What has happened? « Brew UK Forum

What has happened?

1 year ago | Neil (Member)

After 2 weeks of sitting on my hands and waiting for my Christmas beer to ferment etc. I gave in and decided to open one of the bottles purely for scientific reasons of course

I have used the Coopers bottles with screw tops and 1 tsp of sugar per bottle. I know that all caps were done tightly. However, when i opened the bottle nothing! No fizz no head on my beer. Any ideas why? Or should i still sit on my hands and wait again? Or could i open them and add another tsp?

Neil

Read responses...

Responses

Greg:

Posted 1 year ago by Admin

How long have they been in bottles Neil?

Neil:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

Hi Greg,

They've been in the bottle for almost 2 weeks now.

I know the beer strength was 8.5% abv and it tasted flipping lovely too. Cinnamon came through and the cloves i used too not over powering then the slight hint of the orange was there as well.

Greg:

Posted 1 year ago by Admin

Should be carbonated by now. Perhaps try moving a bottle somewhere warmer for a week and see if that helps?

Neil:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

Yeah that is what i was thinking too Greg...

Would adding another tsp of sugar to each bottle help? Or could i be risking too many beer explosions?

It's in our kitchen which is a constant temperature between 20/24c so not sure why it hasn't worked?

Will see how it goes... i did feel some bottles earlier and there was some hardness in there oooerr ! so hopefully, it's carbonating. I hate the waiting game....

Greg:

Posted 1 year ago by Admin

I would leave them a bit longer before adding more sugar. Perhaps try turning one every now and again to stir up the yeast a bit.

saracen:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

Neil. Did you add anything to the brew before bottling it? Any sort of fermentation stopper like Potassium Sorbate? Also, what yeast did you use? If it was a highly floculative strain and you let the beer clear excessively before bottling, there might not be enough yeast to work.

If you're not living on the edge..... you're taking up too much space!!

Planning: - To get some more brews on now the weather's a bit cooler
Fermenting: - Ginger Beer experiment
Conditioning: - A normal bitter with Styrians
Drinking: - All of it!!

E-mail: arnyfris@gmail.com

Neil:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

Hi Saracen,

I used WYeast Activator 1968 - London ESB Ale for this brew. I secondary fermented this time around instead of just straight into the barrel. Still let some yeast through when it went into secondary though.

If for instance there was enough yeast in which to carbonate my beer, how could i get around it? Would i be able to add some more? Or is this brew ruined and just take it on the chin as my first ruined beer?

Neil

saracen:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

Neil. WYeast and all liquid yeasts are great, but you need to understand what they are doing. WYeast Activator 1968 - London ESB is very highly floculant and it's more than possible there was insufficient in the brew to ferment quickly in the bottles. Greg's suggestion of stirring up the yeast in the bottles makes good sense. It is also not particularly attenuative, giving only 67 - 71%. Do you have the Original Gravity and the Final Gravity? From that you can calculate whether the yeast has any more go in it. Eg. If you started at OG 1.085, then 1968 can only be expected to ferment down to 1.024 at best. It won't go lower. If your beer is at SG 1024 now, 1968 won't ferment any further. Best thing is just to wait. If nothing happens in 4 weeks, provided the beer is sound, you could try tipping it all into a sterile vessel, check the SG and add a bit of sugar to adjust it to 1.022 if required, then add some S04 yeast, or something as good, and try again. Be careful to check the pressure build up in the bottle though. S04 could ferment quite a lot of the residual sugar (giving a dryer beer) and build up a lot of pressure.

Varnish:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

That would be a very extreme case though.
Just give it some time, or experiment with one bottle.

Gazz:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

I have had this problem recently. I secondary conditioned mine for a week. I only ever use to do this for usually 3 days with previous brews. Previous brews have always carbonated within 2 weeks. My last brew which was in the secondary for one week took 4-5 weeks to carbonate and that was with a generous teaspoon of sugar.

I did give these bottles a few good shakes over a couple of weeks. Now when I open them they overflow!!!! But at least their carbonated.

My theory is that the yeast slows down so much due to the secondary ferment and lack of sugars for them to feed off. Hence the reason why its so slow to kick back off in the bottle. I also used a Wyeast for the brew in question.

I defo wouldnt add any more sugar as if the yeast is dead it aint gonna make any difference.

Good luck!

Neil:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

Hi Saracen,

When i took the original hydrometer reading it came out at 1.080 O.G and the F.G came out at 1.016 which gave me 8.5% abv. Greg mentioned that particular yeast can operate up to 10% of it's actual capacity.

There is some slight hardness in the bottles. So not sure whether like you mentioned it's a case of playing the waiting game?

Gazz like you i gave each bottle a very generous tsp of sugar. I might just give them a little shake every now and again. It could be because it's a high volume abv it's going to take some time to do the trick. After all it is my Christmas brew.

Thanks everyone for all the advice... I am really going to have to learn to have some patience in this home brewing m'larky.

saracen:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

1st rule: Cleanliness. 2nd rule: Patience. 3rd rule: Enjoy it.

Greg:

Posted 1 year ago by Admin

I would be very surprised if there wasn't enough active yeast in the bottles to carbonate them, in fact you would have really had to filter or pasterise them for that to happen.

As Saracen has suggested, it may well be that the yeast count is very low and therefore they will just take a little bit more time to carbonate.

I'm sure they will be fine.

Nath:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

When I did my first (and only) AG lager it was transfered to an air tight vessel and "lagered" for a month with the temp dropping from 12c to about 4c after the first week. When I bottled I kept them at about 22c (my house is quite warm) and it took around 2 weeks before I had the slightest hiss, they didnt fully carb for 4 weeks. So even after about a month at 5c there was still enough yeast to carb. Give it a lil bit longer, Im sure it will be fine.

Drinkin' - nowt, it's all gone

Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!

nathbrew@gmail.com

Neil:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

Well i am pleased to report i checked the bottles tonight and they're harder than Chuck Norris.. I am well chuffed!

Thanks everyone for all your advice. I think it was a case of patience is a virtue.. That is the worst part of this home brewing hobby of mine, the waiting.

Neil