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My Lager isn't Carbonated

Northern Brewer General
#1

Well, I brewed my first lager a while back (Czech Pilsner) and its been bottled a couple weeks now but I have zero carbonation. I have an idea why but I’m trying to figure out what to do now.

I lager in a little mini fridge with a freezer plate just an inch or so above the lid of the bucket I was brewing in. When I took it out and peeled the lid off a big chunk of ice fell off of the lid and into the beer. I’m assuming condensation went up to the top of the bucket and then froze there because it was so close to the freezer plate. I know that freezing your beer knocks the yeast out, but I figured because only that chunk froze that I’d be alright so I let it thaw out, added the carbonation solution, bottled it and hoped for the best. Fast forward a couple weeks and I’ve got completely flat beer, although I have to say it is pretty tasty flat beer so at least I’ve got that going.

My question is, how the hell do I get yeast and sugar into each of those individual bottles so I can get some carbonation in there? Anyone have this issue before? Kind of stuck and not sure what to do. All help would be greatly appreciated!

#2

I have never done a lager before, but it sounds like it got just a little too cool during fermentation. I think you have to get near freezing to do that though. Are you sure that you pitched enough yeast to start with? I understand that lagers take a real hefty starter. Anyone with lagering experience want to chime in?

#3

[quote=“WaukeganBrewer”]…
My question is, how the hell do I get yeast and sugar into each of those individual bottles so I can get some carbonation in there? Anyone have this issue before? Kind of stuck and not sure what to do. All help would be greatly appreciated![/quote]

I’ve had success using a medicine dropper to add drops of yeast and additional priming sugar to batches that failed to carb.

sanitize every thing first…it is not too late to introduce an infection.
rehydrate some neutral dry yeast (us-05 for example) into boiled, then cooled water
use dropper to add 1.2 drops per bottle.

make enough priming sugar to add 1-2 teaspoons per bottle.
again use medicine dropper.

re-cap, wait10-14 days, sample, enjoy.

cheers.

#4

Thanks a lot. I knew I had to do something like that, but I had no idea what sort of proportion to use. I’m going to pick up a pack of dry yeast from the local brew shop tomorrow and see how it goes. Thanks again.

#5

Just a thought after a re-read of your OP. You added priming sugar the first time, right? If so, there is no need to add additional sugar assuming your suspended yeast were dead and they did not eat any of the original priming sugar. Adding more will either cause your beer to be over carb’d or worse yet, create bottle bombs.

If however, you beer isn’t completely flat, but just under carb’d because you still had some live yeast and they ate some sugar, then you can add additional priming sugar solution to replace the sugar that was eaten…maybe 1/2 teaspoon.

1 cup (liquid) priming solution = 236.5 mililiters = 48 teaspoons

Divide either by the number of bottles. so, if you have 48 bottles, then 1 teaspoon per bottle with no risidual priming solution. But, if you assume there is some remaining sugar from your first attempt, I’d recommend you either use 1/2 teaspoon or zero if you are confident that all of your original yeast were dead.

cheers

#6

You also didn’t say what temp you have the bottles. You want them at room temp to carbonate.

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