Flat IPA.

What went wrong? Was this supposed to happen? Should I throw it out? What do I do now?

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Cappy
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Flat IPA.

Post by Cappy »

Hi Gang,

I made a bitter IPA that turned out great except that it is flat. Not a bit of carbonation! Anyway, I'm not throwing it out!!!

What went wrong?

Thanks for the help,

Eric
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brewmeisterintng
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More Info Required

Post by brewmeisterintng »

Eric,
I am guessing on the fact you bottled it.
How long was your primary fermentation?
Did you secondary and if so, how long?
What did you use to prime it and what proceedures did you follow?
How long has it been sitting in the bottle and at what temp?
This will help us touble shoot this for you...
Cappy
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Thanks for the reply.

Post by Cappy »

Hi James,

Here's the info on my IPA. First, I stole the recipe from Brew Monkey. It's called Hop Water IPA. Very bitter and very hoppy; even flat it's still pretty good. My local brew store substituted some of the hops and the yeast. Instead of the London ESB Ale I used White Labs WPL013. Here's a link to the recipe:

http://www.brew-monkey.com/recipes/html/hopwater.htm

As for your questions: primary fermentation, 10 days. Secondary fermentation, 21 days. Days in the bottle before drinking, 21 days. Total time to date in the bottle, 30 days. Temp in my basement is about 68 degrees.

OG=1.070. FG=1.019 (pretty close to where they should be).

I bottled five gallons after priming with five ounces powered corn sugar. I dissolved the sugar in water, boiled it and put it in the bottom of my bottling pail after it cooled. Then I siphoned the beer from the carboy to the pail.

This is only my fourth home brew but it's the only one that hasn't carbonated.

Thanks for your help,

Eric

BTW: love the beer song!
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Suthrncomfrt1884
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Post by Suthrncomfrt1884 »

Looks to me like you did everything right. Are all of them low carbonation? Maybe you had a few bottles that didn't get a good seal on them.
Primary - Belgian Dubbel, Belgian IPA
Secondary - Cherry Lambic
Bottled - Bourbon Barrel Coffee Porter, Double Chocolate Raspberry Stout, Imperial Nut Brown, Apfelwein, American Amber Ale w/Homegrown Hops, Breakfast Stout
Kegged - Bass Clone, ESB
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wottaguy
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Re: Thanks for the reply.

Post by wottaguy »

Temp in my basement is about 68 degrees.

Is that a constant 68 deg or does it get cooler at night? You may need to get the conditioning bottles a little warmer for a week or so (70 +deg F). Also, did you stir the sugar medium into your beer after racking on top of it? You should have as doing this would distribute the priming solution equally through the entire batch. After boiling the priming sugar solution, you did cool it before racking your beer on it....right? It should have been cooled close to the beer's temperature.

Finally, I hope that your caps are on tightly too.

Try getting the beer warmer for another week or two, then try one out.

Usually, allowing more time does the trick.

Hope this helps...

(_)3
Visit my blog @ http://www.wottashomebrewblog.blogspot.com

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bfabre
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Post by bfabre »

I had the same issue with a batch a while back. What I found out was I did not let enough yeast into the batch before bottling. I tried to keep as much sediment out of the batch as possible. That was my undoing. It took the lot about a month to carbonate correctly. Then all was good.
"B"
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brewmeisterintng
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Answers

Post by brewmeisterintng »

Eric,
I hope you got the answers you were looking for from the Brothers out there. They all had something to contribute in solving your problem.
In solving brewing problems always eliminate the easy stuff first before trying to tackle the tougher stuff.
If, in your opinion there was sufficient residual yeast and added priming sugar you should have carbonation given sealed bottles and warm temperatures for the yeast to do their thing.
I would highly recommend kegging if you ever pursue it down the road. I guarantee that you will wonder why you didn't do it sooner. Less work, no waste with each bottle, clearer beer and consistent carbonation. Need I say more?
PS Glad you visited the site and enjoyed the music. I am not the webmaster but have recommended that he change the previous music as it was some what draining. We run a forum that mirrors BT. I frequent several sites just to learn and grow in your persuit of the perfect beer.
Cappy
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Thanks to all!

Post by Cappy »

Well I certainly got enough information. I'll try bring the bottles into the house and see if the warmer temperature has any effect. I did let my son cap this batch so maybe he didn't get them on tight enough.

I think I'll look into kegging. The bottles are getting to be a bit of a pain and it sounds like the beer will be better, too.

I always amazed at how fast I can get answers here. I posted my question only six hours ago and now I think I have all the information I need. And I learned something, too.

Thanks to everyone,

Eric :mrgreen:
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