Flat beer - HELP!

[Longbeach Brewer]

I brewed and bottled a batch of Coopers Heritage Sparkling Ale according to the instructions with the kit. It's been sittting now for about 2 months, maturing, and while it tastes fantastic, it's flat as a cat on the Hume...
Any suggestions on how I can "save" this beautiful ale?

[morry]

Did you prime the bottles with sugar? This is the only way I can see flat beer occuring. Perhaps someone else has some other solutions?

[Jezza]

Yeah, sounds like morry has the rights of it.

LBB, if you did prime your bottles with a bit of sugar, you may not have put enough in.

The only other thing I can suggest is to try putting some constant warmth through the bottles for about 4-5 days (try about 22-25 degrees C).

If there is any sugar left in the bottles that hasn't dissolved over the last few months, the heat should be enough to dissolve that stuff and give a boost to your secondary fermentation.

Hope that helps, let us know how you get on.

[Longbeach Brewer]

Thanks for the sugestions guys. I did use Coopers dextrose to prime the subbies, 1/2 teaspoon in each. I heard that dextrose produces a better taste, even in the small amount used for priming. The last batch I put down with white sugar, will be trying that one in a week or so. Meanwhile, I'll give Jezza's sugestion of warming a few bottles up for a few days, if it works I'll do the rest. Was also thinking of ripping the caps off and adding some more sugar? (Then recapping and keeping warm to allow that ellusive secondary fermentation...) What do you think of that idea?

[morry]

Give it a go and tell us how it goes, youve got nothing to lose.

[Prickles]

Longbeach

Ive always used standard white sugar and never had a problem with carbonation, if anything its been over carbonated at times. Ive never tried using the dextrose for priming though...might be the problem (Im no guru tho).

I'd say that putting in a bit more sugar and allowing it to sit should be ok. It may not turn out as well as it could but its gotta be better than tipping it down the gurgler!


Prickles

[ashy]

The second fermantation is very important. I found this out as a few months back a mate (Prickles) did a batch of Coopers Canadian Blonde. We went thru the second fermantation by keeping them in the loungeroom with a wood heater. After about a week and a half I grabbed my half and put them in my shed which gets quite cold at night. They came out quite nice but the beer did not keep its head. Prickles half sat in the warm loungeroom for a couple of months while he was overseas. His beer came out quite well and had carbonated alot better then the half that I had stored in the shed.

Just one of many learning curves in this brewing business


Ashy

[Oliver]

Hi Longbeach Brewer,

A few things:

1. Are all the bottles flat or did you just open one and that was no good? Perhaps the seal on that one was a bit dodgy?

2. Before you put the bottles somewhere warm, tip them back and forth to stir up the yeast and any sugar that might be on the bottom.

3. If that fails, open each bottle and put half a teaspoon of sugar in, then recap immediately.

Good luck.

Oliver

[crawfy]

Mmmm, The Heritage Sparkling is one of my Favorite's, I have brewed 6 brew's and have not had one failure.As Oliver say's agitate the bottle again and move them somewhere warm for a few day's, that is if you have primed the bottle's.
On your next brew, try bulk priming( see notes);
In a saucepan heat a litre of your beer, now depending on how many litres add; 180G OF DEXTROSE ( 20LTRS), 200G OF DEXTROSE (23 LTRS) AND STIR IN UNTIL DESOLVED.
Once disolved add to a sterilised fermentor and then transfer your beer into the fermentor. Then bottle
I have not had one failure in the 2 year's I have been following this process.
regards
The Crawf

[frader]

One batch I had was flat and it turned out to be because
of the sanitizer that we used for cleaning the bottles. We
like to use the one step sanitizer and had ran out. So bought
some at a local resturant supply store. Turns out that the kind
we got keeps working after it has dried. So when we bottled
it killed the yeast.

[wombat]

i know this might sound silly but - sterility.
have you correctly sterililized your equipment/bottles prior to bottling? also, have you sufficiently rinsed the sterilizer from the bottles?

also, dextrose is awesome for priming
i have a system i use for priming the bottles which i already bounced by oliver. (hey oliver: i've got a cool version of it for ales with different malt powders very cool.)

what i do to prime my bottles is to add between 180-190g of dextrose (depending on the style of beer - usually i just use 180g) to 500ml of boiled water in a jug and dissolve the dextrose. then what i do is i purchase a 20ml syringe tube from the chemist and prime at a division of 500ml per 22.5L. so 18ml for 800ml and 17ml fir 750ml bottle.

also, if you're brewing a darker style of beer - you can use malt powder by darker, i mean anything brewed with a lager yeast like lagers and pilsners because a discoloured head on those lighter beers is not formally correct to the style. though, i guess you could make a dark lager of an oktoberfest and prime with light malt powder and it would be awesome... mmm good idea

anyways, to convert to a malt powder priming recipe all you have to do is use malt powder instead of dextrose. you still use 180g per 22.5L of brew. you also should leave the malt primed beers fractionally longer in the bottles before drinking. all i mean is don't go scoffing em when they're younger than 6 weeks cause you really won't see the complete benefits of the malt powder priming. you'll definately notice a lot of difference in the head/body/finish but not completely. malt primed beer has the finest head of any primed beer. in fact, i'm completely confident that an accurate kilkenny clone could be finished close to the real thing by priming the bottles with light malt powder and that an accurate guiness close could be finished by priming the bottles with a dark powdered malt.

if any of you are thinking of experimenting with malt priming, then only prime a few of your bottles with malt and prime the rest with dextrose. the reason i say this is sometimes malt priming just isn't the right thing for the brew even though it just totally seemed like the perfect thing. but dextrose, however, ALWAYS gives great results. plus i, personally, have no problem going cooper's sparkling ale style and mixing my dextrose sediment through my bottles to drink them awesome.

cheers
-wombat

[peterl]

If the beer has bubbles then its not flat, but it just may not have a head, which i sometimes get. A lack of head can be caused by the way your beer glass is washed. always make sure your glass is rinsed of any detergents after washing.
Im making a low carb beer which has a tendency of not creating a head. To overcome this and any other causes of a lack of head i have a true and tried answer.
After washing and rinsing your beer glasses pour boiling water into the glass (about half a cup) then dangle an ordinary teabag in and jiggle for a few seconds until the colour a pale beer. Empty out and turn the glass upside down to dry. Do not rinse. One teabag will last several goes.
Believe me it works. And the head stays for a few stubbies not just the first one.
Peterl

[ryan]

He`s probably found a solution by now tho.....that post is 4 years old

[earle]

You never know, he could still be trying to carb up that same batch.

[homebrewer79]

Never heard of the tea bag method before, OK I have, but not in that context Anyone else tried it. In the glass that is

[KEG]

with a proper teabag, that is


i could see that working.. the tannins in the tea could potentially break down residues on the glass. might give it a try later.