How about a Pliny Clone?

I brewed it on 3/29 and did my second dry hop addition yesterday, so I plan on bottling on Friday, 4/25, which gives me 27 days in the fermenter.

 

So I cracked my first bottle last night after 2 1/2 weeks bottle conditioning, did not carbonate. I used those fizz drop things for the first time and I'm blaming them. I have heard they over carbonate 12oz bottles yet work well with 16oz. I was using 16oz grolsch style bottles for the first time so I figured I'd try it. I really don't know what went wrong as the beer itself actually tastes pretty good. Great aroma and smooth flavor. I'm going to try again on wednesday with actual priming sugar.

 

What temperature were the bottles at during carbonation? Adding more sugar is almost certainly not the answer, and could be dangerous.

Also, what brand of 'fizz drop things' did you use?

 

fermenter's favorites and they were at about 71-72 degrees in my closet.

 

This is a big beer. I'd give it some more time.

 

Thanks I will. I'm relatively new to this and haven't run into this problem yet. How long do you think until I can be certain it hasn't worked and new sugar can be added?

 

The problem is that your original sugar is still in there. Unless the product (the fizz drops) was defective, and didn't contain sugar, you'll get at least some carbonation (how much depends on the amount of sugar), as long as there are healthy yeast to eat it. If there are not, adding more sugar won't help. I would give it at least a couple more weeks before doing anything else, except maybe giving the bottles a little swirl to get any settled yeast back into suspension. And make sure those bottles really are at 70+ degrees.

 

Thanks.

 

Do those carbonation tablets say they will also be effective if you're using a 16 oz. Grolsch-style bottle? Vikeman has it right, just wait longer, especially if the tablets work best for 12 oz. You could also visually check that each bottle's rubber seal looks like it's seated well.

 

All else equal...the beer should be fully carbonated given the time in bottle and storage temperature.

I suggest you rouse the lees by gently rocking the bottles from head-to-toe several times every two days over five days. If that don't work...then you might could be SOL.

 

I bottled my beer today, and WOW! the aroma! The taste is a little rough right now, but it's still pretty damn drinkable (if you don't mind a flat beer). Vinny's recipe that is circulating (and is posted above in this thread) is very accurate for the aroma if I can remember correctly from my one-and-only 'real' Pliny last year.

 

Pliny really is the shit. The only reason I can see it not being #1 would possibly be because I haven't made the pilgrimage for PtY. Whatever ousted it to third I'm sure is a worthy brew, but it ain't PtE.

 

I'm heading to the west coast next week and I hope to pick up some PtE. Then I'm heading to Vermont in June, and I hope to pick up some Heady Topper. After those trips I'll know for sure which is #1.

 

I've had exactly 1 heady topper. I found it to be quite different from PtE, but if there was a controversy over #1, I don't have a problem with heady topper being in the fray. I'm going PtE, but I've had PtE plenty of times, so obviously I'm a little biased there. One thing that's stood out about my PtEs is how consistently fantabulous and ginormously stupendous they've been.

 

Fixed.

One thing that's stood out about my PtEs is how consistently stupendous and ginormously fantabulous they've been.

 

The Grolsch-style bottles are very unreliable for bottle-conditioning, in my experience. Even taking care to wet and seat the gasket on each bottle, I had the seal fail at minimum about 30% of the time. Maybe others have had better luck using them, but I ditched them after wasting nearly half of a few batches.

On the other hand, they are extremely useful for bottling off the tap for short-term storage in transit. So I fortunately still use them. I tried to get them counted as a growler so I can fill them at bars, but to no avail.

 

When I used to bottle, I bottled in two different type of bottles with swing tops. I never had any carbonation problems with either one. Maybe it was your particular brand.

 

I, too, have used recycled Grolsch bottles (repeated times for the bottle and the rubber washers), and occasionally I'll have one or two in a batch that did not carbonate very well. It could be the washer that fails, but I'm more inclined to think it is an inconsistency from the priming sugar not being well mixed.

 

I just tried another bottle last night. WAYYYYY over-carbonated. opened another, under-carbonated. I am fully blaming the fizz drops. However, to get back to the point of the thread, the beer wasn't as great as I had hoped. It starts out pretty good but finishes heavily sour. I'm going to do some research as to what could cause a sour finish but if you folks have any suggestions let me know. I'm still new to this so I'm not saying it's a bad batch but rather I screwed up. O well, at least I'll learn from it.