HELP - FLAT BEER AGAIN

[Ale-in-France]

Hi all

Having a mare when I should be having a beer.

I'm suddenly having problems with beer not carbonating properly. I'm on batch #70 of all grain, so sort of know the ropes but have come across frustrating problems. Haven't really changed much and am beginning to pull hair out.

First I though it might be yeast, but have got in all new supplies, and still have the same problem.

Upped the priming sugar, but that had little effect. Oddly, with some batches it seems more prevalent in beer bottled in glass than with PET.

Temperatures of mash, fermentation and conditioning are all constant.

The only thing I've changed in the process – mainly because the PH was too low – was reducing and then eliminating the gypsum addition during pre-boil water treatment. Could this be the culprit? Seems odd – as the ferment still goes well. Beer still tastes great, but there's barely a bubble and no head on a few batches. Am just starting to try and make a living out of brewing and this is a royal PITA.

Otherwise, could an infection do this? Too much Star San in cleaning. Am going mad with this.

 

[fbsf]

Too much starsan in the bottles will have an effect.

I used to rinse my starter vessel out with videne before trying a starter, and it failed twice. Next time I rinsed it out with water, and it worked no problem.

If you are bottling a relatively clear brew, it might be that the star san is killing off whatever is left yeast-wise...?

 

[Ale-in-France]

Thanks fbsf - I do normally bottle fairly clear, and have poss been a bit heavy handed with the Star San in solution. I use one of those little bottle spray pump things and it's a pretty tiny amount of water in there.

 

[fbsf]

I use a little syringe now to make sure I'm only using the 1.5ml in a litre that I'm meant to be using as beforehand my beer smelt of videne when I opened it (I was guessing the amount). Since then I haven't had any issues.

 

[alanywiseman.]

Make you starsan up using 1.5ml/L then add to the spray bottle but seen as your PETs are better than your Glas I think the problem may be that your capper is not sealing the bottles well enough.

 

[morethanworts]

Star San can kill yeast? with any sort of normal usage/dilution? I didn't know that.

The last two times I've bottled I've Star Sanned the bottling bucket and the bottles at roughly pH3, allowed brief draining only and then put the beer in. If I consider the thin film of pH3 fluid on the inside of each bottle, and then the 300ml/500ml of beer diluting it down, the level of phosphoric acid (and the other one, with the long name) must be so tiny as to be well below levels in some fizzy drinks, for example. Mind you, they don't have yeast trying to work in them.

The plastic tester from my most recent no-rinse bottling is pumping up reasonably well (7 days warm currently), though the beer was feck-test clear when it went in - so not the best test of the effect of the Star San this time. I might try a heavily un-rinsed plastic bottle in my next brew, and a well rinsed (plastic) one, batch primed, to look for any difference.

 

[pittsy]

I'm told star san is a nutrient for the yeast and if any thing will make things better , but is your solution as mentioned above diluted correctly , personally i don't think it's the star san . Try a new test batch , make some dme and use star san around 1ltr of water and 100g of dme with your yeast . Let ferment out (prob 2 days) then prime and seal , keep at around 20.22c for a few days and check . If it works fine then it may be your equipment (assuming you didn't use it to do this test) is infected .
What size batches are you brewing and how much yeast are you pitching , also what's your average OG .

 

[Ale-in-France]

Thanks for replies.

Will try a test batch. Also will measure out a gallon of cleaner with a more exact dosage. Usual batch size is around 100 litres, yeast pitched pretty heavily - normally from a previous batch for two or three generations. Normally goes off like a train within a few hours, so yeast seems OK when it goes in. OG around 1048.

 

[alanywiseman.]

When used in the right dosage starsan once diluted becomes a form of nutrient. I have assumed from Ale In Frances' post about using a spray bottle with a tiny amount of water that almost pure starsan is being sprayed into the bottles. If that is that case I am sure if there is to much in the bottle it will affect the pH of the beer and stop the yeast from fermenting.

 

[rpt]

Videne and Starsan are totally different. Although both can be used as no rinse cleaners they are different chemicals. I think Videne is iodine based while Starsan is acid based. Starsan at 1.5ml/l should not cause any problems. Is your spray diluted?

 

[Ale-in-France]

Thanks again. Been using one of these things, with probably about 0.6 litres of water and what I thought was a fairly small amount of SS, but I'm thinking this might be the problem. Am also going to reinstate the gypsum treatment. Belt and braces and I'll never know which issue caused the problem (if I even fix it) but I'm getting fed up with flat batches.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Home-Brewing- ... 1c2e98becf

 

[rpt]

You need to be precise with your Starsan dilution. I always make up 5L (using Tesco Ashbeck water) and add 7.5mL Starsan using a syringe (bought from the chemist for about 40p). I give it a good shake and then pour some into the spray bottle.

 

[the-erl]

as your PETs are better than your Glas I think the problem may be that your capper is not sealing the bottles well enough.

This might be worth looking into as sometimes it's the simple obvious things that cause the problems. I recently had the same problem with a batch of new swing tops I bought. I didn't realise what the problem was until after I'd used them for 2 brews added an extra rubber seal and Bob's your uncle :grin:

Good luck with finding and resolving the issue, let us know how you get on.

Erl :drink: