I just tried my latest batch - Cascade Mountains West Coast Imperial IPA and on opening the bottle (12 oz.) there is no carbonation. The beer is undrinkable in this state. Was I wrong to leave the sludge when I transferred to the secondary fermentor? Is the yeast not suspended in the liquid? I used the 5 oz. priming sugar.
I believe I followed the directions but am disappointed by this result. Any feedback would be welcome. Thanks.
What temperature are the bottles stored at?
Here is the priming calculator for next time
Don’t transfer the trub (sludge) next time but this isn’t the cause of your CO2 issues. It sounds like they have been stored too cold. Where and at what temp have they been for the last 2 weeks?
Give it a month at around 70 degrees. The longer you wait the more carbonated it will get. When I bottle, it seems to take about a month
I think that @krae did leave the trub/yeast cake in the primary when transfering to secondary and that was their concern.
They have been stored at 65 -70. I did leave the trub/sludge in the primary. I will impatiently wait for a couple more weeks and hope for the best. Thanks for your replies.
When I bottled I never had it carb in less than 3 weeks, and 3 weeks it was “just “ drinkable. I bet in a few more weeks it will be fine. I also used to (every few days or so), turn each bottle upside down then back upright , let the yeast and “stuff” remix a bit. No idea if that helped, someone had suggested it to me a long time ago and what the heck it was something to do while I was waiting.
65 to 70 degrees is ok, a little warmer would be better. Here in FL no problem getting it to mid 70 temps. @tominboston is exactly right with the gentle inversion of the bottle every few days to get yeast back in suspension.
Hopefully the priming sugar got mixed in fairly evenly but I have never had a problem with that before…
Try a different bottle in a week’s time I suppose…
5 oz is a bit more sugar than was likely needed as well.
