[Lazy Ant Brewing]

Primary and secondary were both 73 F.  I don't have a cellar or basement, so I'm brewing and fermenting ales at basically room temperature.  Since I grow a vegetable garden and often in July and Aug we have outside temps of 95 F and higher with high humidity, I don't like keeping the A/C much lower than 73 F.  The difference between inside and outside is enough of a contrast even at 73 F.

[morticaixavier]

Primary and secondary were both 73 F.  I don't have a cellar or basement, so I'm brewing and fermenting ales at basically room temperature.  Since I grow a vegetable garden and often in July and Aug we have outside temps of 95 F and higher with high humidity, I don't like keeping the A/C much lower than 73 F.  The difference between inside and outside is enough of a contrast even at 73 F.

73 is pretty warm for fermenting beer. did you enter that temp in the calculator you used to figure out the priming addition?

[Lazy Ant Brewing]

Yes, I put 73 F in my calculations for both the fermenting and the bottle conditioning.

[Joe Sr.]

I remember a time when I would see a sign reading Coldest Beer In Town and think Oh Ya! Nowadays I just chuckle and think... whatever.

Crap beer is better consumed when its so cold you can't taste it.

I've been drinking my English ales at cellar temp these days (58 or so).  Quite nice.

[Kinetic]

Sometimes it takes 3-4 weeks to fully carbonate.  2-3 weeks is more common for regular beers that haven't been aged a long time or fermented at high temperatures.  You fermented pretty warm.  Probably too warm for clean results.  73* ambient was probably close to 80* fermentation temperature.  Enter 80* in your calculator and see how much priming sugar you should have added.

Don't chill any of them and wait another week before you drink one.  How much sugar did you use?  What kind of sugar?  How much beer volume?  What volume of CO2 did you want?

[Lazy Ant Brewing]

Since the wort spent 14 days in primary and 18 days in secondary, I would have thought the temperature would have returned to ambient.  Your thoughts on that, please.

I used 98 grams sucrose in 4.5 gals and was looking for about 2.2 volumes carbonation.

[erockrph]

Since the wort spent 14 days in primary and 18 days in secondary, I would have thought the temperature would have returned to ambient.  Your thoughts on that, please.

I used 98 grams sucrose in 4.5 gals and was looking for about 2.2 volumes carbonation.

Even though you're above ambient at the peak of fermentation, the yeast is still actively producing CO2. For priming sugar calculators you want the highest temp the beer reached after the yeast finished producing CO2, since any offgassing will not be replenished at that point. If you're not using temp control, then you're looking at a degree or two above ambient, tops. So ambient is good enough for those calculators, IMO.

[Kinetic]

The difference between 73F and 80F is only 0.07 volumes of CO2.  You added enough sugar for 2.1-2.2 volumes of CO2.  Sometimes the yeast is "worn out" after fermentation and it takes longer than usual to carb or may not carb to the desired level.  This can happen if you didn't pitch enough yeast.

What was the OG and FG of the beer?  Did you rehydrate your S-O5?   

[Lazy Ant Brewing]

Final gravity was 1.012;  I didn't take a O.G. reading.  I did rehydrate the yeast before pitching it, but did not add ny yeast at bottling.

[Kinetic]

It sounds like you pitched enough yeast unless the beer is highly boozy.  Nothing left to do except wait and see.  Does the beer make any foam at all when you pour it?   

[Lazy Ant Brewing]

The beer does have some foam.  I had chilled the beer down to 40 F and had poured it into a mug from the freezer.

[Lazy Ant Brewing]

I popped another cap today and the beer is now nicely carbonated.  Inverting the bottles to stir up the yeast and waiting an additional week did the trick.  Tastes good too.  Thanks guys for your advice.