Can flat beer be fixed post-bottle?

[FlapjackAM]

So I have almost 100 beers conditioning and I've noticed an unfortunate trend. All my batches appear to have gone slightly flat and have no head; I made a post on the subject (not trying to double post) but my question has evolved to: is there anything that can be done about it now or am I stuck with three batches of headless beer? They seemed to start out fine and lose it over time in the bottle. Frustrating.

 

[BradleyBrew]

How long has the beer been conditioning for? When I use to bottle I noticed if the beer was young and was not given adequete time for the co2 produced to be re-obsorbed back into the beer that when you open the bottle you get this massive rush of co2 and then basically flat beer. That could be the case. If its a fundamental flaw in a technique of ingredient then there isnt really anything that can be done now.

 

[FlapjackAM]

I generally give it two weeks before opening and some have been sitting for a month or two now. The strange thing is when I first try it after two weeks there's plenty of head. As they sit in my room it's like they lose it. Strange. What flaws of technique would lead to this? I do extract. I've heard there are additives that help with head but its that they start out ok but end up without it. Hand washed my glasses in case that was it, didn't seem to help.. Hm.

 

[ncbrewer]

I generally give it two weeks before opening and some have been sitting for a month or two now. The strange thing is when I first try it after two weeks there's plenty of head. As they sit in my room it's like they lose it. Strange. What flaws of technique would lead to this? I do extract. I've heard there are additives that help with head but its that they start out ok but end up without it. Hand washed my glasses in case that was it, didn't seem to help.. Hm.

A while back I started getting a few bottles of flat beer per batch - later traced it to a problem with the capper, giving an inconsistent seal. I re-primed the flat ones by adding 1/2 tsp of table sugar per bottle and recapping. Kept the re-primed bottles in a safe place in case of bottle bombs, but luckily none exploded. The re-priming fixed the carbonation, but three of them turned sour - probably due to the sugar not being sanitized. Dissolving the sugar in some water and boiling might have been better. You can draw your own conclusions from this, but with unknown carbonation to start with, bottle bombs are a possibility.

 

[FlapjackAM]

A while back I started getting a few bottles of flat beer per batch - later traced it to a problem with the capper, giving an inconsistent seal. I re-primed the flat ones by adding 1/2 tsp of table sugar per bottle and recapping. Kept the re-primed bottles in a safe place in case of bottle bombs, but luckily none exploded. The re-priming fixed the carbonation, but three of them turned sour - probably due to the sugar not being sanitized. Dissolving the sugar in some water and boiling might have been better. You can draw your own conclusions from this, but with unknown carbonation to start with, bottle bombs are a possibility.

That could be a possibility. I think I warped my capper on the first batch trying to use the wrong bottles (noob!) but the seals look ok to the eye. Would make sense though, since they seem to start out ok. I'll have to pick up a new one see what happens. Would yeast or sediment that make it into the bottle cause any issue? Fishing for clues here. For the future, I've heard adding the LME at the end of the boil helps head retention as well, maybe I'll try that. Makes me want to start kegging..

 

[ncbrewer]

Yeast sediment is normal - shouldn't cause flat beer.
Take a look at this thread by Revvy: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/#post1030387
It's a good read regardless of what the problem is.

 

[Peppers16]

In the UK we just call flat beer "beer"

To answer your question: buy some new caps, pry the old ones off, add sugar/carbonation drops to each bottle, recap and then shake them up. If they've been sat around for months you might want to mix some fresh dry yeast in with the sugar or something. You definitely want to err on the side of caution though, since there'll be CO2 dissolved in the beer and you don't want to overcarb as others have said.

It just occurred to me: are you using plastic bottles? They lose gas over time and it's best to stick to glass ones. If you're using glass, I'd stretch balloons or condoms over a few bottles and see if they're leaking.

Worst comes to the worst, you might come to like flat beer. Personally I think it brings out the maltiness of a beer and makes it more drinkable

 

[ncbrewer]

Worst comes to the worst, you might come to like flat beer. Personally I think it brings out the maltiness of a beer and makes it more drinkable

I like that approach.

 

[FlapjackAM]

Yeah I think ill learn to love it too paranoid about explosions.

 

[Grippe]

Use PET bottles and dry ice like this.