10 days into bottle conditioning and still flat

I was doing my third batch this afternoon and it seemed a bit odd I've still not tried one my beers. First batch was a Youngs Pale Ale. 3 weeks in the FV and now 10 days in bottles. I know that's not long enough, but was expecting some fizz! Is it doomed or does it just need much longer?

It looks quite clear so it may take a little longer than 'normal'. You also have to keep it above about 18*C (but I assume you know that anyway!)

Perhaps a daft question
did you prime it?

Thanks. Maybe my kitchen is a little cold. Temps range between 16 to 17 most of the time. Will it still get there?

My view is you are reaching the limit.
The only way of finding out properly is to a) leave it for a month or b) move bottles somewhere warmer.
Long term summer should here soon :whistle:

I've brought flat beer, from the mancave, into the house (warm) for 2 weeks, then returned to the mancave for 2 weeks. Good beer.

Good luck.

If it's been primed it will get there sooner or later and the extra time conditioning in the bottle won't be wasted.

If you've used glass bottles you might want to think about getting a few plastic ones and bottling up an handful of those next time as well as the glass ones. You soon get used to squeezing them to check carbonation, saves opening and wasting beer to check. Any old six pack of supermarket fizzy water bottles will do it cheaply.

All is not lost then. I just need to keep collecting supermarket empties in the meantime. It was definitely primed, I used the weighed out bag that came with the kit. Good news that extra time isn't wasted.

I'll certainly look out for a pack of those tiny fizzy water bottles for the next batch, which needs bottling soon.

It carbonated. :)



Still not sure what I think. It worked, has alcohol, tastes kinda like beer. Think I may now know what that homebrew "twag" is. That said been out all night drinking expensive craft beer so it's a hard test, but one it has to meet to make this whole project worth it. Next step I guess is let it bottle condition longer, then move to a different form of brewing. Except I've got another 2 FVs filled with kit brew ready for bottling!

Global33 said:

It carbonated. :)

Still not sure what I think. It worked, has alcohol, tastes kinda like beer. Think I may now know what that homebrew "twag" is. That said been out all night drinking expensive craft beer so it's a hard test, but one it has to meet to make this whole project worth it. Next step I guess is let it bottle condition longer, then move to a different form of brewing. Except I've got another 2 FVs filled with kit brew ready for bottling!

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In my experience kit beer tastes like kit beer.
More twang than 'Duelling Banjos' on Deliverance :wink:
I never made a batch I wanted to finish. So when these one pot systems came about I decided to give brewing another go, after a ten year break.
Very happy with the results now and the variations of beers you can brew are endless.

shepp said:

In my experience kit beer tastes like kit beer.
More twang than 'Duelling Banjos' on Deliverance :wink:
I never made a batch I wanted to finish. So when these one pot systems came about I decided to give brewing another go, after a ten year break.
Very happy with the results now and the variations of beers you can brew are endless.

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Hmm. Not promising. I've got 110 pints made to drink this way.

I'm certainly game for trying extract brewing and maybe a partial mash, not using cheap LME and switching to DME, but much as I love the idea of All Grain, I honestly don't have the time and would probably have to just keep buying th stuff

Global33 said:

Hmm. Not promising. I've got 110 pints made to drink this way.

I'm certainly game for trying extract brewing and maybe a partial mash, not using cheap LME and switching to DME, but much as I love the idea of All Grain, I honestly don't have the time and would probably have to just keep buying th stuff

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Don't give up just yet. Things should get less twangy as they condition. I'm at a similar point to yourself, about 100 pints or so from 4 kits and 2 small AG brews.
The difference in my first kit, a Nelsons Revenge now to when I first opened a bottle is stark. That's just a few extra weeks conditioning. Give it a bit more time, it should get better.:thumb:

Don't give up.

Kits can produce very acceptable beer. Give it time.

Global33 said:

I'm certainly game for trying extract brewing and maybe a partial mash, not using cheap LME and switching to DME, but much as I love the idea of All Grain, I honestly don't have the time and would probably have to just keep buying th stuff

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Two things I have observed in homebrewing
- first, in spite of the big improvements in beer kits in recent years there are still some kits that come with a twang
- second there are folks who will tell you that all kits are rubbish, especially if they tell you they have 'moved up' to AG
As far as the first one is concerned it is my belief that 'twang' is down to liquid malt extract. As I posted elsewhere I used some cheap LME to make up some extract brews and found that they too had the twang. Other extract brews with different LME did not have it. Translate that to kits and that means some kits will and some won't, which is my experience. I rarely buy cheap kits for this reason, although I have found Coopers one can kits are generally OK. So sadly its a bit of a lottery in picking and then brewing the right kit. That said I have made beer from one can kits that is better than some beers I have had in the pub. So don't give up on kits just yet, especially like @Mungri has suggested long conditioning can transform a beer.
So as far as the second one is concerned based on my experience all kits are certainly not rubbish. However if I had the space, inclination, and importantly time to produce AG beers and was therefore doing AG I would certainly wish them to equal or exceed the quality of kit beers even more so if I had made a sizeable cash investment in the equipment to do it.
I hope you find what you are looking for. Extract brewing will be good to try and you are wise to avoid cheap LME.

Thank you. It was a Youngs kit that was rated highly on here. More worrying I've got a couple more on the go made from cheap kits with added LME that was also cheap, although one is a coopers. Think all I can do is bottle them and leave alone for a good while (hard). That said I'm away at the moment and my other half told me she was drinking one that she found in the fridge, so guess they can't be that awful...

I'm really interested in extract brewing. I've a few more kits to brew from my last big order, but think for the next one I'll certainly be moving in that direction.

As Coopers kits go. I haven't had a bad one yet. The pale ale and lager always go down well. I did do the boot makers pale ale which I am still drinking . This took longer to bottle condition than the others but now is pretty decent.
The only kit I'm not happy with is the festival best bitter, just to bitter for my liking at the moment. I'll try again and hope it's mellowed a bit.

The problem with most kits is that beer needs a certain amount of hop flavour, even non-hoppy English bitters, and the canning process seems to kill off the hop flavour. I think that's why Coopers Stout is highly regarded, because stouts are one of the least-hoppy beers out there.

In my experience it's always worth dry hopping (or making a hop tea) the canned kits that don't come with any additional hops. The Coopers kits seem to benefit especially from this, even the lagers.

The only kits I've come across that have come out really well without any additional hopping are the Muntons Premium kits, Midas Touch and Smugglers. They need a bit of time in the bottle but were superb when I did them. I must revisit them sometime, to see if they are as good as I remember them.

I think it's important to assess your process before blaming the kit.Important factors in avoiding the 'twang' include;

Fermentation temperature,fermentation and maturation time, yeast strain, yeast pitch quantity, does your tap water contain chlorine and did you treat the water for for it?, Oxygen exposure. Another big problem is under rinsing if you used chlorine based cleaners.

Address these issues first before looking into anything else.

Hope this helps!

darrellm said:

The problem with most kits is that beer needs a certain amount of hop flavour, even non-hoppy English bitters, and the canning process seems to kill off the hop flavour. I think that's why Coopers Stout is highly regarded, because stouts are one of the least-hoppy beers out there.

In my experience it's always worth dry hopping (or making a hop tea) the canned kits that don't come with any additional hops. The Coopers kits seem to benefit especially from this, even the lagers.

The only kits I've come across that have come out really well without any additional hopping are the Muntons Premium kits, Midas Touch and Smugglers. They need a bit of time in the bottle but were superb when I did them. I must revisit them sometime, to see if they are as good as I remember them.

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Smugglers is a lovely pint. Just had one in fact. Their IPA is very nice too.