first time for everthing, 4 months in the bottle and undercarb’d…only fermented for 4 weeks, a rochefort 8 clone, but it attentuated wonderfully…I corked them all, and it just isn’t happening, a little fizz and minimal carbonation, and that’s it. really dissappointed as this beer has a wonderful taste ad compexity after only 4 months. I bottled it cold, so maybe I tailored the priming sugar back too much, but it has never given me a problem before with beers, this is first if that’s the reason. Thinking of opening 2 or 3, adding 1 or 2 carbonation drops to each and then re-corking before trying to add yeast. there was some yeast on the bottom of the bottle that i opened, but at this point I’m not sure if it’s spent since I bottled on 6/2. pissed…this was my christmas beer and my first epic fail at carbonation
Turn each one over and gently rouse up the yeast on the bottom. Then store somewhere warm 72-80 for a few weeks. You might be able to get it carbed yet.
+1 This happened to me too, and this is exactly what I did, and it worked.
This has also worked for me. As a last resort I’ve added rehydrated yeast (1/4-1/2 pk. dry) with an eyedropper. Beware of adding more priming sugar.
thanks for the replies, yeah, I have roused them a few times already and it’s been low to mid 70’s all summer in my basement since it’s been so warm outside. I moved 6 of them upstairs toa kitchen cabinet, it’s supposed to be really warm here by midweek on the east coast, so it’s worth a shot.
[quote=“beerwench”]I bottled it cold, so maybe I tailored the priming sugar back too much, but it has never given me a problem before with beers, this is first if that’s the reason.[/quote]If you used the cold-crash temp to calculate the amount of sugar then you under-primed. Also, if you didn’t thoroughly mix the sugar into the cold beer, you might have some bottles with a little less carbonation than others and you’ve just randomly selected these for your tastings so far.
I actually use the northern brewer priming calculator and it says to use the current temp of the beer. Never had a problem using this method in the past, but you are probably right-maybe it doesn’t work as well or is more noticable when you want higher carbonation. I always add priming sugar first, swirl the beer into the bucket and then let is sit for 15 minutes or so. I really don;t want to open these up at this point, but looks like it may be my only option.
[quote=“beerwench”]I actually use the northern brewer priming calculator and it says to use the current temp of the beer.[/quote]If you don’t cold-crash or otherwise lower the temperature once fermentation has completed, this will work, otherwise using the lower temp will make the calculator assume more CO2 in solution than what’s actually there and result in using less sugar than you should.
thanks shadetree, I’m intrigued…so if I have a scotch ale that I’m cold conditioning at 50 for 4 weeks, I should use the calculator, but if I’m cold crashing it to 40 for 4 or 5 days, I should use the regular amount, or at a minimum, let if come back to room temp and then use the calcualted amount based on co2 volumes by style?
Use the warmest temp the beer saw. The beer will absorb a certain amount of CO2 based on temperature. The warmer the temperature, the less gas the liquid will hold and will release it. If you fermented at 52, then raised temp to 65, then lagered at 32, you would use 65 for temp. The gas absorbed at 52 was released at 65. No new gas was added so when you lower the temp the beer would still contain the same amount of gas as it had at 65.
Get it?
:cheers:
