Not sure if beer will ever carb

[chadm817]

Brewed a batch of Irish red ale from midwest supplies

We had 4 gallons instead of 5 so I used a priming calculator and it said to use 3.2 oz of sugar. I used 3.5 instead of the 5 oz it came with.

Anyway we are 3 weeks into the bottling process and it's still low on carb. It's getting better week by week but still low. Do you have any tips or should I just wait it out?

 

[Riot]

Warm it up and give the bottles a shake to get the yeast back in suspension. What strain did it use? Should give a better idea on how warm it needs to be to carb reasonably. Also, what was the abv at bottling time?

 

[JonM]

Just wait longer. Some brews take longer than others.

 

[Hello]

High ABV beers will take longer for sure. You did the right thing when you measured the correct priming sugar instead of just tossing in 5 oz as it was handed to you. the temp can cause it to slow as well, like someone also mentioned.

 

[aiptasia]

Yep, warmth and time. I place my bottles on the top shelf of a dark closet in the house to carbonate up. Since my house is anywhere from the high 70's to the high 60's (depending on the time of year and our power bill), it generally takes about three weeks to start seeing some minimal carbonation in my beers. One month is much better. Let them sit in a warm, dark place and be patient.

It also helps to refrigerate your beers a full 24 hours before testing carbonation levels. The cold temperature increases the CO2 holding capacity of the beer and will draw CO2 out of the neck space and into the liquid beer.