Partial Carbonation Problem:

[HempelNet]

Well the wife and I decided to bottle our Oatmeal Stout so we can save the kegs for other brews. I used the same process I have used in the past but ended up with strange results. I used a bottling bucket and mixed in 5oz of priming sugar after stirring in the sugar we bottles 2 cases of brew, capped, then stored for 3 weeks at 70 degrees. I then placed a case in the fridge and after chilling found roughly every 4th bottle was completely flat. When popping the cap it had a slight carbonation hiss sound but no head and tasted flat.

I did perform a quick search of the forums for partial carbonation and did not see a match if I missed a post and this is in fact a duplicate I apologize in advance. Any ideas on what I did incorrectly?

I would also like to pass a few of these out to my friends but I am a little scared they may get a flat one, could I shake the bottle to tell if it is carb'ed before passing out a flat beer?

Thanks..

 

[Thumper]

I would give them a week or two more. Remember that 3 weeks is the minimum amout of time. There are many varibales. Knowing your SG and FG would also help as bigger beers take more time to carb/condition in the bottle. Each bottle is undergoing a mini fermention, and will vary from one another.

 

[HempelNet]

Plot thickens... It appears I may have had a batch of bad caps if that is possible. I placed the other case of Oatmeal Stout in the fridge which has been sitting in 72 degree room temp for carbonation and the three bottles I tried were completely flat. In hopes to save the beer I did the following please let me know if my efforts are in vein and I should just dump and rebuild since we have the technology.

Poured the remaining bottles "21" into a clean keg
Purged the air out several times
Set the PSI on 10 at 42 degrees for a set and forget 2.2 CO2 level
Going to give it 2 weeks then try the beer unless I get some feedback on why I should cut my loses and dump due to ....... as I have not done a bottle to keg before. Thanks in advance..