Flat beer

[Makom]

Can I add sugar to re-carbonate. I changed bottles after conditioning for 14 days and the beer is flat. It would be alcohol abuse to throw out the beer.

[mashani]

Yes

[MadBrewer]

Can I add sugar to re-carbonate. I changed bottles after conditioning for 14 days and the beer is flat. It would be alcohol abuse to throw out the beer.

Short answer yes, but maybe think as to why didn't the bottles carbonate the first time?

Did you add enough sugar to carbonate the beer?

Where the bottles stored at room temp for 2 weeks before drinking or putting them in the fridge?

Did you have issues making a good seal with your bottles?

Adding more sugar may not help if you have an underlying issue or repeat the exact process. What do you mean by you changed bottles after 14 days?

[Makom]

If you look at my post exploding bottles. I added too much sugar and several bottles exploded. In fear of having micro cracks in the other bottles I rebottled into mason jars with plastic caps with a seal.
Anyway so
Now I added a teaspoon of sugar to each. It was odd because when I dumped the sugar in the beer fizzed up about an inch then when down.
What a mess the second batch has become

I hopefully will have a happy ending in this learning curve. I got on schedule with my 3 and now my fourth batch is a well documented brew.

[bpgreen]

Mason jars are a very bad idea.

They're designed to have a lower pressure in the jar. You should only ever use bottles that are designed to hold carbonated beverages.

[Makom]

You are correct the mason jars didn’t work so in the effort to prevent alcohol abuse i rebottled the beer again. Lol.

[bpgreen]

Don't give up bad on a couple of batches.

We've all made mistakes. Well, maybe not all, but most of us. I wouldn't say this batch is ruined, but with multiple transfers, there's an increased risk of oxidation and infection.

Don't get discouraged if your first couple of batches aren't great. I've made beers that weren't great, but I've also made beers that I think were as good as some of the best craft beers available. Ok. Almost as good.

But it takes practice.

[mashani]

Honestly if possible would suggest you get some PET bottles (or use some that came with your kit) and use them (or at least one of them per batch *) until you get comfortable with carbonation levels. You can feel them and if they get rock hard know they are fully carbed, and if they are rock hard 2 days after you bottled then you know something is wrong already. If they start to overcarb, you can literally see the level of the beer in them get lower in the bottle as the bottles start to stretch, sometimes the bottoms will start to get rounded and they will get tippy... but you can easily let off pressure. And if they explode they don't put glass in the walls and ceiling, they usually just split open somewhere and dump the beer.

They can handle a lot more pressure without exploding as well.

* Even if you are bottling in glass, having at least one PET bottle for one of the beers is a good way to tell how it's going. If your PET bottle is rock hard in 2 days and you start to see the bulging like I described, it is likely your glass is going to explode soon after, so you can intervene before it happens.

[Makom]

Thanks guys. I did my 4th batch a couple days ago and I think it will be my best. I modified Recipe I found on here and I hope it is good. My 2nd batch was a little crazy, you know not following directions, a little more of this and that. Lol moved forward with following directions and documentation so I can repeat or not.

[John Sand]

I completely understand. I think I made a Frankenbatch pretty early. It wasn't very good. After that I stuck to proven recipes until I was comfortable and making good beer. Then I made some changes and created a few recipes of my own.