Flat beer diagnosis

What temperature have the bottles been sitting at?

 

This was a 5 gallon batch? 3oz of sugar should have provided at least a little bit of carbonation in this time. When you say "minimal carbonation" what do you mean? Are there signs (bubbles) or not? What temp have you kept the bottles at?

You may just need more time, but you can try to rouse the yeast and also move to a warmer location.

 

No. If you're talking 5 gallons, the addition of 3.3 oz of table sugar should give you ~2.1 volumes of carbonation.

The only way you would not have carbonation is:

1. Your yeast are dormant/dead.
2. Your storage temp was too low
3. Your sugar was defective
4. You didn't give it enough time
5. Leaky caps let all the pressure out
6. Some combination of the above.

What temp do you have them stored? When you say minimal carbonation, do you get any sign of "psfft" when you pop a cap?

My suggestion is to raise the temp to mid-hi 70s, give the bottles a good shake, and wait another 1-2 weeks.

 

That's very odd, I've found 013 to be a very quickly attenuating yeast. How well was the sugar mixed into the batch?

 

I racked onto the sugar water and forgot to stir it one time. Had a very uneven level of carbonation across the batch. Try some other bottles.

 

Did you stir the sugar water and beer?

Cheers!

 

Always a good idea. I suspect that some of your bottles are fully carb right now, soon to be over-carbed. As soon as you detect this, chill all of them to stop the fermentation if you have any real gushers.

 

No sloshing. Maybe bring your bottles to a warm room in your house. 75F for a week would be ideal. If your beers remain flat, I'd point a finger at yeast. You may have to add some extra yeast to each bottle to get the job done.

 

I bottled a Imperial Stout that sat in primary for 4 weeks and secondary for 2 more. Thought the yeast would not be viable to carbonate. First couple bottles after 2 weeks in bottle seemed to prove that point. Decided to move the remaining to a warmer part of my house (closet in bedroom) and they carbed quickly.

 

I always give it a gentle stir, but haven't had problems with it mixing unevenly when I just rack my beer onto the priming sugar either. Stirring it in is more of an insurance thing, but you should have carbonation by now. Another thing I'll do is tip the bottles upside down to get the yeast that has settled back into suspension for a bit. That, and like everyone else has been saying – put them some place warmer. Good luck! Hope it all works out

 

Honestly, I've never stirred my batches when racking to bottling. I put the priming liquid (boiled sugar water) in, and rack on top. I do just as the OP does, angle the output of the hose to create a whirlpool, and have never had issues.

 

You will probably end up with a little more carb than you had in this one if you leave it in the fridge for a couple of days at least. It's my understanding that more of the CO2 will be absorbed into the beer from the headspace as the beer sits chilled.