Under-carbonated Lager - Dormant yeast or too little sugar?

[bghtfc]

I have a bottle conditioned Oktoberfest beer that seems to be undercarbed. I'm hoping someone can help me figure out where I went wrong and how to fix it.

It fermented in primary for 3 weeks then lagered at 33 deg F in secondary for another 6 weeks. I added table sugar to carb according to NB priming calculator: 3.5 gallons of beer at about 40 deg for 2.5 vols equaled 1.93 oz of sugar (I added 2 oz). I wondered if I needed to pitch some yeast to the bottling bucket because I was concerned the yeast had gone dormant or dropped completely out of suspension. I didn't though because I didn't have any yeast at the time and I had read many threads saying it wasn't necessary, there would still be yeast suspended in the beer.

After 3 weeks now of bottle conditioning the beer is hardly carbed at all. Since it is carbed even just a little though there must be some yeast in there going to town, right? Which begs the question, did I just use too little priming sugar? or is it just taking some extra time because there is likely very little yeast in the bottles. Should I make a yeast slurry and use a syringe to add some yeast to the bottles?

 

[freisste]

What temp are you storing the bottles for carbing? I would bring it up to at least 70.

You may not have added enough sugar. What temp did it finish fermenting at? The reason you put in a temperature for the calculator is to determine how much CO2 is likely still in solution. You need to enter the highest temperature at which you had fermentation. You mentioned 40 which seems a little low.

If you already have the bottles at 70, I would wait a little while longer, make sure you have them in the fridge at least two days before opening, and enjoy as is. I would not go through steps to "fix" the beer as it would likely cause more damage than good.

The beer is drinkable, right? Just not perfect? Learn your lesson and fix the next batch.

 

[bghtfc]

They've been conditioning in a closet that is right around 70. I fermented around 54, did a 2 day D-rest at 65 then lagered at 33. So my temp for the priming sugar calculator should have been 65 I suppose?

I didn't realize the temperature in the priming calculator was for the warmest temp, I just assumed it was for the temp that the beer was at the time. And I suppose that's my problem as the calculator is saying I should have added an ounce more of sugar for 65. I also had it in the fridge for only 8 hrs so that may be part of it too. Thanks for the suggestions

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

They've been conditioning in a closet that is right around 70. I fermented around 54, did a 2 day D-rest at 65 then lagered at 33. So my temp for the priming sugar calculator should have been 65 I suppose?

I didn't realize the temperature in the priming calculator was for the warmest temp, I just assumed it was for the temp that the beer was at the time. And I suppose that's my problem as the calculator is saying I should have added an ounce more of sugar for 65. I also had it in the fridge for only 8 hrs so that may be part of it too. Thanks for the suggestions

No. It is usually the highest temp reached during/since fermentation as it is used to approximate the residual co2 still in suspension. Ie. The warmer it got the less co2 still in suspension.


Sent from somewhere to someone

 

[atoughram]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here...

On the NB Carbonation Calculator Website http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

Current Temperature of Beer should read "Proposed serving temperature of beer"??

For instance, if I want to serve my 10 gallons of 2.5 vol Lager at 50 degrees, I'll add 6.6oz of sucrose (Table Sugar), hold the bottles at 70f or there about for three weeks or so, and then chill and enjoy... My beers seem to come out pretty good when I do it that way...

 

[Yooper]

I say it all the time, but I'll say it once more- I HATE those calculators!

First, the temperature part is confusing. Secondly, they would have you carb "to style", so you'd have flat beer if you made a stout (1.5 volumes) or bottle bombs if you made a weizen (4+ volumes).

For lagers, I use 1 ounce of sugar per finished gallon of beer. Well, I use that for almost all styles actually.

So, you used 2 ounces, where I would have used 3.5 ounces. That's quite a difference , about 40% less than a fairly good carb level if my math is ok. If you wait it out, it still will be undercarbed, but maybe not too bad. Many people use .75 ounce per gallon, and are happy with that and that would have been about 2.6 ounces, so it's no so much undercarbed compared to that.

 

[bghtfc]

Thanks for the help everyone. This isn't a mistake I will be making again.

I'm thinking I can fix this problem with a little math. It sounds like I need to add about another 1.5 oz of sugar to the 35 bottles I have. I'll dissolve it in 4 oz of boiled water. A conversion from oz to ml means I'd have 118 ml of priming solution in a syringe, which breaks down to about 3 ml that I could drop into each bottle. I think it sounds more difficult than it will actually be.

Does this sound right or am I just asking for trouble? I really want to save this beer because it's by far the best all grain I've done so far!