Bloody Flat Beer?

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johnno

It's YUMMY
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Hello all,
Tomorrow it will be 3 weeks since I bottled a Coopers dark ale. (Sweet beer thread).
Last night I tried one and it still had a very low carbonation level. I reckon it was still quite flat. It tastes really nice but thats it.
I forgot to get the OG of this brew but the FG was 1014.
I bulk primed with 180 g of white sugar. They are being stored in the shed out the back where the temp has still been around 15C on average.
Can this affect the carbonation level. Do I need to store my bottles at a higher temp? Do i need to leave it much longer. All the other brews I have bulk primed have turned out fine after around 3 weeks. How long should I wait before trying to add more sugar to the bottles? Is this even feasible at this stage?
Has anyone else come across this problem?

Thanks
 
I wouldn't panic yet.

What temperature did you ferment the brew at?

It normally takes a bare minimum of 2 weeks for bottles to prime in warm conditions (~25c), so it could definately take a few weeks longer in the colder weather!

And anyway! What are you doing tasting after 3weeks! Patience!
 
Johno,

I like my dark ales with low carbonation and would normally prime a 23 litre batch with about 100-120g. So you don't need more sugar. Just wait. In fact if you had not primed at all and just left them for 6 months you would probably find enough carbonation to make a thin head - IMO quite a nice level of carbonation for a dark ale. I have done this with a few dark ales.

I too start drinking my bottles after two or three weeks. Just make sure you leave half a carton or so to get some age. Dark ales are good at 6 months.
 
deebee
i too love the low carbonation.you could find yourself a airtight container with a tap,put your 100g of sugar in there then rack your beer into it then leave it in their for 2 weeks and drink straight from it.for this style you wouldn't even need to put it in the fridge just leave it in a cool place say no more than 15c .
easy for winter because being liquid once it gets to 15c if keeped in a cool spot will take a lot of time to heat up if you get a hot day.i have been enjoying many a 'warm flat' brew this year.
do you drink some straight from the bottle off the shelf.

the other nite at the grumpy show 'B.B' had a collapsable 20 litre water bag with a tap which cost $5 from cheap as chips.that thing worked a treat.also the beer was the best of the nite.it was a strong ale type thing he had in there.i reckon you'll love this idea you don't have too even worry about waiting for all the yeast to ferment the priming sugar. the way the poms do it is drink it while some of the yeast is still active.

anyway no bottles and some real ale in a cask you got to love that and for $5.

johnno
a lot of people shake all the bottles up at this stage.to help keep the yeast going etc.
don't even worry about adding anymore sugar to the bottles.just shake and put them in a cuboard with a lamp.
 
Thanks for all the advice everybody.
I will try and be patient.
Maybe just give em a bit of a shake and put em away for a while.
I'm still very new at this so i'm on a very steep learning curve.

B)
 
Hi all
Well i've tried a few more of these over the last week or so and they are still quite flat. They taste ok but carbonation is not there.
The other thing with this beer is that the alchohol level seems to be very low.
I had 4 grolsch bottles last sunday and I didnt feel a thing.
Anyone else come across this??
I wonder what happened to it??
 
johnno - try decantering it into a frozen jug and then into a frozen pint glass! - Always helps me
 
jayse said:
the way the poms do it is drink it while some of the yeast is still active.
jayse, no wonder they have such huge beer guts in the UK! :)

johnno, sounds to me like the yeast is slow in the bottle because of the 15C storage temps. It may be sleeping. Put them somewhere warmer for a week or 2. Also try using 11g per litre of DME in place of 7g per litre of white sugar.

Long live the rheinheitsgebbot!
 

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