Failed Carbonation / conditioning.

[livo]

Do I try to rescue it or dump it?

I have a batch of 30 PET bottles that I did just about 3 weeks ago and there is no sign of carbonation. The bottles are still soft. I tasted 1 to find it is not bad but, as you'd expect from a flat beer, not great either. The only thing I can think is that I completely forgot to add the sugar in the bulk prime, although I can't really see myself doing that.

I'm considering taking the lids off and individually priming with the plastic prime sugar measure but I'm concerned they might fizz up before I can get the lids back on. The other option is to return them to the bulk prime vessel and try again. Problem here is oxygenation I guess.

Would you try to fix it or just drop it in the drain?

 

[professional_drunk]

If you did add sugar, maybe a dose of fresh yeast and wait.

 

[philrob]

What temperature have you stored them at? It is winter, and perhaps your yeast is asleep ot the current cold temperature.
What was your original yeast used in the batch? It seems unlikely you would have no residual yeast, unless you've somehow manage to filter it all out, but that's not something you've mentioned.
Give them another week in a warmer place. If still no action, then maybe you did forget the priming sugar. You won't get gushers if you add the priming sugar to your bottles if you reseal them as soon as you've added the sugar.
I wouldn't dump them at this stage. Persist for now, and good luck.

 

[Feldon]

Did you record your Final Gravity after primary fermentation? If so, sacrifice a bottle of the flat brew and check its gravity.
If its the same as the FG then you probably forgot to add the sugar to the bulk prime (as you suggested).
If its higher than the FG then you did add the sugar and it is disolved in the beer but remains unfermented.
In the former case you can just add some priming sugar/carb drops direct to the bottles, recap, and place in a warm room to carb up. In the latter case, yeah maybe cold weather like Philrob said. Just move to a warm room and wait and see.

 

[livo]

They aren't warm but this batch is the only one in between others that has failed in the same conditions. They are all canned Coopers kits with identical preparation. I don't bother with gravities with these repetitive batches. This one is Mexican Cerveza with provided yeast. I've got 2 batches a week younger that have hardened up, leading me to believe I must have forgotten to add the bulk prime sugar.

I'll add some to the bottles and recap.

 

[Matty Groves]

I had a batch in winter that didn’t carbonate. My trick to get them going was line a cardboard box with an electric blanket, swirl all the bottles to wake the yeast up and put them in the box. Put the blanket on low every now and then… did the trick. All irrelevant tho if it’s a lack of priming sugar that’s your problem haha

 

[livo]

I couldn't get my head around the possibility of forgetting to put sugar in the bulk prime so I decided to do the test. Rather than risk opening and possibly over-priming 30 bottles, I only did one and then brought that and one other up into the house where I've placed them near a heater. Within only 1 day they have both firmed up, so it must just be too cold in the shed at the moment. The previous 2 batches, which did carbonate, were made cold with Lager yeast. Prior to that I wasn't having any problems but it appears that the winter has eventually hit. I've now noticed that my most recently bottled batch has also failed to firm up after nearly 2 weeks and I know I put priming sugar in that one.

I'll have to keep an eye on the bottled I added extra sugar to. For at least a little while I'll need to bring bottles to the house for conditioning.