Undercarbonated bottles

[Alex.mc]

I bottled a batch of Smash Styrian Wolf a couple of weeks back, and tried one last night. The carbonation is a little disappointing(to me). They're all in screwtop PTE bottles, so it would be easy to open and drop in some more sugar, and quickly sanitise the caps.
Is that an acceptable method?

 

[terrym]

Before you try anything why not open another bottle to see if that too is undercarbed. If it's not the first one might have been a one-off.
Otherwise you can do what you propose. But when you drop the sugar in you may find it causes the beer to froth up and out. Suggest you try to add sugar to one bottle first before you attempt it with the others. And I wouldn't bother with sanitising; what has caused the bottle caps to become contaminated in the few seconds they were off the bottle?

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
At what temperature have you had the bottles?
I wonder whether another week at a couple of degrees warmer might be worth a try before adding extra sugar.

 

[Alex.mc]

Thanks guys.
It was the second bottle, same as the first. They're in an insulated area held at 20-23 degress constant.
Yes the sugar may well froth I guess? I might try one with sugar today and see how long I get before being to get the capo back on, if its too quick then carbonation drops are probably the answer?

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Did you lager your brew for any length of time? If so, it might be a yeast problem, rather than sugar. Did the beer taste too sweet?

 

[Alex.mc]

Temp was kept pretty constant at around 20. It's heatable, so minimum would have been 19, max with ambient 22.

 

[simon12]

In my experience most batches have carbonated in under a week but a few took 3-4 weeks for no obvious reason.

 

[Alex.mc]

Right, I've added a just under level teaspoon of table sugar to a bottle, and recapped it. I selected 2 bottles (PTE) and both felt about the same in terms of tightness when pressed to check pressure. I have set the two aside with the extra sugar one clearly marked as such in a regulated 21c area. I'll return to them in a week and crack them to see the difference.
And yes it foamed up pretty quick! I lost a small amount but had the cap nearby, and to be fair it was a pretty well filled bottle anyway. I think with a bit of defthandedness it could be done with no losses.

 

[terrym]

Right, I've added a just under level teaspoon of table sugar to a bottle, and recapped it.

Under normal priming conditions one tsp of sugar is about on the upper limit for 500ml bottles, assuming that is what you are using. However your beer already has carbonation so you could - assuming 500ml bottles - have now gone the other way. If that is the case you could be in gusher territory, so beware. However if your bottles are larger than 500ml, this becomes less relevant as bottle size increases.

 

[MrL73]

I batch primed my previous brew and then bottled into a mixture of PTE screwtops and swivel tops. I would say that 75% of the PTE bottles were under carbed, whereas all the swingers opened with a satisfying pop and were perfectly carbed. I'm not convinced that the PTE bottles can handle the pressure or seal as well. Either that or my feeble attempts to screw them closed them is inadequate.

As a result, I'm binning the PTE and getting more swingtops.

 

[Spratt]

If you can be (very) patient you may find it comes ok in the end without any further action or additions.

The first time I tried brewing a pilsner, I was really disappointed as the bottles I tried were completely flat. As I had plenty of other beers on the go at the time, I just left them in the shed and rather forgot about them, until about six months later, I thought I'd try one. It and all the rest of them were perfect. I've no idea why or how but assume that the yeast just took a very long time to get going.

My brew was done with the Brulosophy method, using Saflager w34/70 yeast. After priming with drops (2 per bottle) and bottling I left them in a warm place for 19 days. Then put them in a fridge for a fortnight before trying them.That's when they were flat. I then transferred them out of the fridge into the filing cabinet in my shed, which is where I store all my beer. That was in December and I think it was May before I tried them again and found them to be fine. If you have the storage and can bear to wait that long it might be worth keeping back a couple of bottles to see if you have the same luck I did

David

 

[terrym]

I batch primed my previous brew and then bottled into a mixture of PTE screwtops and swivel tops. I would say that 75% of the PTE bottles were under carbed, whereas all the swingers opened with a satisfying pop and were perfectly carbed. I'm not convinced that the PTE bottles can handle the pressure or seal as well. Either that or my feeble attempts to screw them closed them is inadequate.

As a result, I'm binning the PTE and getting more swingtops.

If I'm bottling I use mostly PET and I've never had any problems on undercarbed beer. Some of my beers are relatively highly carbed, and some beers are in those bottles for months. I recently opened the last one of a batch exactly a year from when it had been bottled and that was fine too. However I do chuck them away and replace them after a few uses when they start to look a bit scruffy.
And I always use table sugar for priming since you can adjust the quantity very easily and its cheap.

 

[Alex.mc]

I just checked this morning the 2 bottles I set aside. One being the re-primed one, and the other being the control, both being kept together in the same conditions.
The re-primed one is distinctly "tighter" feeling than the the control. That's after 4 days so I'll check it again after a week. If I can persuade myself to leave it another week then that'll be a full 2 weeks at 21c.
My method of dosing probably needs refining. I used a bag of granulated sugar, and a sanitised teaspoon and small funnel. I measured a level teaspoon of sugar on the last batch and figured that a slightly "domed" level teaspoon was what I needed and estimated that on each bottle. I'm thinking now I probably need a deeper measuring spoon, a bit like those plastic half-sphere ones used for cooking a in a small size to be a bit more accurate in future.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi @Alex.mc
I know it's a hand-in-pocket job, but I got a set similar to these.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HAY2B14/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Spratt]

Having played around with syrup and drops I've now settled for ones similar to these, which used with caster sugar give a fairly consistent amount each time, though as far as I can tell my ones had a slightly deeper and narrower profile than these, which make it almost impossible to heap it up

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sugar-Di...Bottles-X-3-/253751390039?hash=item3b14c2ef57

 

[Alex.mc]

Thanks BigCol and Spratt, I have ordered the second one, the plastic triple dispenser. I have some bottling to do on the weekend so they should turn up in time for that.