Sweet taste - low carbonation

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BobbyBoucher

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Made a extract brew following a recipe and kit from AHB. It's a red ale so something a little different to what I've brewed previously.

It's been bottle conditioning for about 3 weeks now and I've started having a few (I know they would probably benefit from longer conditioning). The carbonation is a lot lower than I have had using same sugar measurements in previous brews and I'm getting a much sweeter taste than I thought I would.

My question/theory is it possible that there wasn't enough remaining yeast in the brew bottle condition? That is why I'm getting a sweeter taste as there is still sugar in the bottles and therefore not as much carbonation?

I may have pitched the yeast at a slightly higher temp than normal on this brew as it was taking ages to cool down and I was getting impatient.

Just been trying to work out ideas as to what I could do differently.
 
Can't find the recipe, only recently moved house and have misplaced a few things recently. I wrote the OG/SG on the recipe so that is obviously gone too.

For priming sugar I used a pretty level teaspoon. Bottling in 750ml bottles.
 
Any chance that your bottles got too cold early in conditioning and put the yeast to sleep?
If so then a bit more time at a stable temp and maybe a bit of a swirl to help agitate the yeast might help, any agitation might mean that you have to wait for the yeast to re settle but it’s worth the wait for a better beer.
Also have a look into bulk priming to speed up your bottling. I know this is unrelated to your issue but it’ll save you some time and effort on the next batch.
Cheers, James.
 
What yeast? In the past when I bottled this used to happen with S-04 yeast. That's a yeast that seems to need a bit more help like higher, healthier pitch rate. Or it conks out sometimes not finishing the ferment and failing in the bottle ferment as well.
 
Any chance that your bottles got too cold early in conditioning and put the yeast to sleep?
If so then a bit more time at a stable temp and maybe a bit of a swirl to help agitate the yeast might help, any agitation might mean that you have to wait for the yeast to re settle but it’s worth the wait for a better beer.
Also have a look into bulk priming to speed up your bottling. I know this is unrelated to your issue but it’ll save you some time and effort on the next batch.
Cheers, James.


Bottles have been at a pretty stable temp for a while now. I gave each bottle a full turn to mix things up a bit and waited another week. Certainly more carbonation, a lot more bubbles in the glass and a lot longer lasting head. Slightly sweet taste was still there so I think I'll wait another few weeks and see how I go.
 
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