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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  Flat beer (Tom Puskar)


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Date: Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:31:45 -0400
From: Tom Puskar <tpuskar at optonline.net>
Subject: Flat beer

I've been having a round of flat beers and can't figure out why.  My latest 
is a Belgian Dubbel which doesn't seem to be carbonating.  Its been in the 
bottle for 2 weeks.  Am I being impatient?

The one before that was an IPA sort of beer and it is flat too.  Its been in 
the bottle for about 6 weeks.  The fermentation on this one was a bit 
strange and it may never carbonate but the Dubbel went perfect.

The starting OG was about 1.07 and it finished at about 101.  It spent about 
10 days in the primary and about two weeks in the secondary.  When I racked 
it to the bottling bucket it was crystal clear and tastes great--but its 
flat!  I hear a bit of a "pfft" when I open it but no detectable 
carbonation.

I boil my bottle caps and use a bench type capper.  I prime with a packet (5 
oz) of corn sugar which I also boiled and cooled before adding it to the 
bottling bucket.  I sanitize my bottles with bleach and rinse thoroughly so 
I don't think residual bleach is the problem  I bottled a few bottles in 
Grolsch bottles to see if maybe I'm being too hard on the stoppers and 
haven't opened it yet.

I'm not a novice and have successfully brewed close to 50 batches over the 
past 12 years.  I did take a break for a few years as I worked out a medical 
issue and just started brewing again about 18 months ago.  Have I forgotten 
something obvious?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Tom in Howell, NJ 




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