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Hi guys,

First post to the forum, so try not to completely crush my spirit...

I've been making Festa Brew kits for a while, this is my first Mexican cerveza kit. I sampled a bottle last night after it sat for the required 2 weeks. I was a little disappointed at the carbonation and the lack of head (it was there, just not like I think it should be, head disappeared within a couple minutes).

I followed the instructions as usual. Bottled in 500 ml flip tops that I clean more than any sane person probably should. The only place I think I might have screwed up was with the temperature for the two weeks that it sat in the bottle.

It's been kind of miserable and jeezly cool the last 2 weeks and I know the temperature has dipped down to 15-16 degrees in the house. Does the cool temperature stall the carbonation process? Can it be restarted if I put the beer in a more controlled temperature area?

Thanks,

-Mike

PS. It does still taste pretty good!

Temperature does indeed affect the carbonation process. Close to room temp is best for building up good carbonation. If you leave the bottles at close to room temp for another week or two, you should be set.

Leave them for a while. They should carb in time. (The cold temps are probably your problem.)

The only reasons they wouldn't carbonate is if you a) didn't have sufficient yeast in the bottled beer (unlikely unless you seriously cold crashed or filtered), b) you didn't add enough sugar or did not stir well enough (in the latter case you're going to get some under carbed and some over carbed bottles), or c) your bottles are not holding their seal and the CO2 is leaking out.

Scenarios 'a' and 'b' are fixable. If they don't carb after another week or two, you can gently pour your bottles out (avoiding splashing and introducing O2), and then either add more sugar or add fresh yeast (if they taste sweet, i.e., if there's sugar in there that is not getting consumed). Alternatively, you could add some of these <http://www.rebelbrewer.com/wp-content/u ... _17275.jpg> (available that the Noble Grape) directly to the bottle if sugar is an issue or, I suppose, use an eye dropper to drop in a few drops of a mixture of sterilized water and tiny bit of yeast if yeast is the issue. (Both of these options would be less likely to introduce O2).

All that said... if they don't carb in a couple of weeks (I am 99% sure they will, if you remembered to add sugar--just be patient), the easiest thing to do is just mix them 50/50 in a glass with a properly carbonated beer. Just grab some Corona from the NSLC and mix: Presto! You now have a glass of satisfactorily carbonated beer.

jason.loxton wrote:Leave them for a while.

+1

Yup. Wait a bit longer and it should be fine. The timeframes given in brewing instructions can usually be taken with a grain of salt because yeast is alive and will do its own thing at its own speed depending on all kinds of variables.

I find it usually takes about 3 weeks.

I also found Festa' took 3 weeks to carb up nicely.

LeafMan66_67 wrote:I also found Festa' took 3 weeks to carb up nicely.

Ditto

Thanks for the advice guys.

It broke my heart a little to but them back in their storage spot, but it'll be worth it in the end

Also, if you have the patience to let it sit for 6 weeks it will be even better! My first batch was a Festa brew blonde. It was alright after 3 weeks, but I was pretty disappointed. After 6 weeks I thought it tasted really good! Once you get a pipeline of beer going the patience part becomes a lot easier!