So just opened the first bottle of my first batch (Beer Hawk Bloc Party extract kit) and its as flat as a witches wotsit.

TBH it didn’t bubble much in fermentation so I left it longer. Am I expecting too much or should it have some fizz?

The only other issue is the recent low ambient temperatures.

Assuming you got fermentation (should be obvious from your gravity measures) did you put any priming sugar or drops in the bottles?

(i generally keg rather than bottle but, if you’re doing glass bottles always do one in plastic, it’s “ready” when it goes hard)

Priming sugar (boiled with water) went in the tub prior to bottling as per instructions. I didn’t take any gravity measures just followed timescales (plus) again as per instructions.

If you didn’t check the SG tgen it’s a bit of a lottery if you’ve even made beer. You could either test the SG or drink bottle after bottle and see whether you either get drunk or a massive sugar high.

Force 1 bottle at 28 – 32’c to see if it fizzes after a week.
Brewing without taking any gravity readings and expecting a drinkable outcome is a complete lottery . WHy not buy a decent 1000 – 1030 saccherometer and use it 48hrs post pitching.?
Otherwise , open every bottle and prime them indiviiiiidually

You would know if it hadn’t fermented at all, unfermented wort tastes sweeter than fizzy pop!

If the beer tastes ok then it’s one of three things:

1) not enough sugar in the bottles (badly mixed in the bucket).
2) not been fermenting in the bottle (tbh unlikely, it’s not been that cold, but I generally always put them somewhere properly warm to force them, at this stage you can’t really impart significant amounts of off flavours, there’s not enough sugar, so keeping it warm actually let’s the yeast metabolise any off flavours quicker).
3) the cap wasn’t on properly, try a second bottle before panicking! There’s often one or two in a batch that just don’t quite seal.

There are other options like infection, but generally they result in exploding bottles, and you didn’t say the beer tastes off in any other way.

It’s many years since I made beer but isn’t there something about leaving it too long before bottling then fermentation has finished and even if you put sugar in the bottles there is nothing left to start the secondary fermentation?

the above, and buy (and use) a hydrometer to take gravity measures. A cheap one is fine, what you’re after is a reading at the start of fermentation, seeing that the (hopefully lower) readings remain stable over a couple of days at the end of fermentation (to show that the fermentation has finished), and the difference between the two readings to work out the booziness.

https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-floating-hydrometer-for-wine-beer/p/0022575

Depends on the yeast, and the beer. Beers that are aged in the barrel for months/years then bottled often have a different yeast added at that point to allow bottle conditioning. But that is a very long time and very strong beers, it’s unlikely with average beers at average time scales.

I’ve currently got about 50l of elderflower champagne, in demijohns and carbouys for secondary fermentation, the aim is to let it ferment completely, and clear before bottling. There will still be enough live yeast in the cleared champagne after a couple of months to condition it in the bottles.

How long did you leave it before opening the bottle? I usually leave two to four weeks, somewhere relatively warm

Left it 2 weeks from bottling to opening. Temperature wise it’s been in the garage, which given recent weather may be my downfall? It was a Northern Brewer kit and I followed the instructions carefully and cleaned properly. The instructions mentioned nothing about SG so I wasn’t aware of the need to check. It wasn’t very lively in fermentation so left it 2 extra weeks but again temperature could be to blame?

Yeah, I’d be surprised if your garage was warm enough for the fermentation to really kick in. Same issue for the secondary fermentation in the bottle to add the fizz; it’s the same yeast so needs the same temperature.

Looking at the instructions for the kit, it says the yeast is:

Muntons Ale Yeast. Optimum temp: 57°-77°F

So that’s 13degC to 25degC. I bet your garage is at the very bottom end of that. Ideally you need somewhere around 20degC, slap bang in the middle.

Another tip is to rehydrate the yeast before you pitch (i.e. throw the yeast into the fermenter with the liquid). Let about half a cupful of boiled water cool to room temp, and then pour the yeast into that. leave it half an hour and then pour the lot into the fermenter.

Taking the Gravity readings is helpful in a number of ways, and if nothing else to see if it’s actually fermenting if you’re not sure (the readings will steadily drop if it is).

Thanks for all the advice chaps, guess its back to square one.

Bear in mind that, assuming it tastes alright, you’ve still made beer, it’s just not fizzy beer. A batch I made earlier in the year was a bit flat as I used demerara sugar as a primer to give it a bit of a deeper taste, but didn’t use quite enough. Still tasted, and drank, fine.

Remember you’ve got three stages

1) Fermentation – lots of yeast turns a water/grain/hops mix with lots of sugar (malt) in it into basic beer in the fermentation bucket. Takes about two weeks-ish, needs to be at the right temp for the yeast (they vary)
2) Secondary fermentation – remaining yeast uses a bot of extra priming sugar to create fizz in your basic beer in the bottle. Again, takes about two weeks, and at the same temp as fermentation.
3) Conditioning – flavours in the beer mature to turn your basic beer into a more rounded product. Takes minimum two weeks after SF, ideally a month or longer. The garage will probably be a perfect place/temp for this bit.

OK , What was in the bottom of the fermenter bucket when you emptied it?
1mm of sand ( yeast -trub ) = probably too cold and no fermentation took place , yeast went dormant and sank
5 – 10mm of brown sand = great fermentation , lots of yeast growth but you may have stripped all your maltose , and probably malto-dex out of the wort. Primig should cure this but if the yeast has had enough and flocced out then you wont get fizzy beer
How clear was the beer that went into the bottles? having said that , beer that is bar bright has enough ACU’s to get going and settle out over time , and leave the beer very pourable.
Have you forced a couple yet?

There was a good thickness in the fermenter tub but I wouldn’t describe it as brown sand, more grey sludge. Liquid wasn’t cloudy when bottling although there is a tiny amount of sediment settled in the bottles now.

As for pushing, I have been moving one bottle around the warm spots in the house in the couple of days since it was suggested but again temperature is nowhere near the 28 deg C mentioned so I haven’t opened it yet.