Possible Carbonation Issue With First Home Brew

Shaunc · Post by **Shaunc** » Thursday Dec 14, 2006 8:56 pm

Hi everyone. First time poster.

After almost 3 weeks after bottling I've gone to sample a few bottles. The good news is that it tastes and looks like beer. Except for the fact that it seems that priming failed. The beer seems flat. There is bit of a head poured from the bottle that soon disappears. Two bottles so far have been like this so I am concerned about the others.

Which is a shame as I was hoping to have mates sample 'em on an Aussie Day barbie.

I used carbonation drops in Coopers Pale Ale longnecks with a crown seal. Any suggestions as to what may have gone wrong? Carb drops v bottles fer instance?

I have a Morgan's Stockmans Draught that will be ready for bottling for the weekend (very simple recipe but a sample today taken to measure the SG tasted not too bad). I'm thinking of priming half with carb drops and the other half with dextrose to see if that makes a difference.

Any suggestions welcome as I'm happy to experiment.

mikey · Post by **mikey** » Thursday Dec 14, 2006 9:07 pm

What exactly did you put in the brew?

Boonie · Post by **Boonie** » Thursday Dec 14, 2006 9:18 pm

I had issues with this at start and when I used a little more Dex for bottling it was better in most beers.

Plus I started using Malt which gives me better head retention. Liquid Malt was better again.

.

I also have started brewing at lower consistant temps. Dunno if this really helps, but the head is better.

I think that this site would have saved me alot of guesswork and alot of headless beer.

Cheers

Boonie

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Thursday Dec 14, 2006 9:18 pm

I'd look at storage temperature, keep it around 18 degrees if possible.

If it gets too cold it won't carbonate properly and the lower the storage temperature the longer it will take to carbonate.

I wouldn't worry, give it time, make sure the temperature is fine and try it again in another couple of weeks. Longnecks take longer to carbonate than stubbies I believe.

thisispants · Post by **thisispants** » Thursday Dec 14, 2006 10:07 pm

sorry...

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Thursday Dec 14, 2006 11:06 pm

How warm is too warm when gassing up your bottles?

Is 22oc to cool?

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Friday Dec 15, 2006 8:03 am

Nope, 22 is fine

morgs · Post by **morgs** » Friday Dec 15, 2006 6:41 pm

Its probably not flat. Its just crap head retention something that my first few beers suffered from. Read the stcky how to make hb better.

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Friday Dec 15, 2006 7:10 pm

Some beers will just simply take longer to carb.

Keep in mind temp stored at and the fact that it has basically been sitting for the minumum..

I would leave it for another week or so and try again..

Once again, the most important tool in homebrewing is patients

Shaunc · Post by **Shaunc** » Friday Dec 15, 2006 9:06 pm

Thanks for the tips. The storage temp is whatever the garage is. It has concrete floors and doesn't get to bad on the warmer days (I'm on the NSW Central Coast).

I'm ready to bottle again tomorrow (rainy, cool day forecast) so will pop down to the local homebrew place for some dextrose and try that. There is some malt in this brew (it was a mixture of dextrose, corn syrup and malt) so that may help.

And I'll be patient with the ones bottled and see how they go.

Thanks everyone. Appreciate the advice.