Novice - flat beer

[zimmer46]

Hi.
I am a complete novice to home brew with current batch only my second.

It's a Brewferm Belgian Gold beer. The first fermentation got to a specific gravity of 1.010 which is bang on what the instructions said. Sugar was added for the second fermentation and then bottled. I kept the bottles in the kitchen where the temp is about 20c for a couple of weeks and then put them in my beer fridge out in the garage. The brew is lovely and clear, but very little head if any.

Perhaps I put them in the fridge too soon ? Anything I can do at this stage to inject a bit of "life" into the brew ?

Regards
Andrew

 

[zed0]

So you transferred to a secondary FV and then batch primed and bottled immediately? How much sugar did you use?

A couple of things I can think may have happened:

1. Not enough sugar in batch priming;
2. Sugar not mixed enough in secondary so some bottles received less sugar than others. Are they all flat?
3. were the bottles sealed correctly to prevent gas escaping?

Other than that 2 weeks carbonation at room temperature is fine.
If the brew is in the bottle you can always try adding some sugar to a bottle and re-capping to see if there is any improvement over a week or so at room temperature again. Or move the lot into a keg and force carb with co2.

 

[zimmer46]

Thanks for the reply.

Per the instructions with the kit, after the initial fermentation had reached the specific gravity I transferred the entire batch into another vessel and added 96g of sugar and mixed it thoroughly, well at least I thought I did. Its a 12L batch. Then immediately transferred to plastic re-useable bottles with plastic screw tops. These were then stored at room temp for a couple of weeks before chilling.

I have only tried 3 bottles so not sure if they are all flat. But my first attempt with a different beer was OK ie bottles seals and held their pressure.

I'll try adding a little more sugar . Is half a teaspoon enough ?

Thanks
Andrew

 

[zed0]

96g for a 12l batch seems plenty. I put 140g into a 20l ruby ale and it was well carbed. Everything you did compares with what I've done so I can't see why you wouldn't get a nice carb from that. Unless your yeast was exhausted and was insufficient to carb the beer but that sounds like a rare thing. Everything I've read seems to make me think there should be enough yeast left to carb your brew.

From what you've said I can't see adding more sugar helping. Sorry I can't be more help.

 

[klaus]

The last time I did this kit, all per instruction, except I prime the bottles rather than the full brew in another vessel. Bottles under stair, about 16C average most of the time, left for 2 months, perfect carbonation.

Perhaps you should wait at least a month? Brewferm kits benefit from maturation as well.