Carbonation concerns

I am new to brewing and I started with a kit my in-laws gave me for Christmas. from wal-mart. So I made the first batch in a 1 gallon plastic container. It did not ferment real aggressively but it did ferment. So I then bottle it and they had me put in some powdered dextrose in each bottle for carbonation. I let it rest for about 20 days and then refrigerated. The brew had the right color but it was flat. No bubbles at all! so I open a couple more and I getthe same thing. I then Dump an unchilled bottle down the drain and there is Tons of carbonation. In fact I Pour the rest in a glass and I get a nice two inch head. so I know that chilled the beer is FLAT and at room temp (72 degrees) is has bubbles. both batches of the wal-mart kit did this. My yeast was old. I got the kit at Christmas and made the first batch in June. The yeast was labeled brewers yeast but it looked allot like the yeast we make bread with.

I now have the first real batch going. Extra pale ale. I started it in a 6 gallon carboy. It fermented like crazy! monster foam and lots of bubbling. I have bottled it. and I dissolved the priming sugar and mixed it in the bottle bucket as directed. SO the question is. When I put this beer in the fridge will go flat? or can I relax and know All is well and wal-mart should stay out of the brewing supply business?

Thanks for your time. Cheers! Nate

Interesting ...

20 days should be long enough to develop good carbonation if it was a room temperature (somewhere around 70F).

More CO2 will dissolve in cold beer than in warm... so the cold beer is probably holding a lot of the CO2 when you pour a glass. The warm beer will let go of its CO2 quicker. However, you should have enough either way. Perhaps they didn't instruct you to add enough dextrose in each bottle to get the carbonation you want.

Relax!

Generally, it is recommended to put the sugar in the bottling bucket, as it appears that you did on this last batch. That way it is more evenly distributed and the correct amount gets into each bottle.

It should not go glat in the fridge. Be sure to leave it at room temp (70F) until it is well carbonated. I just put one bottle at a time into the fridge and test it until it is done.

Chilling beer will tend to reduce the bubbles a little. I'd guess your Wal-Mart kit beer wasn't completely flat, but just a little weak in the carbonation department. Maybe they didn't have you put quite enough dextrose in the bottles, which is better than putting in too much anyway. You can get "gusher" bottles that you have to chill and then open over the sink, or worse yet the legendary "bottle bombs".

That can happen if you bottle it before it's done fermenting, too.

Mixing the priming sugar in the bottling bucket is better all around (especially for getting every bottle the same!) and I think you'll probably get enough carbonation. How much priming sugar did you mix into the beer?

Karl S.

bottling bucket? what's that?

refrigerated.

I use a (fermenting) plastic bucket and put a spigot on the bottom and attach a piece of plastic hose and use it to fill my bottles. I rack the beer into the bucket before bottling... Works a lot better than syphoning.