Carbonation Low

[Matt Wilson]

I just bottled my last batch, a honey/wheat beer. The fermentation went through its normal phases and so I bottled it. I bottled like I normally would, except I thought to try to filter some of the small particles out of the beer that might have been missed in racking back and forth. So, I tried just a simple coffee filter, and then ran all the beer through it. Then I added my sterilized priming sugar and stirred it up through the beer (trying not to get air into the beer). I then bottled about 4 cases of 12 oz. bottles which I cleaned and sterilized in my dishwasher prior to bottling.

It has been a week now, and I have not gotten a bottle to fully carbonate. I am trying to warm up all of the bottles right now, in hopes they will fizz up, but what else can I do?

Do I have to uncap all of the bottles and add a few grains of dry yeast and recap?

Thanks in advance.

[dparsons]

They need to sit for at least a week at 70 F for the yeast to process the last of the sugar and carbonate. Even longer is better. Then refrigerate it.

[Matt Wilson]

Right, like I said in my original post, the beer was bottled a week ago and has been sitting at room temperature since.

I decided to warm it up slightly by putting them in the shade on my front porch. I will crack one open today and see what I get.

[Mad Scientist]

I find that sometimes it may take more than a week to get good carbonation.

When you say 'fully carbonaate', I take it that there is slight pressure and carbonation in the bottles? If that is the case, just give them more time, and if this is still a problem in another couple of weeks, then it is time to worry.

[cul8rv8]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
If that is the case, just give them more time, and if this is still a problem in another couple of weeks, then it is time to worry.

I have a question along the same lines. My ordinary bitter barely has any carbonation in it.

I have a small mesh filter that I put on my racking cane that I used both when racking to the carboy as well as bottling. I have used it on every beer without any issue. It came in handy with my blueberry ale I made as I had to keep the seeds out when racking.

Anyways, I was trying for a light carbonation on the beer. Using the Beer Smith program, to get 1.2 Volumes of carbonation, it suggested using 1.59 oz of DME, with the style volumes being between .8 and 2.2.

So I followed that guideline and used 1.5 oz. Well, the bottles have been conditioning for 6 weeks come tomorrow, and every one I have opened have given me the "chhh" sound when opening the bottle, but not a bit of carbonation in the beer. I assume that I just didn't use enough DME, is there anything that can be done to correct this, or is this something to just learn from and move on? The beer is certainly drinkable, I just would like more carbonation. I hate the idea of opening every one of those bottles.

[markaberrant]

Originally posted by cul8rv8
Anyways, I was trying for a light carbonation on the beer. Using the Beer Smith program, to get 1.2 Volumes of carbonation, it suggested using 1.59 oz of DME, with the style volumes being between .8 and 2.2.

1.2 is almost non-existant... 2.2 would be light.

And just to make sure, in BeerSmith you are setting the temperature to bottling temp, and not drinking temp, right? I made that mistake myself on a couple batches...

[cul8rv8]

Yes, I did set it to the bottling temp. :)

Thanks for the info on the volumes. That part was somewhat new to me when I fired up Beer Smith for the first time, which in fact was on this beer. The carbonation is definitely almost non-existant.