Expert: Spencer W Thomas - 1/8/2009

Question
I am fairly new to homebrewing. My first batch I brewed didn't make it (not enough sugars), but my second batch turned out great. I have just opened my third batch after it has been bottled for a week. The beer seems to not have the alcohol/carbonation that I was looking for. I let it stay in the fermentor for about 5 days - the bubbling had slowed quite a bit. I then put it in a secondary and let it sit for another week. However, I did notice that when I did the transfer from primary to the carboy, there was still quite a bit of foam left on top of the wort. Was it wrong for me to do the transfer to the carboy when there was still considerable foam on the top?? If so, I have another question....I just did the same thing to my next beer that I'm brewing. It also had a lot of foam left on the top of the wort when I did the transfer to the secondary container. Is there anything I can do to save this last batch or is it going to come out sub-par also?? I've heard of people adding sugars or yeast to the carboy to get fermentation started again.....

Answer
Lack of carbonation is generally due to either

1. Insufficient priming sugar at bottling time, or
2. Insufficient yeast activity in the bottle.

#1 is easy to address in the next batch, by adding more priming sugar.  You don't say how much you used, but generally 1/2 to 3/4 cup (4 ounces weight) of table sugar or corn sugar is appropriate.

#2 usually happens because the bottles were not warm enough, so the yeast just didn't work very hard.  I suggest putting a couple bottles in a warm place (over the fridge often works for this, if you can do that, because the fridge pumps out heat whenever it's running).  Leave them there for several days to a week, and each day, pick up each bottle and turn it over, then back.  If the carbonation in those bottles is OK, then #2 was your problem.  If it is not, look to #1.

As to whether you transfered to "secondary" too soon, the best test is the flavor.  If the beer is too sweet, it has probably not fermented completely, and an early transfer from primary could be the cause.  Did you take gravity readings?  If so, what was your original gravity and what was the final gravity when you bottled?  Generally, I would expect the final gravity, when you take off the "1" digit from the front, to be about 1/4 the original gravity.  That is, if you started with 1.056 (56 "points" of gravity), you should finish around 1.014 (14 "points" of gravity).  If your final gravity is significantly higher, you're probably not getting complete fermentation.  (There are other possible causes of high final gravity, the most common being use of malt extract that is less fermentable than usual.)