Flat beer help?

[rarse35]

Hey all -

I've now done 6 batches of five gallon - mostly IPAs with a chocolate Porter mixed in. The first three batches had perfect carbonation. The last three had zero - the smallest of hisses when I open the bottle and then nothing in the glass. I've aged all the batches together - in the basement. Granted, it was 63-65 in the winter months but the first three were not affected. I used proper priming sugar in all of them and have since moved some upstairs (68-70 degrees) for a week+ and it hasn't helped. The only difference I can think of is I started using starsan in the bottles between the last good batch and the first bad batch but I would think that would be okay unless I didn't dilute it enough? Any other ideas what could've happened? I've used the same bottler throughout as well. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Wavesweeper]

Hey all -

I've now done 6 batches of five gallon - mostly IPAs with a chocolate Porter mixed in. The first three batches had perfect carbonation. The last three had zero - the smallest of hisses when I open the bottle and then nothing in the glass. I've aged all the batches together - in the basement. Granted, it was 63-65 in the winter months but the first three were not affected. I used proper priming sugar in all of them and have since moved some upstairs (68-70 degrees) for a week+ and it hasn't helped. The only difference I can think of is I started using starsan in the bottles between the last good batch and the first bad batch but I would think that would be okay unless I didn't dilute it enough? Any other ideas what could've happened? I've used the same bottler throughout as well. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Did you stir the batch well enough after adding the sugar ????

 

[rarse35]

Added it straight to the bottling bucket while racking it - figure the siphoning itself would mix it?

 

[Revvy]

How long have they been in the bottles?

There are no carbonation problems, only patience ones.

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer. Beers stored cooler than 70, take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.


Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."

Carbing is foolprrof. You ad the right amount of sugar, leave it at the right temp, and it will carb.

If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them more time. If you added your sugar, then the beer will carb up eventually, it's really a foolroof process. All beers will carb up eventually. A lot of new brewers think they have to "troubleshoot" a bottling issue, when there really is none, the beer knows how to carb itself. In fact if you run beersmiths carbing calculator, some lower grav beers don't even require additional sugar to reach their minimum level of carbonation. Just time.

 

[rarse35]

Thanks Revvy - appreciate the response. Ill keep waiting them out!

 

[Wavesweeper]

How in the hell do I start a new thread ?? I must be drunk !!!!

 

[ajlee]

Added it straight to the bottling bucket while racking it - figure the siphoning itself would mix it?

This is the way to do it. Add it to the bucket and rack on top of it. It will carb up with time.