I just finished bottle conditioning my second brew, the NB American Amber Ale. It conditioned for two weeks. I put a six pack in the fridge yesterday afternoon. When I opened them there was some carbonation in the bottle but the beer had no head and was flat. This morning, just to see, I opened a warm bottle. This one was not flat and had plenty of carbonation. Is there a reason that cooling a bottle would make the beer flat? Or is it possible that one extra day conditioning would have that much of a difference?
Just give it more time in the bottle. I actually have found something different - when the carbonation is off, and I condition in the fridge, it becomes explosive with carbonation.
With bottles, I have found that good carbonation doesn’t happen for 6 weeks (or more when it is hot - I am in Arizona).
Cold beer holds CO2 better than warm beer, so a bottle that is opened warm will appear to have more carbonation than one that is opened cold. However, I doubt that is what you are seeing. It is much more likely that the priming sugar was not distributed evenly between the bottles, or that it is just still in the process and needs more time. If the beer is in a cool place, it will take longer than two weeks to carbonate. You really want to keep the beer in the low 70s when it is bottle conditioning.
Ill give it another week or two. Its sitting at about 68 degrees right now. I dont have anywere to put it in the 70’s so that will have to do.
