Practically No Carbonation after 2 weeks

What kind of bottles are you using? Flip tops are notorious for leaks and twist off bottles don’t seal properly.

I have not had chance to get a new batch going. I would recommend against the fizz drops like most posters on the forum. I have not tried the table surgar only dextrose and I got awesome results with that. I used the northern Brewer calculator to get the weight in grams based on conditioning temp, volume, and style you are brewing.

I’m using standard brown, pry off, 12 oz. bottles, and I’m making sure they are capped well. On the first batch I brewed there was a slight hiss when I opened the bottles, but that’s it. I’m also using the 1 gallon small batch kits. I did a primary fermentation for a week, then a secondary fermentation for another week, then bottled for a month. Another theory I’ve been working on is that I’m filtering out too much yeast by doing a secondary fermentation. Thoughts? I just brewed a small batch of Caribou Slobber that is on it’s first fermentation. I’m gonna skip the secondary fermentation, and go straight to bottle to see if that helps.

There’s always enough yeast in suspension to bottle condition. Some yeasts just take a lot longer than others. With dry yeast, it seems with US-05 I have good carbonation within a week of bottling, whereas S-04 might take over a month before there’s much to speak of. If you’re hearing a slight hiss when opening, then there’s something happening and you just need to give it a little more time.

How warm are you keeping the bottles? When in doubt, it usually helps to warm them up a little. With small batches, it doesn’t give you many test bottles before you’re out, so try to move them to a warmer location and give them another couple of weeks! Although I’ve never used fizz drops I’ve heard of plenty of problems with them, so I’d also suggest switching to corn or table sugar.

I currently brew one custom recipes (and a kit occasionally) and have used in flzz drops (:scream: :relaxed:) the recent past.

If you are going to continue with small (one gallon) kits or custom recipes for a while, and consistent carbonation (across all bottles in the batch) is a concern, seriously consider switching to priming sugar as soon as it’s convenient for you.

WIth fizz drops, I find that I get good carbonation most of the time if I’m patient - one to two months of bottle conditioning and a couple of weeks in the refrigerator. I had a batch (custom ‘saison’ style) where the carbonation was OK after a month in the bottle and excellent after five months. My gut feel is that that my variability in carbonation is related 1) to either fizz drops or 2) to bottles & bottle caps - but not related to the use of primary / secondary fermentation. So eliminating fizz drops forever (:grinning:) from my brewing process is probably the next logical step for me.

Another option is to start looking in to kegging your brew. You can then carbonate to whatever level you want with co2. It might seem daunting but its really quite simple and I bet you can find everything you need on craigslist. I see kegs/taps/co2 tanks/etc etc on the craigslist in my area constantly. That is where I got everything keg related actually.

Just a thought. Hope it helps.

Edit: forgot to mention that co2 is very cheap. Locally it is about $10 for 5 lbs. That should work for 20+ gallons at least. Probably much more really

Now I’m confused. I’ve heard people say you can leave beer in the secondary for quite a long time before bottling, but now others say if you wait too long the yeast can die…Was the first thing I read someone that uses a keg possibly??

You can leave your beer in secondary for quite a long time, but not forever. 6 months with standard brewer’s yeast is about the longest I would go. Beyond that, it may not wake up and bottle condition your beer. With brettanomyces, you can pretty much leave it in secondary forever, but otherwise plan on re-yeasting after 6 months.

I did bottle a cyser after a year in secondary. After another year in the bottle, it was finally carbonated. So you can wake up saccharomyces, but you will have to wait a really long time to see if it’s still viable.

Yeast doesn’t die unless you are thinking in terms of a year or so in the secondary. Yeast will lose viability over time. Viability loss is faster in high ABV beers than low ABV beers. High alcohol levels place more stress on the yeast cells. Long term bulk aging of high ABV beers will sometimes require adding yeast for bottle conditioning.

Thanks flars!

I just sent Northern Brewer an email about this same issue. I brewed two batches now, with my last batch being White House Honey porter using the fizz drops and the carbonation after two weeks is none. I am new and the room I have them conditioning in is too cold so i will move to warmer room and tray again later, but so far i am not impressed with my first two batches using the Fizz drops.

You might be better off to use sugar cubes for carbonation instead of the Fizz drops. Domino has sugar cube “Dots”. A one pound package contains 198 cubes or Dots. This would be equal to 2.29 grams. According to NB’s carbonation calculator one bottle of beer at 68°F would need 2.27 grams of sugar for 2.6 volumes of CO2.

Check my math if you may want to go this route.

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I very much enjoy this idea.

FLARS, where do you git the time to find such helpful advise! I put you up for the grand poohba nomination! :grinning: Sneezles61

If using the domino dots, do you just add 1 dot to a bottle and shake up to dissolve after capping?

Yes, but DON’T shake it!

Ok I won’t thanks.

I have read that it’s a good idea to rinse all sanitizers from your bottles. Even those no rinse sanitizers, as they can lead to no cabonation.

Can you cite a source as I’ve never read that? I don’t believe the residuals left in the bottle is enough to effectively kill yeast and prohibit bottle conditioning.

I’m not buying the rinse theory, star san is just an acid. The few drops remaining will be diluted too throughly by 12ish ounces of beer.