Hi. Made a Rye Brown ale that tasted great when I force carbed one gallon of it. The rest I bottled, and after conditioning, they are all flat. I bottled directly from the 2nd fermentation vessel, a Big Mouth siphonless 5 gal plastic carboy. Using the bottling wand, I went right to the bottle where a Fermenters Favorite Fiz Drop (one per 12 oz bottle) was waiting for the beer. I assume that the yeast had all dropped out of this beer, and since I did not stir or otherwise agitate the finished beer in a way like moving it to a bottling bucket and mixing in a sugar solution, there was no yeast left for natural conditioning in these bottles. What does the forum think went wrong? And what would I do differently next time. Thank you.
How long has it been in the bottle?
Unless you aged your beer in secondary for an extended time, like over 6 months, you’ll have plenty of yeast in the beer to bottle condition. Some things that can slow down bottle conditioning include ABV of the beer (higher takes longer), temperature during bottle conditioning, specific yeast used, and method of priming.
To repeat the previous question, how long has it been bottled?
What’s the storage temperature?
Which yeast did you use?
What’s the ABV of your beer?
I bottled on Feb 27th so nearly a month now. The ambient room temp where I stored her is about 63, but varies at times from 61 - to 65, I used White Labs California V yeast, with a starter I made 1 day before brewing. The beer started at 1.056 and ended at 1.010 for about 5.8abv. Thank you.
It will take a while at that temperature. Get it up to 70-72. Every couple days turn the bottles to agitate. Also turning them upside down you could tell if they are leaking. I doubt they are all leaking but maybe the couple you opened did. You didn’t by chance use twist too bottles? They won’t seal.
The Fizz Drops can take some time to dissolve. Coupled with the cool conditioning temperature the carbonation time will be extended. You may need up to 8 weeks for full carbonation.
If you have no warmer place to condition your bottles an aquarium heater in a deep tray of water will hold a constant warm temperature. My aquarium heater will hold a tray of water at 75°F. It isn’t a temperature adjustable model. I would prefer 70° to 72° for the bottles. Only use it when I need to shave carbonation time by a week or so.
