no carbonation in the bottles

[joejoe]

nearly 4 weeks ago I bottled a batch of honey nut brown ale. OG was 1.042 and FG at bottling time was 1.010. This is the first time I let a batch in the secondary for 4 weeks. It tasted great before bottling and actually tastes great now out of the bottle but there is virtually no carbonation. I used 1/2 cup corn sugar as I always have on other batches and have never experienced a lack of carbonation. The bottles have been sitting at 68 degrees, the same as it was while in secondary.
Any ideas?
If I wait it out for another month will it carbonate?
Do you think that the 5 weeks in secondary was too long and all of the yeast settled out and none got racked into my bottling bucket?
Any input is appreciated.
I don't want this to happen again if it is due to the long time in secondary. I usually leave my beers in secondary for 2 weeks. but heard the longer the better.
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[bigmf]

As I recall I left one in the secondary at least that long once. It bottle conditioned just fine. There should always be some yeast in suspension. It may take a little longer to carbonate, but should be done by four weeks. You did rinse all the sanitizer out of the bottles, right? It didn't get into any extreme temperatures after initial fermentation did it?

[mmmBeer...]

Just read on article on this! My understanding is that the longer a beer stays in secondary the longer the carbonation will be, especially when dealing with highly flocculent yeast. There should be no problem given enough time. From what I read there is always yeast in suspension…just fewer of them to do the job, so it takes a little longer.

Mine usually take about 3 weeks to reach full carbonation, and I let the secondary sit for at least 3 weeks.

[tubetek]

Agreed, mmmBeer-
There are certain yeast strains that are so flocculant they need to be roused during the fermentation just to finish...

[sallad]

is it a bad idea to gently shake the bottles to stir up any yeast that may have already settle inside the bottle? just a thought...

[mmmBeer...]

I have never shaken the carboy...I just understand that the carbonation will take longer. However, with my hefe's I give the bottom a gentle swirl with the auto-syphon before I start to rack to the bottling container.

[paul84043]

I have had one batch not carbonate, even after a few months...I have no idea what went wrong...I begin to wonder if I forgot the priming sugar, But I don't think I did.
I make Black and Tans with it...mix it with a darker beer that is carbonated...no problem!!

[danno]

two things come to my mind....

first, 68º may not be warm enough to fully carbonate. If you can get your beer to 75º for a week, I'd try that before I shook them all up. (but keep them out of the light...)

second, maybe your priming sugar didn't get fully mixed. try one of the bottles you first filled, maybe that's the issue... if that's the case, you'll just have to wait it out, or get some primetabs and recap...

[S.F.B.]

I have left a few batches in the secondary for 4+ weeks. They are slower to carbonate in almost all cases. I would recommend sitting tight and testing one every 7-10 days. I have not (knocking on wood) had a batch fail to come around.

[joejoe]

After 6 weeks in the bottle my honey nut brown ale now has very good carbonation and has conditioned perfectly!
The 4 weeks that it sat in the bottles in the basement at 68 degrees did nothing for carbonation. I moved the bottles upstairs at 74 degrees for 2 weeks and swirled the bottles a few times during that time to rouse the yeast and sugar. This worked great. I guess I learned that primary and secondary work best at around 62-68 degrees but bottles need to be a bit warmer to get the yeast going again to get full carbonation.
Another positive out of this is that I actually was forced to leave the beer in the bottles for 6 weeks of conditioning. I usually end up drinking most of the batch before they get a month old. I now have one in primary and two in secondary so I will never run out and and bottle condition longer for much better beer.
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