Carbonation Problems

Have been bucket brewing ales using partial extract & partial boils for over a year now.  Having good success with a variety of IPAs, APAs, RIS, etc.  Beer is tasty, strong and well carbonated

Recently I changed my brewing method in two ways and at the same time. First, I have moved to a full boil.  Second I am using more grain and less DME.  But since doing so I've been having problems with almost flat beer and am trying to figure out what I am doing differently that would affect carbonation.  The beer is still tasty, and strong, but with very little carbonation.  Time (weeks) only seem to marginally help carbonation, if at all.

So let me remove some of the more obvious issues: 1) Yes, I am fermenting (primary & secondary) & bottle conditioning at 68-70 degrees, 2) my OGs and FGs are where they are supposed to be when I add the sugar and bottle and 3) the beer is still tasty and strong (just flat).

I have been doing a single infusion (steep) of the grains, but have been very careful to keep temperature in the low to mid 150 range (sparge at 168-170).  But even though I am getting a good OG, maybe I'm not getting the right kind of fermentables...???

I also thought perhaps because of the full boil, maybe there was not enough oxygenation in the wort at the time of pitching.  However, the yeast seem to be doing a fine job as shown by the OGs and FGs, so can't see why they wouldn't be strong enough to carbonate as well.

I really like the full boil and heavy grain, but if I can't figure this out I have to go back to partial boils and more extract/less grain (boo!).

Any other thoughts you may have would be most welcome!  Thanks in advance from Happy Chappy.

How much priming sugar are you adding and is it to each bottle or to the bucket before bottling. There should be plenty of yeast left to carbonate and I wait 6 weeks after bottling to drink.

Different caps or capper?
You're sure it's corn sugar and not maltodextrin?

What is your water chemistry like?  An AG mash would possibly need more minerals to hit pH, affecting conversion possibly. 
Yeast would need a minimum of calcium and magnesium in the fermenter.  But that still seems remotely connected to bottling issues if you say the beer is normal to that point.

Its getting cooler by the day here in Wisconsin. How about by you? Are you storing your bottles is a room that is cooling off? if your bottles are in a cool area you might move them to a warmer spot. Yeast don't like quick changes of temps. store your bottles in a place where the temperatures are the same as it was fermenting at.

Thanks for your replies.

Yes, I am using the same amounts (5 oz) of corn sugar.  And the caps are good.  I am getting some light carbonation, just not enough.

The comment about water reminded me that I also did stop using bottled (e.g. 5 gallon Hinckley Springs type) water and started using local tap (which runs through our salt-water softener) to try to save money.  So all three of these things changed at the same time:

Went from partial boil to full boil (but it sounds like from people's replies that they don't think that's causing carbonation problems).
Went from crystal rock water to softened tap water
Went from more DME to less DME and more grain in single infusion mash.

For the process of elimination, first I'll try going back to the bottled water so I can still try to rely on heavy amounts of grain and less DME.  If that still doesn't work I guess I'll have to go back to more DME/less grain (boo, hiss, boo).

If anyone has any further ideas on what is causing my carbonation problems since I changed my process, I would appreciate any and all comments.  Thanks.

chapdelaineb said:

........ started using local tap (which runs through our salt-water softener)

Click to expand...

Does the manual for that mention what it does to the water?

You didn't say if you oxygenated the wort before pitching.  Maybe more of that could help.