Flat beer after conditioning in bottle

[deanmakesbeer]

Hi

I finished my second AG batch a few months ago and on both occasions the beer is flat. After fermentation I put a small tea spoon of brewing sugar in each of the bottles before siphoning the beer in. After capping gave the bottle a shake. I can't see what I have done wrong. Surely after 3 months the beer should be carbonated.

My previous batches had the same problem except after 6 months or so when opening they gushed everywhere. I thought it should have been carbonated after only a few weeks. Please could I have advice?

Thanks

Dean

 

[Dads_Ale]

What temperature are you storing the bottles at?
They should carb up in about 2 weeks at room temp.

 

[Halfacrem]

What sort of bottles are you using?

 

[Cwrw666]

Are you storing your bottles somewhere very cold? Normal practice is to prime and bottle, then put your bottles somewhere warm for a couple of weeks, then store somewhere cooler. This allows the yeast to do it's stuff. If you don't do this then on long storage as the weather warms up the yeast will become active, hence the 6 months gushing activity.

 

[deanmakesbeer]

I keep it under my stairs. So no warmer than room temperature. Then I put in fridge a few days before drinking. Using old brewdog bottles. Could I be using to little sugar?

 

[deanmakesbeer]

Thanks for getting back to me by the way

 

[Sandimas]

I can't give you an answer, but I get much more predictable carbonation results bottling kits and extract brews than I do AG ones, despite using the same method for all 3.

A couple of my AG brews have picked up wild yeast infections and produced gushers. I don't know if I've just been unlucky but this never happened in 4 years of kit and extract brewing, so why would AG be any different?

But most are under-carbonated like you have. I normally decant to a secondary FV and crash cool, so the beers are bottled clear, but there should still be enough yeast in suspension to carbonate. I'm puzzled too.

 

[Slid]

I keep it under my stairs. So no warmer than room temperature. Then I put in fridge a few days before drinking. Using old brewdog bottles. Could I be using to little sugar?

Sorry if I am talking rubbish here about crown capping (I have only used screw tops or rarely swing tops) but there is a sort of bottle that is hard to get the crown caps on properly, I think.

If you are having difficulties with capping, perhaps there is a link?

I like Cwrw666's observations and would add that beer brewed in the warmer times tends to carbonate more than those done during the Autumnal months. My gushers were all from Summer brews.

I guess that the higher temperatures get the yeast started faster, but that these temperatures tend to make the yeast "lazy" in the sense that they leave a higher SG in the beer after the 7-14 days in primary.

This in turn means that there are more sugars to contribute to the carbonation in the bottles. These sugars are eventually eaten up by the yeast at almost any temperatures, even in the fridge.

Another line of enquiry might be to speculate on whether very clear bottled beer might benefit from longer than 2 weeks in the warm? I have not made any observations on this. It sounds like it might be relevant, though.

Any other ideas / observations, guys (and gals!)?

 

[baggybill]

Couple of observations from me...

I wouldn't use teaspoons as a guide. I have a drawer full of teaspoons and no two are the same size :-?

Either batch prime so you know exactly how much sugar to add (via an online calculator) or do as I do and add carb drops (Coopers/Wilkos). Coopers are best value for money during a Tesco sale (i.e right now!), Wilkos are pretty extortionate. I normally dose 1.5 Copper drops per 500ml bottle. Tried 1 but even a stout come out under carbed (imho).

Also...

Start using a couple of 500ml PETS bottles. PET bottles are your friend. I just bottled 22L of a brew into glass but I also used a couple of PETS. That way I can keep it in the warm, room temp, until the PETS are firm (2-3 weeks) and only then move it to the cold. The PETS let you know how the carbonation is going.

Good luck :thumb:

 

[JapanBrew]

Couple of things.... Was you FV in a cold place? What was the final gravity reading before bottle?
If that looks ok, then I would suspect the caps but it's weird if all the bottles were flat. If you pop open another one, and it's carbed then you got cap issues.
Sanitizing... Used some kind of unsafe sanitizer and the left over killed the yeast!?!

