Some Of My Beer Is Flat

[Swinging Beef]

I bottled a 20 litre of lovely espresso stout some months back and have been drinking it for the past month.
Sadly, however, some of the bottles are not carbonated.
Why would that be?

There is no pattern to this.
All the beer was stored together in the same place for the same time.
All bottles were primed individually using the standard bottle primer measurer.

The only thing I can come up with is that I had a brain prolapse somewhere along the way and didnt put sugar into every single bottle.
Other brews bottled the same day did not have this problem.

 

[clay]

were you drinking while you bottled?

 

[rich_lamb]

My guess is that individual bottle priming is your problem. If you go to bulk priming you will never look back - it's far less fiddly and gives more consistent and *potentially* faster carbonation.
So the theory is you got very little yeast in some of the bottles rather than very little sugar - which means they will carbonate, just slower.
(often you may wait 6 months and get nothing then whacko! Carbonated)

Other posibilities:
- seals leaking? Unlikely, haven't heard of this before
- error between beer and bottles...

 

[braufrau]

I bottled a 20 litre of lovely espresso stout some months back and have been drinking it for the past month.
Sadly, however, some of the bottles are not carbonated.
Why would that be?

There is no pattern to this.
All the beer was stored together in the same place for the same time.
All bottles were primed individually using the standard bottle primer measurer.

The only thing I can come up with is that I had a brain prolapse somewhere along the way and didnt put sugar into every single bottle.
Other brews bottled the same day did not have this problem.

I know its unlikely in your case but I struggled with this for a couple of brews and then realised I wasn't managing to get the caps on properly.
They were making the usual "wump" noise and crimping around the top but, apparently, there's more to it than that.
So now I get HWMBO to go over them and make sure they're on properly.

 

[rich_lamb]

There you go - it is possible then.
So what is the solution then brewfrau - do you just have to push down on the superautomatica real hard?

 

[Swinging Beef]

If you go to bulk priming you will never look back - it's far less fiddly and gives more consistent and *potentially* faster carbonation.

I did bulk prime once, and felt that the bottles took ages to come up to 'fizz'.
I also wonder how it affects the clarity of the beer, too.
Am I right in thinkng you just swill around 60 (disolved) teaspoons of sugar into a 20 litre batch?

 

[Swinging Beef]

were you drinking while you bottled?

Of course!
What do you take me for?
BUt it was only one small glass of the batch I was bottling.

 

[warra48]

There you go - it is possible then.
So what is the solution then brewfrau - do you just have to push down on the superautomatica real hard?

When I bought my superautomatica, I was shown by the HB guy to adjust the capper down as far as you can go for whatever bottle you are using, and to make sure you press hard enough to leave a dimple in the top of the cap.
With the adjustment available on the superautomatica, it is possible to cap a bottle where the capper is set one notch too high, and it looks like a proper seal, but in some cases it obviously isn't.

 

[Interloper]

I did bulk prime once, and felt that the bottles took ages to come up to 'fizz'.
I also wonder how it affects the clarity of the beer, too.
Am I right in thinkng you just swill around 60 (disolved) teaspoons of sugar into a 20 litre batch?

Wellllllll kinda

I use the calculator here and I make sure that the sugar is thoroughly boiled and dissolved and then I cool it.

I generally make my priming sugar and sterilise my bottles on a Friday night after work, and then bulk prime+bottle+clean all my brew gear on a Saturday.

 

[braufrau]

There you go - it is possible then.
So what is the solution then brewfrau - do you just have to push down on the superautomatica real hard?

Yes I think so. HWMBO leans on them with all his might. And his weight is more than 50% more than mine (and probably
more like double in the upper body) and that seems to do the trick.

I don't have a superautomatica, but its the same principal .. bench capper thingy.

 

[Swinging Beef]

Hmm.. trying to remember, but I have a horrible suspicion that I might have had some 12 year old helpers on this occasion.
I wonder if they buggered up the capping.
I had forgot about that.
Its so hard to get good help these days.

 

[KGB]

My money is on the capping...

 

[Swinging Beef]

My money is on the capping...

Hmm.. I might just recap the rest this weekend.
and drink the ones that obviously Pffffft up.

 

[Stuster]

Yes I think so. HWMBO leans on them with all his might. And his weight is more than 50% more than mine (and probably
more like double in the upper body) and that seems to do the trick.

I don't have a superautomatica, but its the same principal .. bench capper thingy.

You really shouldn't have to use that much force. Do you adjust the height of the capper to the height of the bottles? Was my mistake when I first started bottling.

 

[0M39A]

my capper is a decent sized drill press with one of the really old school hammer on cappers attached to it.

takes so little effort its not funny

[edit]

also, bulk priming is so so so much easier than individually priming every bottle.

i did the opposite with a stout a few years ago. double primed a bottle. very lucky that it was a stout and i was giving it minimum carbonation (1/2 priming rate)! opened up the said bottle, and went to pour it and could barley pour the damn thing from the head.