Losing Carbination

[danial]

Hey fellow brewers

Im having trouble with my beers losing carbonation , I pretty much just started bulk priming . My fermentation temp is around 25c my wort volume is 22L and using 200grams of dex.

Any help would be great.

 

[peas_and_corn]

What do you mean when you say they are 'losing cabonation"? are you bottling? what bottles? how long are your leaving the bottles before opening? do you bulk prime?

 

[danial]

Hey mate,

Im using crow tops, Im bulk priming at 200grams of dex. Bottles have been left for 4 weeks. This is the first time I have had this problom its only been the last 3 batches.

 

[Screwtop]

Describe your bulk priming process for us.

Screwy

 

[danial]

Okay I start with loading my bottles into my bottle washing machine with fresh water and let cycle for 15 minutes.

In that time I take out my feremneter sterilize my bottling bucket and phyon tube, then glad wrap.

Use 200ml of water and bring 200grams of dex to boil.

Empty bottle washer add 10L of sterilzer/ takes about 2 minutes.

Dextrose boiling remove from heat let sit.

Have a beer

Setup sterilzed botling bucket ready to drain fermenter, placing phyon tube in a coil to make a swirl pool affect.

Turn tap on gently.

Empty bottle wash of sterilzer, add say 20L of fresh water to rinse.

Half way thru filling the bottle bucket, turn off bottle wash letting bottles sit to drip dry.

Sterlize bottle tops/rapid bottler. Get capper ready

Take bottles out, cover with glad rap.

Fill 15/ top 15 and so on.

Label then store.


hope this helps?

 

[InCider]

Hi Danial,

What steralizer do you use?

When I first started I used sodium met and then a detergent based cleaner h34r: and things went flat real quick.

So I stopped sanitizing the bottles! Problem solved! Pressure wash instead. (rinse after use of course)

InCider.

 

[Screwtop]

Okay I start with loading my bottles into my bottle washing machine with fresh water and let cycle for 15 minutes.

In that time I take out my feremneter sterilize my bottling bucket and phyon tube, then glad wrap.

Use 200ml of water and bring 200grams of dex to boil.

Empty bottle washer add 10L of sterilzer/ takes about 2 minutes.

Dextrose boiling remove from heat let sit.

Have a beer

Setup sterilzed botling bucket ready to drain fermenter, placing phyon tube in a coil to make a swirl pool affect.

Turn tap on gently.

Empty bottle wash of sterilzer, add say 20L of fresh water to rinse.

Half way thru filling the bottle bucket, turn off bottle wash letting bottles sit to drip dry.

Sterlize bottle tops/rapid bottler. Get capper ready

Take bottles out, cover with glad rap.

Fill 15/ top 15 and so on.

Label then store.
hope this helps?

Thanks danial,

Your process is ok, your bottle sterilisation process is possibly OT compared to what many other home brewers do. I take it that after cooling you add the sugar/dex to the bottom of the bottling bucket before beginning to drain the fermenter.

Interested to know what product you are using for sterilisation.

Screwy

 

[NRB]

Hi Danial, a few points if I may.

You have enough sugar for the entire batch for good carbonation, so the problem isn't there. Are all bottles displaying the same signs, or are some carbonated and others not?

You may be losing CO2 through a poor cap seal. An easy way to confirm this is to place a balloon, water balloon or condom over the top and seal really well with a tight rubber band. If the item inflates, you're losing it through a poor cap seal. What capper are you using?

One final note, and a pedantic one, but the word you are looking for is "sanitise" or "sanitize", not sterilise/sterilize. It may not be a big deal to you, but from a scientific and medical standpoint they are incredibly different. As a new brewer, it should be easy to change to using correct terminology. Oh, and you use a syphon to transfer

Cheers! :icon_cheers:

 

[danial]

Im using Pink stanitizer,

All bottles seem to have the same carbonation. Im going to try cutting down the sterilzer in half and increasing my rinse cycle.

 

[Screwtop]

Im using Pink stanitizer,

All bottles seem to have the same carbonation. Im going to try cutting down the sterilzer in half and increasing my rinse cycle.

Unsure but I think the Pink stuff is Sodium Percarbonate which is for cleaning. For sanitising a different product is required. Products such as Starsan/Iodophor/Phospheric Acid/Hydrogen Peroxide are no-rinse which is of benefit to brewers as no further contaminates are introduced by rinsing after sanitising. These are easy to use and inexpensive. Sterilisation is a different matter and almost inachievable for the home brewer as 99.99% of bacteria/organisms are required to be removed.

For us Sanitisation is fine so long as proper cleaning procedures are adhered to. A search will provide you with heaps of info re Cleaning/Sanitising.

As others have pointed out the amount of sugar isn't the issue so how about the loose caps or residual cleaner in the bottles theories as previously mentioned.

I wonder how long it's been since you bottled, you will need a minimum of four weeks for bottle fermentation to reach an acceptable level.

Cheers,

Screwy

 

[winkle]

I'll echo Screwy here, 4 weeks is best. I know the kit instructions will say 2 weeks and you will get a fair bit of carbonation in that time but it is far better to wait for 4 weeks minimum - carbonation level will be good and the beer will taste better from the conditioning time, should be brighter too.
Don't get sucked into using Sodium Metabisulphate as a sanitizer, use something that works perferably no-rinse.

Try pouring coke into a bottle, cap it then shake the crap out of it. See if there is any gas escaping - the problem might be the capper bell as other have said.

edit: eagle school of typing not so good

 

[danial]

I've been told that using a no rinse stanitizer is no good, What do you guys recommend?

 

[danial]

This is my bottle washing machine here,

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=18663

I dont think its the cleaning process but the Pink stuff I have been using.

 

[NRB]

I've been told that using a no rinse stanitizer is no good, What do you guys recommend?

Who told you? That blanket statement is a load of hogwash. I and many other highly successful brewers use no-rinse sanitisers without problems. There are a lot of products on the market and a search of the forums will yield good information.

Just for starters you can use iodophor, phosphoric acid, hydrogen peroxide silver ions... personally I wouldn't use a product I have to rinse off as the rinse step is an extra source of contamination.

You still haven't responded to the questions posed above.

 

[danial]

I'll echo Screwy here, 4 weeks is best. I know the kit instructions will say 2 weeks and you will get a fair bit of carbonation in that time but it is far better to wait for 4 weeks minimum - carbonation level will be good and the beer will taste better from the conditioning time, should be brighter too.
Don't get sucked into using Sodium Metabisulphate as a sanitizer, use something that works perferably no-rinse.

Try pouring coke into a bottle, cap it then shake the crap out of it. See if there is any gas escaping - the problem might be the capper bell as other have said.

edit: eagle school of typing not so good

Beers are 3.5 weeks old. Thanks for the help guys!