Flat beer - bottled

[Bogwitch]

I've been searching the forum and everything relating to flat beer seems to be associated with barrels. I have flat been in bottles. I must be special.

The kit was a Wilkinsons Golden Ale. I bottled with about 3g sugar in each so I wasn't expecting a massively fizzy brew but a bit of a head wouldn't go amiss!

It's been going through secondary fermentation in my kitchen (at about 19C) for about a week and a half and I put it into the cold cupboard about two days ago. Impatience got the better of me and I cracked one open to test it. Pretty good self control on my part seeing as I've had to dance round them in the kitchen for 1 1/2 weeks!

But it's flat. As a pancake. Tastes fine and I'm not going to lose any sleep over the taste, I'm just bothered that it's not what I expected. It's cleared nicely and I bottled into clear 500ml bottles with crown caps. I'mm also concerned it won't keep as well.

Any idea what I did wrong? I've got 40 pints of wherry that's close to bottling and I want to make sure I don't get it wrong again. I've got a barrel to put it into if I must but storage is tight and I can store bottles easier than I can store another barrel.

Help please!

 

[PD]

If when you bottled you only added the priming sugar and nothing else to kill or weaken the yeast then you have done nothing wrong.
I would leave it somewhere warm for another couple of weeks, perhaps the cold spell has got to it ?

 

[Bogwitch]

If when you bottled you only added the priming sugar and nothing else to kill or weaken the yeast then you have done nothing wrong.
I would leave it somewhere warm for another couple of weeks, perhaps the cold spell has got to it ?

Hmm... I did rack it to a clean FV but didn't add anything. Perhaps I just didn't give it enough time to regrow yeasties...

I don't think it was the cold - since I started brewing, I've been keeping my central heating on 24/7 - costing me a small fortune but it's well worth it. The bottles on the kitchen table were covered by a towel to prevent the sunlight from getting to them and I stuffed a thermometer under the towel to keep an eye on things, it didn't drop below 66 (or get above 70)

 

[Hainsey]

I've experienced the same thing with my Festival Suffolk Ale, just won't carb up :cry: in also using plastic 1l bottles, I've put it down to leaving to much space in the bottles. Just going to drink it flat.

 

[evanvine]

A little bit of patience BW!

 

[Bogwitch]

A little bit of patience BW!

Can I get that from my LHBS? How much per bottle? :wha:

 

[evanvine]

Can I get that from my LHBS? How much per bottle? :wha:

Now there's a thing, if one only one could!
But if you could, it would destroy the achievement.

 

[bottler]

I've experienced the same thing with my Festival Suffolk Ale, just won't carb up :cry: in also using plastic 1l bottles, I've put it down to leaving to much space in the bottles. Just going to drink it flat.

I use 500ml plastic bottles, as well as glass ones. I add 1/2 teaspoonfull of sugar for the 500ml bottles for ale , 1 teaspoon for lager. After bottling i leave them in the hotpress for 2 weeks. But usually after 4 or 5 days if you squeeze one of the plastic bottles, you can feel it firming up well. The space at the top of mine is about 1 1/2 inches [40mm or so] but it varies. For 1 ltr bottles, id use 1 teaspoon per bottle. Other people on here add more, or add less, and its a question of what suits your taste :thumb:

 

[Bogwitch]

OK, they're all back out of the cold cupboard and on the table covered with the towel again. I guess it'll take a while for them to get back up to temperature. It's a shame, I was hoping they'd be at least demi-drinkable for when my family come down but that's not looking likely now. I suppose they'll all have to drink kit wine of molasses stout!

 

[joe1002]

I would give them another week in the warm then back to the cold :thumb:

 

[Bogwitch]

A thought occurs...

I'm not 100% sure I rinsed the bottles between sterilising and filling, I would have drained them after sterilising with Miltons. Could this have killed all the yeast?