My first 5 gal all grain batch (a Pale Ale) did not carbonate at all…it was a huge disappointment. I am not sure if there was a problem with the bottle caps, I didnt use enough sugar, or there was some other problem. I have never had this problem before…with more than a dozen extract brews. Is there any way to recover this brew (re-bottle) to get it carbonated? The brew is not too bad…but just tastes flat.
Any help is appreciated!
By any chance is it cooler where you store them? Are they all undercarbonated?
Also, how much priming sugar did you use and how long have they been sitting in the bottle so far?
Do they taste sweet like the priming sugar didn’t get feremented, or just flat like maybe you had a bad seal?
They are in my dark basement…sitting at about 60 degrees. They arent sweet…just flat. And unfortunately I dont have really good notes (have learned I need to)…but my recollection is that I used 5 oz for the 5 gal batch. Thinking back that sounds low ??? maybe not ??? I bottled about 5-6 weeks ago.
5 oz sugar should be plenty. 60 degrees is a little cold but if you don’t taste sweetness from the priming sugar I don’t think that is the problem. Do you hear any hiss at all when you open a bottle? Have you tried a bottle from several points in the filling process? (i.e. a bottle from the begining of the bottling session and one from the middle and one from the end)
What kind of bottles did you use? are any of them twist off? these have a tendency to seal poorly.
If you can determine what exactly went wrong you should be able to fix it. But it is going to be a hassle no matter what.
If the yeast was pooped out you can open each bottle and give it a little squirt of rehydrated yeast (just a couple ml)
If the sugar was insufficient or missing you can open each bottle and drop in a carb tab or a measured amount of sugar syrup, and maybe a squirt of yeast
If the problem is bad caps or bad seals you can do option 2 above as well.
Do you stir the sugar into the wort? I used to just put sugar solution into the bottling bucket and rack on top and had very inconsistent carbonation. Now I stir the wort (gently, but thoroughly) and don’t have those problems.
Move some or all of the bottles to a warmer place and wait a couple of weeks. 60F is pretty cold for some yeast.
I had this exact same problem. Also, I found that cap brand made a difference. I was using Brewers Best caps and found they weren’t sealing as tightly as I’d have liked.
I would move the beer to a warmer place as well. If that doesn’t work put 1/4 teaspoon of priming sugar in each bottle and recap. I heard that this works.
Try warming up to 70ish first. Allow a week or two then chime back with results.