Flat brew in bottles

[phelixoflaherty]

Sampled my first ever kit brew yesterday and it is flat as a pancake.
Suspect yeast never got up to temp. for the first two days.

Is there any possibility of saving it, or take it on the chin.

Could I carbonate each bottle (Fliptop) and bring back up to temp.
By thw way there is only a small film of sediment in bottom of bottles.

Ta

[molc]

How long did you leave them to carbonate and st what temperature? Needs a few weeks in a relatively warm place.

[phelixoflaherty]

been up in the attic. temp Probably fluctuates a bit. but would not a got too warm

[Parky]

Not sure if 'flat as a pancake' means it's got no head when poured, or if it means there's no carbonation (bubbles) - here are some thoughts if it's a carbonation problem -

In general, I've found that you'll see SOME carbonation after a few days at around 20 degrees C. If you're seeing nothing at all after a week or so then there could be other factors at play. Some ideas -

1 Not enough priming sugar in the bottles - a good rule of thumb is about 5 grams table sugar per litre (although depends on the style and sugar used - you'll find some nice priming sugar calculators with a quick web search - e.g. http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/)

2 Temperature - even at lower temps you should get carbonation, although it will take slightly longer. Keeping the temp at around 20 degrees C works well for me, and even heavier beers are carbed within a week.

If the temp is fluctuating put a blanket or old duvet as insulation over the bottles to help. The more constant the temp the better I've found.

3 Tops not secured on bottles - the CO2 may simply be escaping if the seals on the flip top bottles aren't 100%. Try replacing the existing ones if the seal is bad - you can get these at your home brew supplier cheaply enough.

Here's a quick test to check the seals - 3/4 fill a flip top bottle with a regular carbonated drink (even fizzy water will do). Then seal the top and shake it like hell. Leave for a day or so, and then open - if it pops, then the seal works, if not there may be some escape of CO2.

4 Cleanliness of bottles - make sure the bottles are thoroughly rinsed if using a bleach-based product to clean your bottles. Might try switching to a no-rinse sanitiser such as StarSan if rinsing after sterilising is too time consuming.

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Here's a little test you can do in order to determine if ANY carbonation has occurred - pop a mentos sweet into a bottle (you can use just table sugar for that as well) - if it fizzes up then there's CO2 in the liquid, and it may just need more time.

Something else to try is to put the beer (with sediment) from one of your flip tops into a 500ml plastic bottle (just for the purpose of experimenting). Prime the plastic bottle with a half teaspoon of table sugar. Put it away beside your other bottles and check it every few days - if the sides of the plastic bottle have become hard over time then you know the beer inside is becoming carbed and the yeast are still viable, i.e. the batch can be saved.

As you have flip top bottles it should then be easy enough to open them and re-prime with 5g of sugar per litre, and store them in a warm place.

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As a general rule I bottle the last beer from my primary fermenter into a 500ml plastic bottle, as this will give you a good indicator as to how carbonation is progressing.

Hope some of the above helps, let us know how it turns out 

[phelixoflaherty]

some Reply lad. Thanks a million,

[Taf]

5 g per half litre way too much, more like 5g per litre. 

[Parky]

Ooops, thanks for the heads up Taf! I've corrected the post above - been awhile since I primed individual bottles 

[Will_D]

I also fill a 500 ml Lucozade bottle as well.

Prime as normal, leaving say 1" head space or so, loosely cap, and squeeze out the air. Tigten the cap.

Then you have a visual indication of whats happening and also watch the headspace return, and just squeeze the bottle to asess carb level. SIMPLES