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Beer is coming out a little flat

#1

I’m a new beer brewer and have been doing some extract kits to get the hang of things. I’ve done 3–the Irish Red Ale that comes with the starter kit, the Grapefruit Pulpin’ and the Off the Topper.

The problem is all of them have been coming out a bit flat. They’ve all been bottle conditioning for a couple of months now, and while they all produce a hiss when open and a head when poured, there just isn’t the bubbliness that makes drinking a beer so satisfying. I used carb drops, one for each bottle.

My main suspicion is that the room the bottles are conditioning in is too warm. For some reason the gear room where I’ve put them gets uncomfortably warm, I’m guessing in the 80’s at times. Is this too much for the yeast? I used the Safale US-05 Dry Yeast for the two IPA’s and the Danstar Nottingham for the Red.

Should I move my brew room?

#2

Getting up to 120°F would be a problem for the yeast. Up into the 80°F range will not harm the yeast. Have you tried chilling a some of beers for a few days to see if there is any difference in the amount of CO2 in solution?

One carb drop per bottle These are 12 ounce bottles?

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#3

Think you room to warm for. Fermenting. A idea. Change yeast. Strain who can handle. This temp. Or build a fermenting box. Or use a swamp cooler. This might help

#4

I tried that unintentionally last week, and it didn’t seem to make a difference. I’ll try it again with a more experimental frame of mind.

Yes, I used 12-oz bottles. There are a couple of “bomber” size bottles thrown in because I was running out of caps, but I dropped 2 carb drops in them–haven’t tried yet how those ones turned out.

#5

Your beer should be to its peak carbonation level at 80° and a few months on the shelf. I suspect the problem is the priming sugar. Maybe try buying some corn sugar and measuring the appropriate amount of sugar for each brew you make. It gives your more control of the carbonation for each style of beer. Our host has a nice priming sugar calculator that makes the process really easy.

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#6

I agree with Iowa, up above. I think that carb drops are a so so way of carbing, maybe more of a place to start. Do find a caring calculator and a scale that is reliable. From there you’ll find what your sweet spot for a carbed brew! Kegging in your future? Sneezles61

#7

Hmmm, the funny thing is I actually did use dextrose for the Red Ale since it was the cheapest option for my first batch. Thanks for linking the priming sugar calculator, though. I just followed the provided instructions on the amount of sugar to add at bottling. Seeing how inconsistent these instructions seem to be, I didn’t quite trust that the amount I added was actually right. Thanks for providing the tool to figure it out on my own!

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#8

Thank you, it’s good to see some consensus so I have a few places to start.
Sadly, I don’t think kegging is in my future :frowning: I have a huge array of hobbies, so it’s hard to spend enough time on any given one to justify getting the really nice toys.

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