 

[Spapro]

Are you storing your bottles somewhere very cold? Normal practice is to prime and bottle, then put your bottles somewhere warm for a couple of weeks, then store somewhere cooler. This allows the yeast to do it's stuff. If you don't do this then on long storage as the weather warms up the yeast will become active, hence the 6 months gushing activity.

I'd second this post, are you leaving your bottles somewhere warm for 2 weeks after bottling before moving to a cooler space ?

 

[deanmakesbeer]

Thanks guys. To the points about temp it has always been room temperature. The sanitiser was from my local home brew shop. The caps also appeared to fit on fine. I think I may have put too little sugar in the bottles. I the teaspoon was never heaped and I may have been too cautious to not put too much in.

 

[ManseMasher]

Thanks guys. To the points about temp it has always been room temperature. The sanitiser was from my local home brew shop. The caps also appeared to fit on fine. I think I may have put too little sugar in the bottles. I the teaspoon was never heaped and I may have been too cautious to not put too much in.

There is a priming calculator in the 'calculators' link at the top of the page which I find very useful. What I also do, rather than priming bottles individually, is to make a syrup with the priming sugar, put it in a bottling bucket and then syphon the beer into it, so that every bottle gets the same amount of priming. If you have the gear, I find it a lot easier.

 

[marinali29]

:mrgreen: a temperature controller solves all issunes. I just found inkbird ITC-308 Giveaway on homebrew talk, cheap and pre-wired thermostat.

Sorry if I am talking rubbish here about crown capping (I have only used screw tops or rarely swing tops) but there is a sort of bottle that is hard to get the crown caps on properly, I think.

If you are having difficulties with capping, perhaps there is a link?

I like Cwrw666's observations and would add that beer brewed in the warmer times tends to carbonate more than those done during the Autumnal months. My gushers were all from Summer brews.

I guess that the higher temperatures get the yeast started faster, but that these temperatures tend to make the yeast "lazy" in the sense that they leave a higher SG in the beer after the 7-14 days in primary.

This in turn means that there are more sugars to contribute to the carbonation in the bottles. These sugars are eventually eaten up by the yeast at almost any temperatures, even in the fridge.

Another line of enquiry might be to speculate on whether very clear bottled beer might benefit from longer than 2 weeks in the warm? I have not made any observations on this. It sounds like it might be relevant, though.

Any other ideas / observations, guys (and gals!)?

 

[TartanSpecial]

Thanks guys. To the points about temp it has always been room temperature.

What temperature is room temperature??? If you are storing the bottles under the stairs , the centre of the room might be 20c, but it could easily be 16 or 17 under the stairs, or if the wall next to the stairs is an outside wall maybe even cooler in winter. ...maybe worth checking

 

[Bramble]

By PET do you mean plastic?
If so I use the empties my wife leaves when she has drank their contents, Aldi Tonic Water.
As mentioned elsewhere they are good to check how carbonation is progressing.
I used plastic when I brewed a Pear Cider and popped two Sugar drops in each bottle, they took two months to Carbonate at room temperature.....

 

[TartanSpecial]

Yes PET = the clear plastic bottles you get carbonated beverages in....like Aldi tonic. It's a great tip from baggybill to fill one PET bottle to keep track of carbonation...I'll do that next time...missed my chance today since I bottled off a batch of ESB this morning....

 

[JapanBrew]

Are you using those larger, 740 ml bottles? If so, 2 spoons of sugar would be about right.
Recently I boil water and make a syrup. Then using a sanitized syringe I inject 35 ml for 500 ml bottle. That way I get a balanced amount in each bottle. It's a pain in the but but I don't have a second bucket for bottling. I'll probably grab one soon because I'm doing too many brews and bottling all of them is a time killer.

 

[Racinsnake]

You can buy measuring spoons for couple quid, from homeware shops with measured capacities, from 1/4 teaspoon to tablespoons.

 

[deanmakesbeer]

Thanks guys.