Trouble capping my bottles

[stupot]

Hello all, first thread here! Ive brewed two batches of beer in my short brewing career, one being the classic Wherry and another a standard wilkinsons bitter.

Im having an issue when I bottle either beer and cap it. Ive bottled it and used the capper, but when I came to drink some the next day the beer was totally flat. Whilst its not the end of the world to not have the carbonation in terms of texture etc, it actually didnt taste anywhere near as nice without.

Im unsure what the issue is, the Wherry is so carbonated that half the bottle is head when decanted, but I let this settle and poured more in. In the meantime I had no cap on the beer and so I thought a logical explanation would be that the co2 escaped. However, my bitter brew is nowhere near as fizzy, so I was able to bottle it without stopping to let the head go down. But the next day both bottles were flat when i opened them. Totally flat with 0% head or bubbles.

Ive just opened a flip top style bottle of the beer and that was fizzy as expected, I bottled that 2 weeks ago.

Is my issue that I need to wait for the beer to regain its co2 for a few days at least after bottling, before consuming?

Cheers in advance (sorry if this has been covered before but i did do a quick search to no avail)

 

[JamesMcS]

Hi Stu - are you saying you bottled your beer, tried it the following day and it was flat?

 

[stupot]

Yes, apologies if my post was ambiguous!

 

[MtirKiesh]

Hey stupot, you need to leave the beer in the bottle in the warm for about two weeks before it will carb properly then I would put it somewhere cooler for at least a couple more weeks to age. Ideally you want to leave it a few month before you consume that way you'll get a better tast.

 

[stupot]

I should mention this is after doing the secondary fermentation in the barrel for around 5 weeks. Bottling purely to chill and transport the beer.

 

[Monte Cristo]

I think that is like buying a can of beer opening it and pouring into another container and the day after hoping it is still fizzy it won't happen as it will loose its co2.
You need to batch prime and bottle or prime the bottle with sugar so the beer carbonates in the bottle. :hat:

 

[pms67]

Yeah,you may be getting a little mixed up mate,length of time in secondary is irrelevant (and so is secondary in my opinion) what matters is conditioning time,minimum 2 weeks (says the man drinking a 10 day old coopers Heritage lager :nono:)
You will see a big difference.
Cheers

 

[stupot]

So regardless that my beer is ready to drink from the barrel, if I want to bottle it I have to do so then wait a few weeks for it to condition further?

 

[JamesMcS]

Well - it might have finished fermenting, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's ready to drink.

When your fermentation finishes, it means the yeast has consumed most or all of the fermentable sugar in your brew - so they go dormant, and don't produce any more co2.

When it comes to bottling you need to add more sugar to the brew (either as carbonation drops in each bottle or a solution of sugar in a bottling bucket, that you then add the brew to), then seal the bottles.

The yeast will consume the sugar but there's nowhere for the co2 to go, so it goes into solution in the bottle and comes out as fizziness when you open it.

The best thing to do to understand the carbonation and conditioning process is to bottle, leave for a couple of weeks, then try one bottle every week or so after that and see the difference each time.

 

[stupot]

Brilliant, I will try bottling with sugar this time!

 

[JamesMcS]

Patience, annoyingly, is the key. You'll want at least a fortnight in warm conditions for the yeast to consume the sugar, and probably another 1 or 2 somewhere colder to let it all settle and clear.

It means that your beers aren't really portable though, unless you're really careful or it's a wheat beer (where yeast suspended in the beer is desirable), otherwise it'll be cloudy and not add it should be. Here's a wheat beer I made about a month ago, I purposefully stirred the sediment up:

The alternative is a cornelius keg, where you filter the yeast out and use a co2 tank to pressurise and carbonate the beer. Lots of posts on here about that

 

[stupot]

Ok cheers. Ill give it a go bottling some tommorow and try them in a few weeks and see how we do.

 

[JamesMcS]

Stick some pictures on here and your thoughts when you pen your first bottle. Hope it's tasty!

 

[stupot]

So after my woes with the keg i bottled the remaining wherry and primed with sugar. I just cracked one out after 2 weeks. It is much clearer. The taste is still a bit too yeasty, but i think it has refined a decent bit. I cant really expect the perfect pint due to the methods used to brew my first batch! But alas ive now bottled another batch so i will see how that one is in 2 months or so!

 

[hopin mad]

I use a 5 mil eye dropper to measure dissolved sugar into my bottles, and then siphon the beer on top. cap immediately and then move to a warm dark place for at least 2 weeks to secondary ferment, move to a cool place and allow to mature a little before trying.
The stronger the beer the longer it will keep, wherry should keep a couple of months, but I bet it will not last that long.

If you have another brewing bin start another brew as soon as fermentation stop on the first one