Flat AG English Brown Ale - kinda...

[Bikeworks]

I brewed my first batch of AG and wondering if anyone could give me things to watch with my next. The first bottle was opened after 17 days in the bottle. It was very flat, virtually no head, but, flavor was OK.

I added 5oz of priming sugar to about 5.25 gallons before bottling. My fear is that I screwed up the batch when I pitched the yeast. I did a "starter" with the Tettanger yeast 12 hours before pitching. It was alive and well when pitched. After 24 hours the fermentation was crazy active, then it died down some after about 72 hours, then became unusually silent at one week. I put it in the secondary and never noticed any gassing off during the next week.

MY QUESTION (even though I am sure I will get a dozen suggestions as to what I did wrong). Does anyone ever make starters with dry yeast? Is there any chance the little guys blew their wad in the first 48 hours and settled to the bottom and I didn't get enough in the secondary and then further reduced the population in the bottling stage?

OG 1.048, FG 1.015

Thanks, Tim

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

A few quick thoughts ...

First, you don't need (and actually shouldn't do) a starter with dry yeast but I doubt that's your problem.

I can think of two possibilities for your carbonation issues. One is that the cap may not have been on correctly and any carbonation escaped. The other is that you don't mention the temperature you are storing the bottles at. Too cool and it will take a while. Give it another week or two.

One more possibility is that the priming sugar wasn't evenly mixed in the bottling bucket and you got a bottle that had too little priming sugar in it.

Bottom line is that I doubt it was the yeast.

 

[Bikeworks]

I am bottle fermenting at about 64-66 degrees. That first bottle I placed outside for a half hour to cool and then popped it. Will it make a difference if I chill it longer? I'm hoping it was just a bad seal on that first one. I'm hoping for a bench capper for Christmas!

 

[Shred]

That's a pretty low temp for bottle conditioning. If you can get it somewhere warmer (70F or better) it will carb up faster. You most definitely did not hurt your yeast by doing a starter. It's thought to be somewhat unnecessary because dry yeast is in a state of suspended animation, contains twice the population of liquid and is much cheaper, but they'll still chew through a starter and go nuts on whatever else you pitch them into.

Long story short, I'm thinking your temp is the issue. Either bring it up or give it more time.

 

[Bikeworks]

Thanks Shred. I am going to move my storage upstairs. My house is typically 64 degrees this time of year, so, maybe I should build one of those aquarium heater control boxes! Just kidding. I will move it out of the basement though and maybe gain a couple degrees.

 

[Bikeworks]

Success! I moved the bottles upstairs and gained a few degrees. After a couple days the bottle I opened was noticeably improved. It should only get better. Thanks for the input.