Cider not carbonating!

[Frank the budding brewer]

Hello! I need some advice on what is going on with my cider.
I bottled my 14 litres (Around 3 gallons) of cider made from apple and mango juice. I primed it with 3.5oz of corn sugar and it has been sitting for a good 3 weeks bottle conditioning at 20c and still zero carbonation. I used Nottingham yeast and my OG was 1.050 down to 1.006.
I have done this before and I got great carbonation.
Any ideas of what has happened? My last cider was carbonated nicely within a week!

Any advice would be great,
Cheers.
Frank

 

[Mase]

Sounds like you had a leak during fermentation. I wish I could offer more help on what to do from here, but I’m sure one of our more cider experienced brewers will stop by and offer advise.

 

[Frank the budding brewer]

Sounds like you had a leak during fermentation. I wish I could offer more help on what to do from here, but I’m sure one of our more cider experienced brewers will stop by and offer advise.

Hey! Thanks for the reply. What do you mean by a leak during fermentation?
Cheers,
Frank

 

[J A]

How are you bottling? What sort of bottles/caps? It's very likely that the bottles didn't seal. If it's regular reusable bottles capped with a crown capper, it's unusual to have a batch not carb because of leaks, but if you're using plastic bottles with twist-on caps or swing-top bottles, the seals may become worn and leak.
The only other possible explanation is that the yeast had dropped out so completely that there's not enough in suspension to referment for carbonation. Cold-crashing for an extended period might do that.
Any other mitigating factors that you can think of?

 

[Frank the budding brewer]

How are you bottling? What sort of bottles/caps? It's very likely that the bottles didn't seal. If it's regular reusable bottles capped with a crown capper, it's unusual to have a batch not carb because of leaks, but if you're using plastic bottles with twist-on caps or swing-top bottles, the seals may become worn and leak.
The only other possible explanation is that the yeast had dropped out so completely that there's not enough in suspension to referment for carbonation. Cold-crashing for an extended period might do that.
Any other mitigating factors that you can think of?

Hey J.A thanks for the reply.

I bottle my cider and beer the same way with a hand press capper and gold caps. All the same brown bottles I have been using aswell. I have been brewing for a while and I have never had this problem.
My first thought is the yeast is inactive somehow or there isn't enough yeast left in suspension? But I used a whole pack of Nottingham in 3 gallons of cider. Which is more than enough, plus I have done this before and I had great results. I have been wondering if somehow the PH of my cider has something to do with it? I don't know if this would effect the yeast or not as I have had no problem in the past.
I primed it well. I have the temp at 20c constistantly and I didn't cold crash at all.
I just primed and bottled.

Any ideas or advice would be great.
Thanks,
Frank

 

[Frank the budding brewer]

Hey J.A thanks for the reply.

I bottle my cider and beer the same way with a hand press capper and gold caps. All the same brown bottles I have been using aswell. I have been brewing for a while and I have never had this problem.
My first thought is the yeast is inactive somehow or there isn't enough yeast left in suspension? But I used a whole pack of Nottingham in 3 gallons of cider. Which is more than enough, plus I have done this before and I had great results. I have been wondering if somehow the PH of my cider has something to do with it? I don't know if this would effect the yeast or not as I have had no problem in the past.
I primed it well. I have the temp at 20c constistantly and I didn't cold crash at all.
I just primed and bottled.

Any ideas or advice would be great.
Thanks,
Frank

Also it was bottled at 10 days in primary, so no aging or long secondary. I'm befuddled haha.

 

[Zambi]

I'm not very experienced, but I have had it with one batch.
I noticed most yeast had settled at the bottom f the bottle, so I took the bottles and shook them vigorously and put them back in the fermenting table and somehow it did the trick

 

[J A]

Nottingham, like some other English yeasts, will drop out pretty hard so it's definitely possible that the main problem is just low cell count. Using a pretty big yeast pitch might make things worse instead of better in terms of dropping out early. It seems like those beers that really go hard for the first 24 hours can be susceptible to stalling. Yours didn't stall at all, given your gravity readings, but I suspect that once it was done, it really dropped hard and fast.
If you feel like it's possible that lack of viable yeast cells is the problem (and everything else seems to be right) you might try mixing some yeast in sanitized water and inoculating each bottle with a drop of the mixture and re-capping. It's pretty impossible for every yeast cell to be stripped out of suspension and even with just just a few cells eventually there might be enough action to get the job done. It wouldn't hurt to check for sediment as Zambezi mentions to see if there's a likely hope of being able to wait it out. Otherwise, try the bottle inoculation.

 

[Frank the budding brewer]

Nottingham, like some other English yeasts, will drop out pretty hard so it's definitely possible that the main problem is just low cell count. Using a pretty big yeast pitch might make things worse instead of better in terms of dropping out early. It seems like those beers that really go hard for the first 24 hours can be susceptible to stalling. Yours didn't stall at all, given your gravity readings, but I suspect that once it was done, it really dropped hard and fast.
If you feel like it's possible that lack of viable yeast cells is the problem (and everything else seems to be right) you might try mixing some yeast in sanitized water and inoculating each bottle with a drop of the mixture and re-capping. It's pretty impossible for every yeast cell to be stripped out of suspension and even with just just a few cells eventually there might be enough action to get the job done. It wouldn't hurt to check for sediment as Zambezi mentions to see if there's a likely hope of being able to wait it out. Otherwise, try the bottle inoculation.

Thanks for the reply,

Yeah I have already shook them all twice over the past week with no results. I'm thinking the same about the yeast just flocculating out and not having enough viable yeast left in suspention for carbonating somehow. It must be a cider thing, as I have never had a problem with Nottingham in beers. It's a beast. It's just weird how my last batch was amazingly carbonated, almost like champagne haha.

Thanks to all for the replys, I'll just leave it. Still cider isn't the worst! I'll call it an apple wine haha.

Cheers,
Frank