90 shilling clone

[Megary]

Give it more time first. Another couple of weeks. See if the carbonation gets any better. After that, if you still aren't getting any carbonation, then I would just add a smidge of fresh, dry yeast. I wouldn't re-prime because you can assume that the sugar you were 97.3% sure you added is still in the bottle waiting to be used up.

You can try swirling the bottles, warming them, agitating them in some way. But imo, I don't think that will help. If the yeast is spent, all the voodoo won't help. If the yeast is still viable, it will eventually carbonate the bottles.

Good luck!

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

I bottled for about 10 years and would occasionally get a bottle that was flat or severely under-carbonated when all the others were just fine. I'd try a couple bottles more to see if the problem is limited to that bottle. At what temp did the bottles condition at? Two weeks at room temperature should be enough to get good carbonation. As @Megary suggested, swirl the bottles to get the yeast off the bottom and store them in a warmer room for another week. After that you could try adding a few grains of a dry yeast to each bottle. If that doesn't work then you probably did forget to add the priming solution. In that case you could add a bit to each bottle. But remember, each time you open and reseal a bottle of beer you are adding oxygen which is bad for a fermented beer. If you like the taste of your beer as-is, just drink it without trying to fix it. Next time it will be better.

 

[Donoroto]

If you DO decide to add yeast, taste it again to decide if there is sugar in there, you should taste ‘sweet’. If not, yeast plus sugar might be the recipe.

 

[Marley's Brewing]

so when I bottle I split the batches with my dad. He takes a case and I take a case. He conditions his bottles at about 68 degrees and i condition mine at about 72-75 degrees. His is completely flat, and mine has a little carbonation. Here is a video of mine

https://imgur.com/a/QSlxD1Z

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

I thought of another possibility. How much priming sugar did you add? And, assuming you used a calculator, what temperature did you use? I ask because most priming sugar calculators ask for the "current" temperature of the beer. That number varies during fermentation and even more so if you have temperature control and cold-crash before bottling. I learned from other brewers that I should enter in the max fermentation temperature into the priming calculator and not the current temperature of the beer. Once I started doing that my carbonation was always correct and it was consistent from batch to batch.

Priming calculators need to first estimate how much CO2 is currently in solution before it can tell you how much sugar to add. Temperature is the primary factor in determining how much CO2 is in solution because a cold liquid is able to hold more CO2 in solution than a warm solution. The reason for using the max fermentation temperature is that as beer warms it is able to hold less CO2 in solution so it off-gasses and it goes out the airlock. When the temperature drops the CO2 can't go back into solution because it isn't available in the fermenter anymore. So if current temp is less than max fermentation temp then the calculator will assume your beer is holding more CO2 than it actually is and therefore, you need a smaller amount of priming sugar to get to your target CO2 level.

 

[Marley's Brewing]

I thought of another possibility. How much priming sugar did you add? And, assuming you used a calculator, what temperature did you use? I ask because most priming sugar calculators ask for the "current" temperature of the beer. That number varies during fermentation and even more so if you have temperature control and cold-crash before bottling. I learned from other brewers that I should enter in the max fermentation temperature into the priming calculator and not the current temperature of the beer. Once I started doing that my carbonation was always correct and it was consistent from batch to batch.

Priming calculators need to first estimate how much CO2 is currently in solution before it can tell you how much sugar to add. Temperature is the primary factor in determining how much CO2 is in solution because a cold liquid is able to hold more CO2 in solution than a warm solution. The reason for using the max fermentation temperature is that as beer warms it is able to hold less CO2 in solution so it off-gasses and it goes out the airlock. When the temperature drops the CO2 can't go back into solution because it isn't available in the fermenter anymore. So if current temp is less than max fermentation temp then the calculator will assume your beer is holding more CO2 than it actually is and therefore, you need a smaller amount of priming sugar to get to your target CO2 level.

4oz for a 5gal batch that had a max temp of 70degrees

 

[NorthCoastBrewer]

[Sept 29th] well... after 2 weeks of bottle conditioning I cracked one open tonight and there was little to no carbonation So after some research I have come to the conclusion that I either, forgot to add dextrose before bottling (which im 97.3% sure I did add) or that the yeast just worked too hard, was too stressed to compensate for the higher ABV. Beer tastes amazing! Great flavor, no off flavors or smells. Conditioned for 14 days at 68 degrees. Should I give it more time or should I re-prime and pitch some new yeast?

[Sept 30] Conditioned for 14 days at 68 degrees. Should I give it more time or should I re-prime and pitch some new yeast?

I would not reprime the bottles.

He takes a case and I take a case. He conditions his bottles at about 68 degrees and i condition mine at about 72-75 degrees. His is completely flat, and mine has a little carbonation.

To me, this feels like most of the yeast 'dropped out' and very little made it into the bottles. At this point, I would let the bottles sit for another week before trying the next bottle.

As a trial, you could add fresh CBC-1 or EC-1118 to one of the bottles - I'd use 1/32 tsp of yeast (not sure if that's 'a few grains' or not). If you do this, it may take a week for the fresh yeast to carbonate the bottle. The strength of CBC-1 / EC-1118 is that they only ferment simple sugars; while dry beer yeast strains may decide to ferment some of the more complex sugars.

eta: if your measuring spoons only go down to 1/8 tsp, then visually divide the 1/8th tsp of yeast into four and add the fresh yeast to 4 bottles.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

4oz for a 5gal batch that had a max temp of 70degrees

That's fine; even a bit high. So that isn't the problem.

 

[Marley's Brewing]

I would not reprime the bottles.


To me, this feels like most of the yeast 'dropped out' and very little made it into the bottles. At this point, I would let the bottles sit for another week before trying the next bottle.

As a trial, you could add fresh CBC-1 or EC-1118 to one of the bottles - I'd use 1/32 tsp of yeast (not sure if that's 'a few grains' or not). If you do this, it may take a week for the fresh yeast to carbonate the bottle. The strength of CBC-1 / EC-1118 is that they only ferment simple sugars; while dry beer yeast strains may decide to ferment some of the more complex sugars.

eta: if your measuring spoons only go down to 1/8 tsp, then visually divide the 1/8th tsp of yeast into four and add the fresh yeast to 4 bottles.

Thanks for the tips

 

[Marley's Brewing]

For now I moved all the bottles into a warmer conditioning area and agitated the bottles a little to get the yeast settled on the bottom to move around a little. Ill check back in in another week or two. thank you for all the help and tips