Have I cocked up

[J Ccoles]

Prior to bottling I transferred my brew (Brewer Choice ESB) from the primary fv to secondary and when syphoning I allowed the beer to become airated. It continued to ferment for a further 3 days then stopped. It was left for a further 4 days then bottled. I have just tried some from the bottle 2 weeks later and the beer seems very flat with no life / head at all. it doesn't taste that great either. All the equipment was thoroughly cleaned prior to use. Does anyone think to brew will impove or has the effect of allowing air into it ruined it. (I subsequently read on the forum that allowing air in to the beer post fermentation was a no no.

[pauljmuk]

aerating it could introduce "off" smells and tastes - is that what you are getting.

When you bottled - did you add sugar to the bottles themselves? If you didn't, that's almost certainly why it's flat. If you did, I'd put it down to their being no viable yeast left from the secondary ferm

[OldSpeckledBadger]

It might improve but I wouldn't bank on it.

[J Ccoles]

Thanks for your imput. I did sugar the bottles and there is evidence of yeast on the bottle base. pauljmuk when you viable yeast do you mean?

[pauljmuk]

by viable, I mean that if, as a result of it either being far too long in the FV's or for other factors, the yeast had died, sugaring the bottles wouldn't likely create a lot of fizz.

Sediment in the bottles "could" indicate there was some more fermentation, but equally could just have been dead trub in suspension?

[mickhew]

All I can say is.. DON'T be put off by home brewing by this attempt, you can make decent beer at home, try another, a COOPERS, that's all I do now. Maybe your bottles weren't sealed correctly..

[J Ccoles]

Further to Pauljmuks reply re viable yeast , I opened one bottle (Beer still pretty Flat) and dropped a little sugar into it , it weny off like a volcano foaming everywhere. i would guess therefore that viable yeast is present. Would it be possible to empty content into FV and rebottle ,adding more sugar to the bottle prior to adding beer or do you think this woould not make any improvemnt?

[sonicated]

Further to Pauljmuks reply re viable yeast , I opened one bottle (Beer still pretty Flat) and dropped a little sugar into it , it weny off like a volcano foaming everywhere. i would guess therefore that viable yeast is present. Would it be possible to empty content into FV and rebottle ,adding more sugar to the bottle prior to adding beer or do you think this woould not make any improvemnt?

Putting the sugar in the beer would have given what carbon dioxide had been adsorbed by the beer something to form on - hence creating the fizz. It is no real indication of whether the yeast is viable or not.

However, some fizz has been created so I would seal the bottle back up and leave it in a warm place for a week - the yeast might carbonate the beer using the additional sugar if it is not dead.

[J Ccoles]

Thanks everybody for your help

[J Ccoles]

Further to my original post and to provide a little feed back , I opened a bottle yesterday to see if anything had changed. The beer had developed a head which although thin was nevertheless a head. Having also looked through some other entries on the forum, all that was required for carbonation to take effect was time. I will leave the bottles for a further 2 weeks to see how it is then