Why is my homemade lager flat?

In: FAQ

7 Jan 2011

I have brewed it exactly as the instruction said, its clear and tastes ok but is flat. Any idea what went wrong or what I can do to get it right?
I have not bottled the lager, I have sythoned it into a keg which has a tap for dispensing the beer

5 Responses to Why is my homemade lager flat?

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Bluesman1960

January 7th, 2011 at 2:54 am

You could ad a small bit of sugar to get it going again. I think you can do this with a comical brew that goes flat

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Corvato

January 7th, 2011 at 3:03 am

did you prime it or prime the bottles before bottling?
did you store the filled bottles for 2 weeks before refrigerating, and after priming?

if yes to both of these
you might have waited too long after the fermentation stopped, which killed the yeast, so it couldn’t consume the priming sugar

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oikos

January 7th, 2011 at 5:12 am

I can see three potential problems, yeast, sugar, and the keg.

Could the keg be less than air-tight? It’s unlikely but possible.

Sacrifice a few oz of the beer and add a pinch of baker’s yeast. If nothing happens, you have not though sugar (or possibly to high an alcohol concentration — not at all likely). Assuming a 5-gallon batch, add 3/4 C dextrose dissolved in boiled water to all the beer, mix well, and re-keg.

At the same time, you can sacrifice a few more oz and add some sort of fermentable sugar. If nothing happens, your yeast is defunct. Mix the whole batch with a packet of champagne yeast and re-keg. No, the champagne yeast will not change the taste of the beer.

Alas, you will not be able to fix the problem quickly unless you can force-carbonate.

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erisian

January 7th, 2011 at 3:49 am

most home made beers are bottle conditioned, that means a small amount of sugar is added to the brew right before it’s bottled to jump start the yeast. a 23 L batch call for a bout 1 cup to 2 dissolved in boiling water. don’t use too much or the bottle might explode.

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John O

January 7th, 2011 at 4:35 am

1: Priming. Never add sugar to the bottles. Sugar, in liquid form, should be added to the bottling bucket and thoroughly mixed with the flat beer.
2: Capping. Make sure you use a capper and get the caps on properly. If using swing-top bottles, make sure the seals are wet before capping. Even then, they may choose to not work for you (lost a whole batch of Belgian-style golden strong ale to those suckers).
3: Carbonating. Bottles, once capped, should sit in a warm (72F) dark area for at least two weeks to carbonate. I prefer three.

If you let your lager sit in secondary fermentation too long (longer than 3 months), your yeast might possibly be dead. Open all the beer and carefully pour them back into a sanitized bottling bucket with a smack pack of fresh yeast. Bottle again and hope for the best.

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