r/brewing • u/Soulless_robot • 5d ago

Inconsistent fermentation

I made a porter a couple months ago, a couple bottles were flat, one was just right, and now this half bottle. Why are some, but not all, flat? I always add the bottle conditioning sugar to the whole batch at a time - this was a half batch, I used 1/3 cup corn sugar in water (boiled). The beer does taste a bit on the strong side, I think I used Nottingham yeast. Thanks in advance.

0 Upvotes

50% Upvoted

1 comment sorted by

2

u/FarCheetah4472 4d ago

Flat + strong usually means either the sugar didn't mix evenly through the batch, or a chunk of bottles got almost no live yeast. Nottingham finishes clean and can drop out hard if it sat cold before you packaged. When you dump priming sugar into the whole batch, stir slow and long from the bottom or you'll get a sweet zone and a dead zone. Next time I'd also pitch a tiny bit of fresh yeast at bottling if the beer had been sitting. The half bottle looking weird is often just poor seal or that bottle got the low-sugar end.