Flat bottled Ale ... Help!

[marcusbroadside]

I am new to the homebrew so forgive me if this sounds stupid....

Have done a batch of Woodfordes Wherry...

I fermented it for about 10 days ( too long?? ) then moved it to a secondary fermentor for about 10 days ( too long?? ) then bottled it.... after a month in the bottle, opened one up beautifully clear, tastes good BUT very flat, hardly no bubbles.... It was bottled stored in a cool room. Am I right in saying I should of kept it in a warmer room at say about 20C for a while for it to carbonate up?? I have now moved it to a warmer room, turned the bottles, its now been another 2 weeks... shaking a bottle it still looks flatish...

Do I wait longer?
Do I open up the bottles and add more sugar or yeast, how much, will it change taste of Ale?
Did I make the yeast go dormant to quickly?

Thank you..... :hmm:

 

[GrumpyBunny]

Did you prime the beer prior to bottling?

 

[RobWalker]

you did add 1/2tsp sugar to each bottle right?

don't panic yet - you havn't ruined it.

 

[Northern Brewer]

Hi Marcus

Did you add any priming sugar when you bottled it? should be around 1/2 a flattish teaspoon per bottle for an ale, or about 3 to 4g grammes per litre if batch priming it (putting sugar it into the beer just before bottling)

Cheers
Andy

 

[Northern Brewer]

Did you prime the beer prior to bottling?

beat me to it

 

[graysalchemy]

Assuming that you did add sugar you should leave at 20c for 7 days and then move to a cooler place and leave there for 7 days per gravity points. so a 1040 beer has 40 gravity points so 4 weeks in the cool. However no one would be grudge you trying one after a week in the cool

 

[marcusbroadside]

Hi everyone... Thanks for quick reply.

Yes I did prime, using the 500 ml glass bottles. I put in 2 of the Coopers brewing sugar sweet like tablets per bottle...

Why is it taking so long? Was it a fermenting mistake? Or temp mistake? Will it carbonate?

Cheers

 

[RobWalker]

could be a yeast issue. did it taste quite sweet for a beer? if so the sugar might still be in there unfermented - maybe try repitching a few grains of yeast per bottle then leaving it for a week in a warm room, like you say 20c ish.

its in an airtight sterile environment for now, so no worries about it going bad!

 

[calumscott]

If you used two carb drops per 500ml you should get a pretty fizzy beer, one drop is supposed to do 375ml IIRC.

Regardless, this seems to me to be one of three things:

1) you have kept them too cool for the yeast to get going on the carb drops or
2) you have killed the yeast somehow or
3) the CO2 has escaped rather than building the pressure to force it into solution

So...

1) Where have you stored the bottles since bottling?
2) How thorough were you when rinsing the bottles after sterilising? Did you add anything to your beer at secondary or bottling time?
3) What type of bottles/caps/capper etc do you use? Also, wherry is quite a sweet brew - with that in mind, just how sweet is yours?

 

[hoofy]

I'm new to homebrewing, so when having a conversation about this very subject with the bloke in my local homebrew shop, I was told that I could put some fizz in my beer by getting a 10ml syringe, put it in your pint, draw up 5ml of beer, pull the syringe out, draw up 5ml of fresh air, then put the syringe back in your beer and push the beer and air back into your drink.

It does work, I tried. In fact, it can work a bit too well, so be very careful you don't end up with your glass overflowing with foam.

 

[marcusbroadside]

If I do have to repitch yeast, can you recommend one... S04 ?

Yes it does taste sweet....

The bottles were kept in a cool utility room..
The bottles were washed/sterilised/dried etc ... Nothing was added at secondary or bottling time ( just sugar when bottling )...
I use brown Grolsch type glass bottles, with new rubber washes each time...

 

[anthonyUK]

I'm new to homebrewing, so when having a conversation about this very subject with the bloke in my local homebrew shop, I was told that I could put some fizz in my beer by getting a 10ml syringe, put it in your pint, draw up 5ml of beer, pull the syringe out, draw up 5ml of fresh air, then put the syringe back in your beer and push the beer and air back into your drink.

It does work, I tried. In fact, it can work a bit too well, so be very careful you don't end up with your glass overflowing with foam.

I bottled a Coopers English bitter without priming
I use the syringe method and it makes a big difference :thumb:

 

[calumscott]

If I do have to repitch yeast, can you recommend one... S04 ?

Yes it does taste sweet....

The bottles were kept in a cool utility room..
The bottles were washed/sterilised/dried etc ... Nothing was added at secondary or bottling time ( just sugar when bottling )...
I use brown Grolsch type glass bottles, with new rubber washes each time...

Right, I would say bring them into the warm, somewhere 18 degrees or higher for a couple of weeks then see what like. It may be that the yeast is just a bit lazy and can't get going if they are cool.

The syringe method won't give you any fizz but it will create a head out of what little there is. You'll still have flat sweet beer...

If a couple of weeks somewhere warm doesn't get them going then you could try dropping a couple of grains of dried yeast in, any half decent ale yeast would be fine, after all there isn't a huge fermentation going to happen so off flavours aren't likely.

 

[marcusbroadside]

Brilliant.... Will try that

Thank you all....!!

 

[shearclass]

I don't see how you could have killed yeast, so adding more yeast to each bottle would be a royal waste of time.

One of my earlier brews took ages to carb up. I don't know why, but the bottles took, if i remember correctly, about a month.

Move them somewhere warm, and see if they have improved after a fortnight.

 

[Growler]

May be the bottles I had a crate of brown grolsch bottles and chucked them in the end as I could never get any pressure in them replaced washers several times but beer was always flat :cry:

sorry realise that that was not a very helpful post!

If you have them it is possible if you're careful to transfer into different bottles
but having read the rest it seems that you may be alright just need to give them more time

 

[kentmark]

Might just need more time? I had a geordie bitter batch that did this, flat as a flat thing from the first bottle opened, with more time given was nice and fizzy!

 

[the-erl]

Could just need a bit more time but did you add finings at any stage?
:drink:

 

[Gayle]

OH did a Woodfordes Wherry a few months ago and some of the bottles are a bit flat. He didn't rinse out the bottling bucket well after having milton in it, siphoned nearly half the ale into it before I got him to sanitise and properly rinse another bucket, the ale from the non-rinsed bucket have not yet carbonated, but the rest seem fine.

If your bottles are sitting in the cold now, the yeast might be having a nap but move them somewhere warm and hopefully it'll wake up again and do it's job.

 

[marcusbroadside]

Well.... Thank you for all the feedback...

The time came, after leaving all the bottles in a warm room to open them up...

First bottle.. Success!! Lovely carb, good head in glass , general taste great.. Very happy!
Bottle two.... Arrrrrr FLAT!! Taste good sweet but flat.

Opened up about 8 bottles. 5 great carb 3 flat...

Noticing a slight banana taste.. ??

It's a learning curve for me but any other feedback conclusions appreciated...