Bottle Carbonation Question

[No Outlet Brewing]

I'm sure this has been covered in the past but I am having problems with bottle carbonation on a couple of recent batched. For reference, I have about 25 successful brews under my belt and nothing in the process has changed except for one, my location. We recently moved from the country where we used well water and moved into town and these are the first two batches sing city water. Brewed both on the same day. One is a Belgian Witbier and the other an American Wheat beer recipe turned Grapefruit Shandy. Yeast used were WLP 400 for the Wit and US-05 for the Wheat beer. They were brewed on 6-8-19 and have been in the bottle for 21 days so far with no notable carbonation. I have tried moving them to warmer areas of the house and rattled the bottles to "kick start" the yeast with no results. Bottle caps, capper, etc are all the same as all previous batches. The only thing different is the water. While it is city water it actually drinks pretty clean and I have always heard if it tastes ok to to drink, it's ok to brew with. We did however notice when we used the water for sanitizing with Starsan, the water immediately clouded up and did not foam nearly as much as we're accustomed to. Could there be some thing in the water that could kill or slow the yeast? Note that fermentation went as usual (the WLP400 was slow to get started but that seems to be the norm) and all gravity readings, etc came out as planned. I know patience is usually the answer but I have never had a beer (especially a wheat beer) take so long to carb up. Samples have tasted great just flat. Any input or info would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Nosybear]

I can't tell you what the issue is but I can tell you what it isn't: The water. If your beer fermented, it can't be the water. It's also not a lack of yeast unless your beer got to at or above 95° F. About the only things I can think of that would result in no carbonation is that either you forgot the priming sugar or all your bottles are leaking. The latter is highly unlikely.

Bonus tip: Mix your starsan with distilled or RO water and it will last forever. The cloudiness was simply calcium phosphate from the reaction of the hardness in your water and the phosphoric acid in the starsan.

 

[No Outlet Brewing]

I can't tell you what the issue is but I can tell you what it isn't: The water. If your beer fermented, it can't be the water. It's also not a lack of yeast unless your beer got to at or above 95° F. About the only things I can think of that would result in no carbonation is that either you forgot the priming sugar or all your bottles are leaking. The latter is highly unlikely.

Bonus tip: Mix your starsan with distilled or RO water and it will last forever. The cloudiness was simply calcium phosphate from the reaction of the hardness in your water and the phosphoric acid in the starsan.

Stored in basement at about 67F so temp shouldn't be the issue. Definitely added the priming sugar to both. The leaking seems highly unlikely as none of my systems changed from previous brews, however, there is sediment at the bottom of the bottles as if the yeast had done its work and settled out but yet no carbonation. If it is a seal problem, it there any way to re-pitch and re-package these to try again at carbonation or are they doomed to be flat?

 

[Nosybear]

If it's the bottle seals, the beer is likely oxidized. Taste and evaluate. Then get some carbonation drops or if you don't mind a bit of overcarbonation, a standard 3-gram sugar cube and drop in each, then reseal.

 

[No Outlet Brewing]

If it's the bottle seals, the beer is likely oxidized. Taste and evaluate. Then get some carbonation drops or if you don't mind a bit of overcarbonation, a standard 3-gram sugar cube and drop in each, then reseal.

Thanks for the input. I think I'll wait another week, crack another sample and evaluate. Hopefully it's just one of those natural oddities that often come with the hobby, just thought it to be odd to happen to two brews simultaneously.

 

[No Outlet Brewing]

If it's the bottle seals, the beer is likely oxidized. Taste and evaluate. Then get some carbonation drops or if you don't mind a bit of overcarbonation, a standard 3-gram sugar cube and drop in each, then reseal.

So is the yeast still viable once another sugar source is added or does that need to be added as well?

 

[Nosybear]

So is the yeast still viable once another sugar source is added or does that need to be added as well?

Yeast should be viable. Even had you somehow "killed" the beer (found a way to heat it enough to kill off the yeast), there would be bacteria in there and you'd get some changes. But it's hard to kill off the yeast so I didn't list that as a possibility.

 

[Hawkbox]

Yeah the yeast dying is pretty unlikely, those little bastards are tough.