priming bottles

[easty]

hi guys
just bottled my second brew of lager. did exactly same as first time which turned out fine, but worried about bottles. bottled larger into 2l plastic pop bottles primed each bottle with teaspoon of sugar, and left in warm place for 1 week, 2 days ago put them into cool place.
with first batch in the few days in the warm there was thin layer of bubbles on surface, this second lot looks flat & you can squeeze the bottle in a little witch you couldn't do last time. what is the best thing to do, try opening a bottle now and if it has no fizz can i re-prime them with more sugar, after they have been in cool, or if i wait for it to mature for 3 weeks and try it then if it is flat is there anything that can be done to it to fizz it up .
any help would be great thanx

[thatscolder]

I no expert by any means but when I bottled my Coopers Lager in 2l bottles I used 4 teaspoons of sugar in each. I guess if you use less sugar you will get less carbonation.

The carbonation is not visible until you open the bottle, although as you point out if the bottles are not hard then it is likely that the are not that fizzy.

I can't help you on whether you should add more sugar now. My advice is make another batch and drink this batch now

[bigbob]

(still a newb) but i always heard about half a teaspoon/pint for ale and 1 teaspoon/pint for lager so at 1 teaspoon for 2l you should be very much on the flat side of things i think. i'd be very tempted to go for a full reprime at 1 teaspoon a pint then leave warm for a week then to the cold to absorb the co2. atleast it'll guarantee the fizz ( no one likes flat lager) and it'll give you another couple of weeks conditioning i guess. if it makes you feel better i did a coopers stout which i primed as recommended then found it was flat, found the rubber seal on the keg was distorted and righted it then primed again, 2 weeks later still flat so i bottled about half which was primed again!! and bought a new seal for the day after so primed the half left in the barrel with the new seal and finally i had carbonated stout!! so 3 primings later and ive got very very very gorgeous stout (not that i can compare it to the original as its my first batch)

my point being, if you re prime you'll have a fizzy lager (as it should be) although it'll probably me drinkable anyways but either way you can stick it down to experience and learn for the next batch

bb

[brysie]

do you know anyone with a sodastream?

[easty]

hi
cheers for the advice, obviously not putting enough sugar in. luckly as i bottled into screwtop pop bottles i could reprime if needed. opened 1 bottle, has got some fizz not brill but drinkable so decided not to go thru hastle of repriming. have reprimed that 1 bottle & putting it to one side to see if it turns out better than rest. it's geordie larger did try a taste & didn't seem to have much flavour, this might get better in time.

anyways as i said it's drinkable, i'll just have to get down it quick