Things Were Going So Good

[PassionForThePint]

Had a number of batches under my belt and overall, they went pretty good until I decided to make a Strawberry Wheat. However, this one was a little different. There was no carbonation. Nothing at all. Tried a couple of bottles and both were the same.

I used Austin Homebrew's American Wheat http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=326

Extract - Liquid: 7 lb Liquid Malt Extract, .5 lb Base Grains, .75 lb Specialty Grains.
Extract - Dry: 6 lb Dry Malt Extract, .5 lb Base Grains, .75 lb Specialty Grains.
Mini Mash - Liquid: 5 lb Liquid Malt Extract, 1.25 lb Base Grains, 2 lb Specialty Grains.
Mini Mash - Dry: 4 lb Dry Malt Extract, 1.25 lb Base Grains, 2 lb Specialty Grains.
All Grain: 5 lb Base Grains, 4.75 lb Specialty Grains.

And added 2 oz of Strawberry extract with the priming sugar at bottling.

The original gravity and final gravity were right on. The fermenation looked pretty healthy.

The only mistake I can think of is a problem at bottling, where I had one bottle cap that wouldn't fit on a bottle. So she poured the beer back into the bottling bucket.

The real question is what can I do to save this batch? It tastes pretty good, minus the whole lack of carbonation issue.

 

[NWMushroom]

How long have you given the bottles to condition?

 

[grace1760]

How long in the bottle?

I've never used them, but I think you can open up all the bottles, drop in the tablets that they sell for carbing beers individually, then re-cap.

 

[PassionForThePint]

Three weeks in the bottle to condition.

 

[zachary80]

How long between brewing and bottling? I don't see any reason it shouldn't have at least to to carb by now

 

[jigidyjim]

What temp were the bottles at when you conditioned them? Ideally you had them at 70 for about 3 weeks. Any colder would take longer.

If your bottle caps weren't on well that would be a problem.

Other than that...only explanation I can think of was that you actually forgot the priming sugar. It wouldn't be the first time someone did that on this board

 

[PassionForThePint]

It was about 74. Hard to keep my apartment cooler than that in Florida, but I'm the process of buying a chest freezer to fix that.

Loose bottle caps was my idea after the first one. After the second, I realized I had a problem.

I'm 99% sure that I added the priming sugar right before I added the strawberry extract...but there is that 1%

 

[broadbill]

I don't buy the loose bottle caps idea if you've bottled in the past with your setup and had carbonated beer and tightly capped bottles.

What was the source of your strawberry extract? Does it have preservatives in it? That would inhibit the yeast and you would not have carbonation. Sometime people will use stuff from the grocery store shelf and later realize that they added a crap-load of sodium benzoate to their beer.

 

[Pappers_]

I don't buy the loose bottle caps idea if you've bottled in the past with your setup and had carbonated beer and tightly capped bottles.

What was the source of your strawberry extract? Does it have preservatives in it? That would inhibit the yeast and you would not have carbonation. Sometime people will use stuff from the grocery store shelf and later realize that they added a crap-load of sodium benzoate to their beer.

That's what I was thinking too, that it might be something in the extract.

 

[PassionForThePint]

I used Austin's strawberry extract

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=497

Been trying to rack my brain what else we may have done different on bottling day, but I can't come up with anything.

 

[jigidyjim]

How weird. I wonder if you killed your yeast somehow.

Do the bottles that you do open have any yeast sediment in them?

 

[ArcaneXor]

That is unusual... I wonder if you accidentally got something other than priming sugar in your kit. Try pouring a bottle into a shallow bowl and add a bunch of yeast to it. Cover loosely with foil. If it starts fermenting, you need to add some fresh yeast to the bottles (preferably a dry lager yeast; they tend to be better for bottle carbing a troublesome batch). If it doesn't start fermenting, add some sugar to the bowl. If that kicks it off, then you know you added something other than priming sugar, and you can dose the bottles with some carb tabs to get them going. If that doesn't kick it off, something must be inhibiting the yeast. At that point, your options would be kegging and force carbonating, blending (at serving time) with a commercial beer that is highly carbonated, blending with sparkling mineral or seltzer water at serving, or a desperate attempt to try to get whatever is inhibiting the yeast out of solution at the risk of incurring substantial oxidation. To do that, you'd have to purge a carboy or bucket with CO2, gently add the bottles into the purged fermentor, and cover it, skeeter pee style, with some cloth for a few days, maybe using a degasser periodically (purging the headspace with CO2 first recommended). Then try another fermentation test - if it works, then you can re-bottle the batch after dosing with priming sugar and fresh yeast.

 

[cravej]

Did you stir it up well after adding the priming sugar?

 

[Psych]

It was about 74. Hard to keep my apartment cooler than that in Florida, but I'm the process of buying a chest freezer to fix that.

Loose bottle caps was my idea after the first one. After the second, I realized I had a problem.

I'm 99% sure that I added the priming sugar right before I added the strawberry extract...but there is that 1%

I have one batch (that I'm still working through) where maybe 25% of the bottles are not sealed properly. Very frustrating, most are fine but sometimes I get 2-3 in a row pulled randomly from the fridge where there's zero carb, no pressure release when opening, nothing. The rest, fully carbed.

I attribute it to poor capping on bottling day. Batches since then have been 100% fine.

 

[jigidyjim]

I have one batch (that I'm still working through) where maybe 25% of the bottles are not sealed properly. Very frustrating, most are fine but sometimes I get 2-3 in a row pulled randomly from the fridge where there's zero carb, no pressure release when opening, nothing. The rest, fully carbed.

Another thought... I once realized after bottling that several of my bottles were actually screw tops. Most of the screw tops (with bottle caps put on top) held fine, but a few leaked.

However, even those had some carbonation, and here, the OP claims NO carbonation... not even a hiss.

Which actually makes me think more... I would think that a beer in a bottle even with no priming sugar would hiss a little, just due to CO2 releasing naturally from the beer. If there's no hiss at all, maybe the caps totally leaked?

 

[PassionForThePint]

I got lucky it turns out that it was just a handful of bottles that must have loose caps. The rest of the beer seems to have carbed, in fact the one I tried yesterday had too much carbonation.

 

[Brewmiser]

maybe some got more sugar than others? did you disolve your priming sugar 1st or just dump it in?

 

[Pappers_]

I got lucky it turns out that it was just a handful of bottles that must have loose caps. The rest of the beer seems to have carbed, in fact the one I tried yesterday had too much carbonation.

Good, glad most of them are fine!

 

[hops2it]

I got lucky it turns out that it was just a handful of bottles that must have loose caps. The rest of the beer seems to have carbed, in fact the one I tried yesterday had too much carbonation.

I had that happen once also. Attributed to inadequate mixing. I don't get carried away but I do gently stir the sugar solution into the bottling bucket contents now. No problems since.

 

[upperNY01brewer]

Me I made a check list to be sure I never miss a step in any process, so as I can exclude that 1% did I or didnt I.

 

[PassionForThePint]

Good, glad most of them are fine!

Thanks

maybe some got more sugar than others? did you disolve your priming sugar 1st or just dump it in?

I did dissolve it first.

I had that happen once also. Attributed to inadequate mixing. I don't get carried away but I do gently stir the sugar solution into the bottling bucket contents now. No problems since.

I think I'll try gently stirring it with the next batch.