BeerBorg

Just bottled my 4th batch from by BrewDemon. I've done the pilsner, cider, IPA and the witbier.
Pilsner and cider turned out fine, but so far my batch of IPA did not carbonate in the bottle. It sat for 2+ weeks in the fermenter and bottle conditioned for 2 as well.
What would cause it to not carbonate? Only 2 things that come to mind is my caps weren't on tight or I forgot to prime with sugar. Being my 3rd batch all time, i'm pretty sure I didnt' forget to prime since I'm still following directions line by line to make sure I don't screw something up. Also pretty confident in my caps as I check for leaks after capping and inverting the bottles to make sure sugar is distributed. Could this still be a case of my not capping tight enough? I'm reusing glass bottles and using metal caps. Hoping at this stage the witbier has carbonated. Is there anything wrong with repriming the bottles and recapping to see if I can get the IPA to carbonate or would i run the risk of creating bottle bombs?

Another question that comes to mind, is I do sanitize everything for the process, but should I, do i need to sanitize the caps? I've done it on the last 2 batches since I figured it couldn't hurt, but that shouldn't cause things to non-carbonate. Just second guessing myself since i've wasted at least half the batch of IPA.....

Just ordered 2 1g fermenters that should be here today so I can make smaller experimental batches. First experimenting that I am going to do is with the cider. My wife loves Red's so going to see how close i can come to matching.
My first thought is replace some if not all of the water with apple juice. 2nd thought is to cut up some apples and toss them in. Since i'm adding more sugar sources, should i be concerned with adding more yeast? I'm not overly concerned with upping the alcohol content, but just want to play with the taste. Going to try a gallon each way, adding juice vs adding apples, but if i'm on the wrong track on not adding more yeast, i'd rather know now than waste a batch or batches.

What are you using for glass bottles and a capper? Screw offs won't seal the best, also are you using enough/proper amount of priming sugar? After you get a few brews done you might want to look into batch priming....

I’m using a mix of used brands of beer bottles. Mainly from Summit and Molson.
Using metal caps and a two handed bottle capper. I feel like I am getting them on secure since I don’t have any leaks when I invert them. As much as I hate to say it the thing I keep coming back to is did I or did I not prime the bottle but I’m almost positive I did

what berryman said ...

DeBus wrote:I’m using a mix of used brands of beer bottles. Mainly from Summit and Molson.
Using metal caps and a two handed bottle capper. I feel like I am getting them on secure since I don’t have any leaks when I invert them. As much as I hate to say it the thing I keep coming back to is did I or did I not prime the bottle but I’m almost positive I did

I did this on at least 2 occasions that I remember years ago. You wouldn't be the first to have this happen.

Assuming the bottles are being kept warm for conditioning/priming, they should have something going on by now. I'd try to open and (re)prime 1 or 2 to test.

Ended up writing off the IPA as none of the bottles I opened carbonated.
I have a batch of Witbier conditioning so hopefully it cabonated. If the first few I open haven't carbonated at least I know I can attempt to re prime.

Started a 2 gallon batch of Dante's delight weisenbier so see how that goes.

I also started 2 1gal batches of the hard cider. Added 40oz of apple juice in place of water in 1 batch and planning to toss in some apple slices into the 2nd batch tonight now that it's been fermenting for about a week.
Why only 40 ounces? That's all that was left in a 1/2 gallon bottle i used for smoking up some chops.. It was pasturized, and I reboiled it on general principle since it had been previously opened.