Lager

stuartex

Ok i donr the amber ale did the stout , bottled in to beer shaped plastic 500ml bottles with 2 carbon drops and they were great ! Tried the lager same way and still flat the only thing different is the bottles and it cant be them as i bought from here , any ideas what went wrong ? Duff yeast or ....... and they are kind of sweet

HBO_Staff

Hi Stuartex, there may be a couple of reasons why it is not carbonating, firstly, do you know for sure it finished fermenting before bottling - if not this can make it sweet, it would be handy if you happened to take a gravity reading before bottling?

If a brew has not carbonated in the bottles it may be that it has been a bit too cool, as you have primed each bottle in the same way as before and they are the same size you know your method works, if they are somewhere quite cool try warming them up for a week in a warm place around 20 degrees C - this will just help the secondary fermentation in the bottles. If they are quite cold then this may either slow down, or even stop the priming sugar/drops from creating carbonation. Moving the bottles somewhere a bit warmer will usually get it going.

One other thing to consider - is the brew still cloudy, which is a sign it has suspended yeast in the liquid (this is what works on the priming sugar and creates carbonation), if the lager is very clear when it was bottled then there may not be as much suspended yeast to work on the priming sugar so this will increase the time taken to carbonate.