[Red_Devil 232]

I have had at least one problem with a porter not wanting to carbonate. I have no idea why but after 8 weeks it was still flat. My guess is I left it in the secondary to long and there were not enough viable yeast left to do the carbonation - still not convinced that was the cause.

[Dan Cooper]

Last week I gave each bottle a swirl to try to reactivate the yeast. The recipe I followed allowed for 3 weeks to carbonate after bottling, but I read that some beers take a lot longer than that. I was worried that the iodine solution that I used to sterilize the bottles might have been too strong or did not dry out enough. Now I think that I just need to be more patient. I’m thinking that might be the ultimate skill to learn when home brewing.

8 weeks and still flat? What did you use for priming? Were you able to fix it?

[Mr Ramsbotham]

I have had at least one problem with a porter not wanting to carbonate. I have no idea why but after 8 weeks it was still flat. My guess is I left it in the secondary to long and there were not enough viable yeast left to do the carbonation - still not convinced that was the cause.

I had that problem too, with my last batch of stout. In my case, however, I added dry yeast before bottling, and still the carbonation is very poor, after several months.