[BBC]

I've brewed and bottled five Midwest extract kits and have never had a problem with the beer carbonating the bottle.

I have a friend that just brewed his first batch.  He bottled three weeks ago from tomorrow (Thanksgiving) and he tried one today.  He said that it's flat.  I asked him what temps he stored the bottles at and he kept it around 70 degrees.  What do you think his problem could be?  He told me that he added his priming sugar just as the kit directions stated to do so.  Is there any way to save his batch from being flat?

[tubercle]

Need more info

 Were the bottles primed individually?
 Was the priming sugar poured into the wort and stirred?
 Was the priming sugar boiled with water prior to mixing?
 What was the gravity?
 What was the aging time?
 Was cold crashing involved?
 What was the batch size?
 How much priming sugar?
 What kind of priming sugar?

[BBC]

Need more info

 Were the bottles primed individually? No, it was added to the bottling bucket.
 Was the priming sugar poured into the wort and stirred?  I don't think he stirred it but I'm not totally sure.
 Was the priming sugar boiled with water prior to mixing?  Yes
 What was the gravity? Don't think he measured.
 What was the aging time? One week in the primary, two in the secondary and tomorrow makes three in bottles.
 Was cold crashing involved? Crashing?
 What was the batch size? 5 Gallons
 How much priming sugar? 3/4 Cup
 What kind of priming sugar? Corn Sugar

As I mentioned, he claims to have followed the instructions exactly.  I've used only Midwest kits so far with the five batches I've brewed and have never had this issue.

[tubercle]

Everything looks right.
Sorry, can't help. Just went past my level of expertise

[BBC]

Since his temps weren't too low for storage, the only other thing I could think is that his caps weren't sealed properly.  But that seems unlikely to me that the whole batch was improperly capped.  Has anyone else ever heard of someone not capping properly?

My ultimate question is, is this batch lost to flatness?  Is there anything he can do?

[bonjour]

I'm sure that he believes he followed the instructions correctly but. . . . . .


If all the beers are flat/not carbonated he needs to do two things because we don't know why.

Pop the caps and add carb tabs and a couple of grains of dry yeast to each bottle. 

But before you do that open another bottle and measure its FG and let us know.  Much more knowledge that way.

Fred

[a10t2]

Pop the caps and add carb tabs and a couple of grains of dry yeast to each bottle.

Wouldn't he be better off adding the yeast and waiting a couple weeks first? If the sugar's already in the beers double-priming them could be dangerous.

[bonjour]

Pop the caps and add carb tabs and a couple of grains of dry yeast to each bottle.

Wouldn't he be better off adding the yeast and waiting a couple weeks first? If the sugar's already in the beers double-priming them could be dangerous.

That's why the request for gravities first.  And I assumed that the problem was as he stated, everything done correctly per instructions.

adding yeast first is safer from an over carbing situation but IF he followed instructions correctly this would not be a issue. 

my guess is that he added all the fermentables in the order provided, including the priming sugar, aned then fermented and then bottled after the wait period.


Fred

[BBC]

That would make a lot on sense, Fred.  I'll talk with him when I can and ask when he added the priming sugar.  I'll also ask him to give us a gravity reading if he can.

[tomthebrewer]

I don't think this has been mentioned yet, but he may have uneven carbonation, i.e., some bottles are flat, some fine, some over-carbed.

How did you friend add the priming sugar? Did he dissolve it in hot water and pour into the bottling bucket then siphon the beer on top of it? Or did he siphon the beer in first then add the sugar?

Just an idea.

[skyler]

This is why I stopped bottling most beers. Sometimes carbonation just takes a long time. And sometimes a beer will overcarbonate, even when you do everything "right." I had a beer not carbonate for 4-5 months, then get over-carbonated almost immediately after.