flat IPA?

[geoffmartyn]

Hello folks,

I recently bottled a St Peter's IPA and it's been in the bottles for almost 3 weeks now. I used the Cooper's PET bottles, so it's quite easy to see if there's carbonation given the pressure when squeezed. I realise 3 weeks isn't a hell of a long time to leave them but my issue is that none of them seem to have any carbonation. I have a Cooper's lager in the same style of bottles and you can tell there's pressure just by squeezing the bottle. The IPA seems to have nothing at all.

My dilemma is that I bottled this batch when I was trying to stay awake after a long flight, so thinking back I may have forgotten to put any priming sugar in, which would stand to reason given that it's three weeks down the line and there's not a bit of pressure. I've even opened one and it's as flat as a pancake.

Do you think I can open the bottles and put in some sugar (Cooper's Carbonation drops) or should I not risk it and ditch the lot? A real shame, but I think I might have messed this batch up. :cry:

Cheers

Geoff

 

[Wolverine]

Go for it what's the worst that can happen ?

 

[Fender Precision]

Give it a try. If the yeast is still hungry it might just carbonate it for ya. Otherwise drink it flat or mix it in the glass with a similar style of beer. Definately dont dump it !!! :drink:

 

[Hollow Legs]

I'm presuming that you put the bottles in a warm place for a couple of weeks after bottling?

 

[geoffmartyn]

I did, although I don't know what constitutes 'warm'. About the warmest place in our house is a cupboard in the kitchen and it's generally about 20 deg c. That's where they stayed for the first couple of weeks.

There's nowhere consistently warmer than that I'm afraid.

It's an old house in Glasgow and it gets pretty cold!

Would you say it needs to be much warmer than that? My lager and Ruby Red seem to be ok and they spent the first two weeks in the same place before being put into the attic, which is sometimes cooler, sometimes warmer depending on the weather and how much heat is trapped.

Cheers

Geoff

 

[Vossy1]

I did, although I don't know what constitutes 'warm'. About the warmest place in our house is a cupboard in the kitchen and it's generally about 20 deg c. That's where they stayed for the first couple of weeks.

That's spot on :thumb: You can get away with a week, then moving to somewhere cooler.

 

[adomant]

This happened to me a while back, in order to serve the beer up, I used a Widget World Sodash and pet adapters

 

[graysalchemy]

I always have a pocket beer engine to hand, a small syringe which you use to suck up some beer and then squirt it out again below the beer in your glass. You can get quite a nice little head on, but if it realy is FLAT then you won't have much luck.

As a point of interest I am sure I saw back in the day on Tommorows World that guinness trialled syringes with bottled beer a few years before widgets were invented.

 

[shearclass]

No expert - but there will still be active yeast in your brew. if there really is no carbonation what so ever, then open the lids, add your priming sugar, the fasten them up again. They may take a while to carbonate, but i'm sure that given time, they will.

Some brews carbonate in a week, but one Coopers kit i did took about 4 weeks plus before it was particularly fizzy. I don't know why it took so long, but if you can prime them, and leave them alone for a couple of weeks, then I'm confident they'll be fine.

Good luck.

 

[geoffmartyn]

Thanks folks! I'll see what I can do, and I'm glad the temperature is just about right.

Although the Ruby Red which I'm brewing just now has dropped to 18 deg C so I'm trying one of these brewbelt gadgets - not sure it's making much of a difference to be honest! It's on day 4 and the head has been and gone...

Cheers

Geoff

 

[Vossy1]

I would imagine the main fermentation is over by now, so the yeast won't be helping to maintain the temperature in the fv any more. The brew belt will help the yeast mop up any residual simple sugars and bi products and keep the fv at a nice stable temp, as opposed to room temp...which can be a bit chilly right now....brrrrr

 

[graysalchemy]

My stout has been brewing at 18c for over a week and is only at 1020 it still has plenty of krausan on it. I wanted to try a cooler ferment to see if it was any better.

 

[geoffmartyn]

Ok - so I've just poured my second bottle - as you can see it was bottled on the 28th Sept.

I poured it from a height to see if I could get a head on it, so do you reckon the fact that I was able to get a decent head retention on it, that means it was primed after all? The only thing is that it's still very flat and has no fizz at all. Tasting the beer it's almost like a rich caramel/chocolate - does this sound right? I would have thought an IPA would be somewhat lighter than this? Don't get me wrong, it's nice, but could probably do with another 8 or so weeks in the bottle as it seems like it's not quite 'there' yet - wherever 'there' might be!!

Cheers

Geoff

 

[mhewitson]

You should remember that a beer is only "ready" when YOU are "ready" to drink t, so give it as long as it takes to get a taste you enjoy.

 

[Edd]

I had a cider that failed to prime about 18 months ago, you could see the sugar sat in the bottom of the bottle and it was flat as a witches t*t.

I slowly drank it over a period of a few months but by the time I got to the last few bottles we had mild carbonation and a few bubbles in it.

All may not be lost, time can be a great healer.