Not carbing up

Vallka

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ok so I have a batch of IPA it is 60 days in the bottles and it is not carbing up, yes I primed it with cane sugar with BF priming Calc, as I always do. I have tested 4-6 bottles so far and there seems to be nothing. With this batch (lots of dry hops) I did rack to secondary which I very rarely do.
Is it a lost cause
 
60 days and no conditioning? You primed with cane sugar. Is there any carbonation whatsoever? No little "pfft" when you open the bottle? Because none of what you mention would cause the beer not to prime. Possibilities: Somehow you killed or otherwise removed all the yeast from the beer before bottling. And I mean all. As my good friend Dr. Horst Caspari says, all it takes is one live cell and time. Another possibility is that the beer got very warm, driving all the CO2 in solution out before bottling. In that case you'd get undercarbonated beer. Another, less pleasant possibility is that the sugar stratified so that you have some bottles with no carbonation, some overcarbonated, doesn't match what you described. Another possibility is that you somehow forgot the priming sugar, as in you mixed up the syrup but didn't add it. The only way the bottles would not condition at all is if there were no live yeast or no sugar. There are a few ways to get undercarbonation but none that you describe. And I don't know how to fix it without adding both new yeast and sugar to the beers.
 
It didn't get too warm, there is the tiniest little poof when cracking the bottles open but so small it's like just the gas that was in there originally. It didn't get too warm, I didn't forget the priming sugar, because this was the first time I used Brewers friend priming calculator and I stirred the syrup in.
I'm going to give every bottle shake and put it in a warmer place to see if that kicks the yeast in.
I bottled two batches that day, the other batch is fine.
It is very strange
 
I’d add more yeast before I added more sugar. If you added sugar before, it’s still in there.
 
Probably just not much yeast left when you bottled. If that's the case it'll just take more time to carb up. You have the right idea to give the bottles a little shake and warm them up a bit. If it isn't carbed in another 2 weeks just uncap the bottles, add a few grains of yeast to each and recap with new caps. As you uncap, leave the caps sit on the bottles to reduce the risk of anything dropping in.
 
I'm assuming you used a bottling bucket, added the priming solution and then racked the beer on top of it? On one of my early batches, after I'd finished bottling, there was about a half bottle of beer left in the bottom of the bucket. I poured it into a glass for another taste... it was sickly sweet. Most of the sugar solution had settled on the bottom and didn't mix in well with the beer during transfer. That batch did carbonate a little bit. It was drinkable but nowhere near the carbonation level that it was supposed to be for the style. Now I make sure my priming solution is a little thinner and cool it to room temperature before adding to the bucket. A wide temperature differential between liquids can make integration tougher to achieve. I also make sure I carefully stir the mixture right to the bottom before bottling. Haven't had an issue since. This may not have been the culprit but it is a possibility.
 
What temperature are the bottles sitting at? My basement in the winter hovers around 60f and if I don't move the bottles somewhere warm to carb it will take a very long time for the beer to be ready. 60 days does seem a long time, but if your bottles are cold then I think it could be possible.
 
If the bottles were stored somewhere cool the yeast might have settled to the bottom so they can't get to the sugar. Warm em up and flip the bottles over to resuspend the yeast. I think that is most likely the culprit, since you are sure you added the sugar. I also doubt that you killed off the yeast before bottling, unless you tried to. They wouldn't all die unless you heat pasteurized the beer, even if you left the beer in the fermenter for months.
 
Ya bottles are kept in a room with five other batches, they are all fine. All I can think of is my racking to secondary then bottling bucket was to good. I added sugar after racking to BB, stired it up carefully, sugar mix was not to thick.
Gave the bottle a shake yesterday and will again today, if no change in 10days I will pop the calandra swing tops then add some yeast.
 
Oh they are swing top bottles? It could be the gaskets are bad and need to be replaced. If the gaskets go bad the carbonation just seeps out as its made. You can order more gaskets at most homebrew shops.
 
Both caps and swings. All other beers in swing are fine
 
Ok so no change over the week. I'm going to add yeast, dry yeast to each of the remaining bottles, I have some Lallemond Nottingham ale
the question is........ How much in each bottle (65ml and 1L bottles)??
 
I'm only going on the reading I've done as I've never done this in practice. But from what I've read, it takes 2-4 grains of yeast per 12 oz (354 ml) bottle. This would agree with Bob357's post above. If you are worried about overcarbonation, but aren't sure if you got the sugar in there, you could add a single small carbonation drop into the bottle just in case. Keep testing and let us know!
 
I tried everything on a batch of stout that never carbed...nothing worked. I ended up pouring them a couple at a time into a liter soda bottle and using a carb-cap after I got CO2 for kegging. That finally made good beer. :)
 
Ok so no change over the week. I'm going to add yeast, dry yeast to each of the remaining bottles, I have some Lallemond Nottingham ale
the question is........ How much in each bottle (65ml and 1L bottles)??
I wouldn't think the amount of yeast matters too much since they're not "used up" while making CO2. If there's sugar present, yeast will grow, eat, and make gas. That being said, more yeast would help it carb faster, but I'm not sure there would be a noticeable difference in time.
 
Yeah that's weird, I'd almost suggest not enough sugar over not enough yeast. I cold crash and gelatin fine my beer and occasionally bottle 1 or 2 when I have to much for a keg. I just put in the carbonation tablets and they work fine with whatever yeast is in solution.
 
Yeah that's weird, I'd almost suggest not enough sugar over not enough yeast. I cold crash and gelatin fine my beer and occasionally bottle 1 or 2 when I have to much for a keg. I just put in the carbonation tablets and they work fine with whatever yeast is in solution.
Ditto that. If you can get access to a microscope and some Methylene Blue, stain a small sample of the beer and look at it. You'll see yeast cells in there. A bright beer can have around 100,000 cells/ml and it doesn't take much to carb. So generally, it's sugar rather than yeast that you likely need. I doubt you did anything to kill off the remaining cells.
 
Ditto that. If you can get access to a microscope and some Methylene Blue, stain a small sample of the beer and look at it. You'll see yeast cells in there. A bright beer can have around 100,000 cells/ml and it doesn't take much to carb. So generally, it's sugar rather than yeast that you likely need. I doubt you did anything to kill off the remaining cells.
Ok so if I am now going for the sugar add instead of yeast .....how much sugar? I am going to sugar 3 bottles and yeast 3 bottles and see how it goes.
 
Uh I'm not sure, I use those carbonation tablets with 1 to a 500ml or smaller bottle.
 

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