No Fizz!?!? Help Please

jthumphries · Mar 10, 2018

Hi, I'm hoping someone can spot my problem. I've made quite a few batches of cider/ceysers from juice and from fruit but carbonation has been all over the place. I thought I had it dialed for my last batches, but after a completely still ceyser last night, evidently I don't.
Jan 15, 2018 - 1 gallon of Cran-razz juice + 1 cup honey + 1/2 tsp of Lalvin EC-1118 in air lock at 1.072.
Feb 7, 2018 - Racked and added 1/4 tsp of anise at 1.000

Feb 12, 2018 - Racked and strained out anise at 1.000

Feb 17, 2018 - Bottled with 1/2tsp of dextrose per small bottle and ~1tsp dex per larger bottle

It was quite fizzy when I bottled it so I expected the fizz to likely be a bit too strong, but when I tested bottle on March 9, it was tasty, but no carbonation at all.

One side note - I had bottled the batch, but realized my capper was still at a friend's house. The bottles sat open for ~2 hrs before they were capped.
Can anyone offer any advice here?

myndflyte · Mar 10, 2018

What temp were the bottles sitting at between Feb 17 and March 9?

jthumphries · Mar 10, 2018

myndflyte said:
What temp were the bottles sitting at between Feb 17 and March 9?

~17-18 C or around 66 F

myndflyte · Mar 10, 2018

jthumphries said:
~17-18 C or around 66 F

That's a bit on the lowish side. See if you can get them some place a bit warmer for a week and see if that helps. Otherwise I don't know what else could be the issue.

jthumphries · Mar 10, 2018

myndflyte said:
That's a bit on the lowish side. See if you can get them some place a bit warmer for a week and see if that helps. Otherwise I don't know what else could be the issue.

Will do. Thanks for the tip. I had kept these in a cooler area as I was worried about explosiveness as I was bottling. I'll move them to my warmer zone. Trying another batch tonight that has similar specs but was kept warmer during bottling. It will be interesting to see if that one fizzes up right.

myndflyte · Mar 10, 2018

jthumphries said:
Will do. Thanks for the tip. I had kept these in a cooler area as I was worried about explosiveness as I was bottling. I'll move them to my warmer zone. Trying another batch tonight that has similar specs but was kept warmer during bottling. It will be interesting to see if that one fizzes up right.

If its carbonated, then that might give you a little more evidence that it was just a temp issue.