Flat Beer

I recently made a batch of NB’s Irish Red. I followed the instructions and everything is doing great. I bottled last Friday (9/14) and 6 days later I couldn’t resist and tried one out. Opening the bottle some pressure was released so I thought it was a good sign, however after pouring I found that it had absolutely no carbonation to it.

My batch came up a little short at only 4 gallons, so when I made my priming mixture I shortened the amount of sugar by 1/5 and came to about 85 grams of cane sugar along with 2 cups of water boiled. I mixed in the beer so it self stirred into the suger water while racking. After bottling I then placed it in a fridge with the temp controlled at 64F.

I know I should wait another week, but is this a bad sign? I would have assumed this would have at least a little carbonation by now.

6 days isn’t nearly enough time, especially at those temperatures. Be patient, you should be fine.

Unlike primary fermentation, its okay to bottle carb at slightly warmer temperatures. It makes the yeast work faster, and the amount of fermentation happening isn’t enough to cause any off flavors. Not that there’s anything wrong with doing it in the 60s, just takes longer.

BTW, after having a couple unevenly carbed batches, I got in the habit of always gently stirring the beer in the bottling bucket to ensure even sugar distribution. You probably don’t have a problem, just FYI for next time.

RDWHAHB.

[quote=“Nate42”]6 days isn’t nearly enough time, especially at those temperatures. Be patient, you should be fine.

Unlike primary fermentation, its okay to bottle carb at slightly warmer temperatures. It makes the yeast work faster, and the amount of fermentation happening isn’t enough to cause any off flavors. Not that there’s anything wrong with doing it in the 60s, just takes longer.[/quote]

What would you say is a good temp for bottles to sit at in general?

Mid 70s or so would be good. Its not critical but it speeds up the process a smidge.

Excellent, thanks for all your advise. I’ll just let it sit in the fridge and raise the temp up to 70. That way it stays dark and at a constant temp.

Another tip, fill a plastic soda bottle with your beer. Squeeze the O2 out and screw the cap on. The bottle will expand when the CO2 is formed.

The larger bottles make good growlers to take to friends houses. Or on camping trips were you may not want to bring glass.

If you leave the bottles outside the fridge, you can give them a good shake each day to keep the sugar and yeast in suspension.