flat as a bloody tack

[eremasi]

someones gotta help me,made 5 different brews ,ranging from lagers to dark ales,all made with either safale or saflager yeasts,all brewed at correct temps,sugars,2wk brew time,2t-spoons sugar per long neck,second fermented from 18-26degs for 7 days,left for 2months before tasting,recipies followed to the letter,opened 6 bottles of each brew and ALL F***ING FLAT.You gotta apreciate my situation,about to throw each bottle against the wall.What happen???

[db]

second fermented from 18-26degs for 7 days,left for 2months before tasting

what temps do you keep em at for the 2 months before tasting?

[eremasi]

yeah sorry about that,ales at room temp 18-20 and lagars bit cooler .all bottles totally sterilized too.

[Merlin]

i feel for you buddy, nothing worse than pouring your soul into a brew and then having it not turn out.

Your priming rate and time left to condition seem right so I guess the only other possible causes of flat beer would be

1) the yeast was already dead when you bottled
2) the bottles have been left in a spot that is not warm enought to get bottle-fermentation going
3) your bottles are leaking.

Looking at these in turn;

1 - Excessive heat and excessive alcohol levels (among other things, but they're the most common) will kill yeast. How do you prime? If you're bulk-priming and dissolving your sugar in boiling water this might be the cause (unusual it would kill ALL of the yueast, but stranger things have happened). Is there anything else that would have caused the beer to heat to a point where the poor little yeasties got fried? Or is the ABV% of your beers over 10%?

2 - Where do you store the bottles to condition them? What temperature would it normally be during the day?

3 - Assuming your bottles aren't cracked (which would surely cause bigger problems than flat beer), they may not be sealing properly. Do you bottle in glass or PET? Crown seals, twist tops or swing tops? Do you use a bench capper or hand capper? Do you hear a "psshht" sound when you open the bottles?

If you can provide answers to any of these we may just solve your problem yet.

Chin up,

Merlin

[eremasi]

ok alot to ingest but here goes
excessive heat can only think of is 2nd frmnt at 18-26 degs
bulk prime;did a couple but sugar disolved in lukewarm water,rest-2 tspoons per bottle
cold conditioned around 14-16 degs
storage temp-around 20degs
even 2nd ferm lagers at 15 degs(still bad)
using primarily twist tops with some crowns but didnt matter

[eremasi]

oh yeah ,still hear the psst after cracking it but no fizz!

[Chris]

I would just turn the bottles upside down, a couple of times a week, and move to a warmer area. You won't get weird flavours, and you won't kill your yeast. Get the temps up to 24 deg C, and rotate bottles occasionally

[Merlin]

ok alot to ingest but here goes
excessive heat can only think of is 2nd frmnt at 18-26 degs
bulk prime;did a couple but sugar disolved in lukewarm water,rest-2 tspoons per bottle
cold conditioned around 14-16 degs
storage temp-around 20degs
even 2nd ferm lagers at 15 degs(still bad)
using primarily twist tops with some crowns but didnt matter

hmmm... none of that should have caused a problem, particularly since it's had two months to carbonate. If you're hearing a "psshht" on opening and seeing a bit of fog coming out the top of the bottle, thats carbon dioxide (btw, Dr Karl has a facinating explanation of what causes that fog in one of his books, but thats another topic), and if theres carbon dioxide building up in your sealed bottle, unless you've only half-filled each bottle, the CO2 will have to have been forced into the beer. Perhaps we're looking at this from the wrong angle - instead of there being no carbon dioxide in the beer, maybe it's the glass you are drinking it from that is causing the problem? (there are many other posts on this forum that discuss this) Try a few vessels of different shapes and sizes, or see if drinking from a plastic or metal cup makes a difference.

Cheers

Merlin

[Dogger Dan]

How cold are they now?

Dogger

[scblack]

I've had this little problem with a couple of my brews.

One problem I fixed was the capper was denting the caps. Its an old style one, which screws itself together if that makes sense. Anyway, the cap was getting dented by a screw sticking out through the capper end bit (what actually touches the cap-whats that called?).

And the dent was breaking the seal enough to let gas leak out. Since fixed witht he trusty screwdriver.

I cannot answer if thats your problem, but that was my problem.

[peterd]

Leaving a brew to settle for a long time before bottling (say, one or two months), especially if you rack to secondary, can result in very few yeasty beasties getting in to each bottle at bottling, and hence a LONG time before satisfactory carbonation (especially at low temps): I have had brews under carbonated at two months (the minimum time I leave a brew after bottling before sampling), but fine at 6 months.
Dont smash 'em against the wall just yet. If you are hearing a fizz (i.e. the yeast was not all dead), and you primed and sanitized adequately, the Gods will (eventually) smile upon you and your endevours (assuming, of course, that the problem isn't one of sealing).

[silkworm]

Hi eremasi,

I've found over the winter that my lagers have taken an extraordinary length of time to carbonate. I posted here with the same sort of Q. Although I haven't had Ales do it as well - yet. If you've ticked off the list of posibilities discussed so far here as covered then I'd suggest patients.
Give it even up to 6months. Brew another batch in these warmer temps and stock up for a swill fest at Christmas
I hope it works out for you. Mind did eventually. You could always pop them on the soda stream machine

[Skoti]

When I first started brewing (only about 10 months or so ago) I had similar trouble .
As far as I knew i had been doing everything by the book and still I ended up with flat brews .
Then after many pow-wows (drinking sessions) with my mentors , the question came up about how full were the bottles I was filling were .
My reply was about 3-5 cms from the cap ( I was bottling in 1.5 - 2.25 ltr PETs )
There was a sudden exclamation around the campfire .
"No " they said "you must fill your bottles further "
I have never looked back from this day .

Now this may or maynot be the answer you are looking for , but it did help me .


Disclaimer : I have been drinking , ideas in this post are subject to lack of scientific knowledge and should be taken with a grain of salt .
Any relevance to persons living or dead are purely coincidental .