 

[atoughram]

Some more specifics on the recipe & priming specs would be helpful.

 

[DaWhip]

agree with atoughram and would also recommend checking another bottle just in case it was a bad seal.

 

[JonJazz]

The recipe was a clone from the "Clone Brews" book, we made an exact (extract) replica of Hitachino Nest White. Wheat LME and half a pound of steeping grains with hints of nutmeg, and orange juice added just after the boil. Yeast was White Labs Witbier, expiration date sometime in 2017. To my knowledge everything was properly stored prior to brewing.
Brewed on the night of October 15, pitched at about 70F an hour after the boil. Visible fermentation started on the morning of the 8th, and a krausen was visible for at least a week. Stayed in the plastic bucket for three weeks. We bottled on November 5.
The first time I noticed something might be off was three days earlier when I took a gravity reading, it was a good bit over the target final gravity (1.016 when it should have been around 1.011). But it stayed there for three days and we decided to bottle it. Besides copious amounts of trub, which I attributed to the presence of wheat (it was our first wheat beer ever), nothing looked out of the ordinary.
There was definitely a bit of tang in the taste on bottling day, like I said, but I didn't think much of it because I had read that wheat beers can sometimes be a little zesty in taste, especially when they are this young.
I opened a second bottle right after the first one, non refrigerated, and the taste and flatness were the same. I put a third one in the fridge, I will test it tonight.
I will also post a screenshot of the recipe as we made it. Thank you guys

 

[XPLSV]

What method did you use for your priming sugar addition?

 

[Sillybilly]

Agree with others.. what did you use to prime (table sugar, DME, etc) and amount much? Did you get a good mix when adding priming solution? What is the temp where the bottles are conditioning? Also, was the wine-y taste some what of a green apple taste?

 

[JonJazz]

Thanks for bearing with me. We used wheat DME for priming. We bought all the ingredients at a LHBS which I know and trust. Fermenting temp might have been a bit high as we don't have a consecrated fermentation room (we live in an apartment and are both still pretty new to homebrewing), but I used the same method as the 6 recipes we made before without incident. Also since it's a belgian I didn't think off flavors from high temp fermentation would be too out of place. Long story short, it might have fermented anywhere from 75 to 80, since the temperature in the room has been in the 68-72 range. I know it's a bit high.

I thoroughly mixed the priming sugar in the priming bucket with the beer on bottling day, while trying not to introduce too much oxygen. All six previous beers I made were perfectly carbonated and do not show any sign of oxydation. Bottles are/were conditioning at room temp, around 70-72. And yes Sillybilly, now that you mention it, the taste is closer to a tart green apple juice than an acidic white wine, but it is really unpleasant, just like the smell.

Here is a screenshot of the recipe in the book. We followed everything step by step, steeping temperature, hop additions, spices, the only difference is the yeast (Wyeast replaced by White Labs Witbier) :
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1479775260.352734.jpg

 

[shortyz]

using wheat DME as a priming sugar isnt really standard... not saying thats the off flavours you have experiences but its the only thing i see a little strange in your recipe.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

If you've added DME and still don't have carbonation then it's not an infection - that would cause over carbonation. The lack of carbonation can only be because of either bad seals (yeast have fermented the carbonation sugar but the CO2 has escaped) or dormant yeast. Given that it has an odd 'winey' tasted, I'd guess the latter (beer with a bit of sugar added tastes awful). Having said that, 15 days is a long time for no carbonation. Could the bottles have got too hot (the yeast may be dead)? Have they been too cold (yeast sluggish and slow)? Did you add something that might have stressed the yeast (some spices can do this)?

 

[Pappers_]

What Gnomebrewer said. If there was an infection, you would have carbonation.

If you primed and sealed properly, your bottles will carbonate eventually. Sometimes they do take a little longer than the standard two weeks. Make sure they are warmish (in the 70s would be good) and give them another couple of weeks.

If the off-flavor is green apple-like, that is perhaps acetaldehyde, which sometimes diminishes with aging. Its cause is fermentation related - make sure you're pitching enough healthy yeast.

 

[dwhite60]

Three weeks minimum at around 70F for full carbonation. Fifteen days is a little short.

Give it some more time.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[JonJazz]

using wheat DME as a priming sugar isnt really standard... not saying thats the off flavours you have experiences but its the only thing i see a little strange in your recipe.

That's what we thought too but we made a few recipes from that book and they turned out great, though we never tried wheat DME before

 

[JonJazz]

If you've added DME and still don't have carbonation then it's not an infection - that would cause over carbonation.

That's what we thought was odd about it. I read a lot about homebrewing on this forum and other sites in the past few months and almost all the stories of infected bottles I read end up with gushers or bombs...

Could the bottles have got too hot (the yeast may be dead)? Have they been too cold (yeast sluggish and slow)? Did you add something that might have stressed the yeast (some spices can do this)?

It certainly looks like the yeast is dormant, or even completely dead. The beer just hasn't evolved at all in the two weeks since bottling. It had the same "winey" apple taste on that day, now it's neither worse nor better. We will just let it sit for an extra two weeks before we try another, if I learned anything from reading stuff on here it's to be patient with the beer, to let the yeasties do what they have to do, and to RDWHAHB

 

[JonJazz]

Sometimes they do take a little longer than the standard two weeks. Make sure they are warmish (in the 70s would be good) and give them another couple of weeks.

I already put them elsewhere in the house, the closet might have been a little too cool a place, and we will see what happens. Thanks for the advice
We will try another at the beginning of December, and will come back to let you know how things turned out.