Northy 12 Undercarbonated

I brewed the Northy 12 extract kit in January 2017

2 weeks in primary, then bottled in april, using carbonation tablets (fizz drops)

Opened first bottle today. It tastes great but is severely undercarbonated. I didn’t add any yeast on bottling day.

Am I screwed? Or does it just need more time? Is there anything I can do?

Thanks

I would not have used fizz drops to carbonate that big of a brew. How big of a batch? Have you kept it somewhere quite warm after bottling?

5 gallons

70 to 80 degrees fahrenheit where I have been keeping it

You certainly have given it enough time. There is a couple things to try I can think of. Easiest is to take each bottle turn it upside down to mix in the yeast and priming sugar again, put them back upright and wait some more. That works sometimes. I imagine at this point you are sick of waiting.

That’s a big beer. The yeast may be stressed from all that work so, it will be a pain but you can get some dry yeast, uncap each bottle and sprinkle in a few grains then re-cap. Then of course wait again.

I have to agree with @uncdeo I would not ove gone with the fizz drops. There have been other complaints about under carbonation with them but how would you know without trying them. Could add a little table sugar with the yeast but how much will be the question. Too much and boom! Bottle bombs.

It sure sounds like the fizz drops didn’t do as they claim… Yes, there are alot of not so good conversations out there about them… I haven’t heard anybody comment about Flars sugar cube thought… Anyone? Sneezles61

The problem is there is SOME carbonation. And each bottle could be different. Adding any additional sugar is a crap shoot.

With that said I would risk it and add some yeast and sugar. With that said, do it judiciously! Maybe adding a very little sugar with the yeast.

Hmmm, I’ll try turning the bottles upside down to mix again. I don’t have a problem with waiting, I had planned to age these until the end of the year anyway. I just wanted to try one to see if it was on the right track.

If that doesn’t work I’ll try adding more yeast; I don’t have any caps right now or I’d go ahead and do that.

That’s surprising to me about the fizz drops. I made a few batches of imperial stout that I was going to bottle in September; I guess I shouldn’t use fizz drops for that either? Or should I add more yeast on bottling day?

Thank you for the responses.

Hopefully Flars can tell you about the sugar cube… FLARS!!! Sneezles61

I think @flars uses Domino Dots 1/2 teaspoon size sugar cubes. You would not want to try to fix carbonation with them since they work to carb single bottles. I think that would be too much to add after the fact.

The small cubes come 198 to a pound. They weigh 2.29 grams per cube. A cube would provide about 2.3 volumes of CO2. Might be too much sugar if there is some carbonation already.

I do have a tedious technique that works to release carbonation pressure for over carbed bottles. You could experiment with two bottles.

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To add to Flars’ suggestion, experiment with a couple of bottles and transfer them to plastic screw cap bottles that have been sanitized. No chance of injury if you get overcarbed. I’ve done this before and it worked well for me. These bottles will give you a clue as to the problem. You can add sugar to one, yeast to the other, maybe sugar and yeast to a third and see what happens. If it’s a total bust, you’ve only lost 3 bottles.

Cheers,

Ron

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I recently had an undercarbonated batch of the number 8. It had been in secondary about 2 months. In my case, it tasted too sweet so I guessed the sugar I had added at bottling was still there and yeast was the issue. I tried turning the bottles upside down and giving them a shake without much success. Eventually I sprinkled a little yeast in each bottle as hd4mark suggested above and that worked well. I used Danstar bottle conditioning yeast.

I use the priming sugar calculator not fizz drops. How many drops did you put in each bottle ? If it was only one, you might need another ?

I put one drop in each bottle. It looks like I will have to experiment with plastic bottles. I suspect adding a whole sugar cube or a whole fizz drop will cause an explosion, so maybe I’ll add some small amount of corn sugar, like a quarter teaspoon?

A couple experiments in plastic bottles sounds like a great approach. The Fizz Drops page on NB says there are 60 drops in and 8oz package, which would be 120 drops per pound. So one drop is already more sugar than the Domino Dots (1/2 teaspoon, 198 dots per pound) flars and hd4mark discussed above. Are these 12 oz bottles or 22oz.? The Fizz Drops page suggests 2 drops for 22 oz bottles, one drop for 12 or 16 oz. If you are going to go thru the effort of opening and recapping bottles, it might be worth adding a sprinkle of dry bottle conditioning yeast to each.