Beer gun bottles no carbination

[scotdr9]

I'm getting married in two weeks, and we are doing homebrews for favors. I have a total of 5 5-gallon batches we are using. Since these are being given out as gifts, I wanted the beer to be completely clear and sediment free, so I purchased a Blichmann beer gun, am kegging them, force carbing, and bottling from the kegs. Last night I bottled my first two batches. I poured a pint before bottling and all was well, beer was carbonated just right. Tonight I pop a bottle just to test it out from the bottle to find there is very little carbonation.

Anyone have any thoughts as to what happened, and more importantly, how (if) I can fix the carbonation? My only thought is to pop all the bottles, gently pour into a bucket, rack back into the keg, re-carb, re-bottle.

 

[jwplessner]

Check out carbonation drops, probably your best bet. But 2 weeks is cutting it close.

 

[barnaclebob]

if they had carbonation at capping but don't afterwards then the caps must be leaking.

To confirm try bottling then immediately have a bottled beer after you are done bottling. This will tell you how much is lost to foaming during the bottling process. A little more will be lost as the beer and head space come to equilibrium if they hadn't yet. Any other losses are from leaks.

 

[billl]

You are going to lose a little to foaming and then you are going to lose a little more to pressurizing the head space. If you slightly overcarb before bottling and go real slow to minimize foaming, you should settle back to "nicely carbed". Unfortunately, it does take a little practice to consistently get the carb level you are looking for.

 

[vinylrooster]

Also, make sure you have your reg set to 3-5 psi when using your beer gun. It also doesn't hurt to top each bottle of with a squirt of co2 from the best gun. Lastly, only do 3 bottles at a time, meaning don't let them sit long between filling and capping.

 

[vinylrooster]

I'm also assuming you aren't using any type of fancy bottle caps here? I remember a while back someone tried using fancy colored caps that ended up being not air tight. Just a few thoughts

 

[vNmd]

I just bottled my first batch with the beer gun the other night. I over carb'd my keg by about 3 pounds before I bottled. I popped my first bottle last night and the carbonation was ok but I might go up another pound or so next time. If the beer was just right from the tap, it might have needed a few extra pounds of pressure for bottling. I had my keg at about 13 pounds for a couple weeks and dropped to 3 pounds for bottling.

 

[fearwig]

Great thing about force carbing is that you can keep doing it until you get it right. When I sent some bottles off for competition last month, I actually force carbed in a 2-liter with a carbonater cap, slightly overcarbed it, chilled it as cold as I could (a little below 32 in freezer for good measure), and then siphoned into bottles. Worked like a charm.

 

[ram5ey]

Also try to use cold bottles. That will help less co2 come out of solution.

 

[scotdr9]

I appreciate the responses. I ended up popping all the bottles, gently pouring into a bucket, re-kegging, and re-carbing. They have turned out decent (definitely changed taste a bit, I presume from oxidation, but better than no carb).

Some things I did differently:

Cranked the CO2 up to 18psi from 13 psi (think kegerator is set around 40 degrees so about 2.5 volumes to 3 volumes)

bottled/capped 3-4 at a time vs 15-20

turned CO2 down slightly while bottling, first round was filling a bottle in about 5-6 seconds, now 10-15 seconds

I did a couple test bottles and then did the whole batch and it seems to be well carbed, so those changes made the difference.