A Homebrew Clone of Hyland's Pale Ale and a Sugar Problem

Back in April of this year I brewed a clone recipe of Hyland's Pale Ale that was published in North American Clone Brews by Scott R. Russell. It was a big step for me because it was my first partial mash, using some 2-row to add to the malt body and aroma. After a few weeks in the primary and a couple weeks for bottle conditioning, I tried one out. The aroma was nice, with some malt sweetness and a bit of floral hops. I could really taste the difference in the malt flavor. It was a balanced brew with just enough hops to keep it in pale ale territory, but not a hop bomb or a pale ale that looked like a pilsner (nothing wrong with light colored pale ales as I think Yards' Philadelphia Pale Ale is one of the best around). There was just one problem: it was barely carbonated.

I had batch primed with dissolved table sugar, so it's not as if I missed a step or didn't add enough. I used Brewers Friend's priming calculator to add around 2.5 volumes of CO2. The only thing I could think of after those first 2 weeks: it needed more time.

Well, hell a month later and I wasn't see the results I wanted. It tasted finished and the malt quality was something to be proud of, but it needed more fizz. It's pretty clear to me now, some three months from the brew day, that it's a matter of the conditioning sugar not being consistently diffused throughout the batch. I poured from a 22-oz bottle this evening that's been in the fridge for a few weeks and I got great carbonation. Take a look and see (this is a minute or two after the pour):

  

The most obvious solution to this problem is the following: stir the batch (lightly so you don't introduce excess oxygen) after it's transferred from the primary to the bottling bucket. Apparently there's just not enough movement or force to get that sugar diffused throughout the batch when all one does is let their beer slide out of tubing and fill from the bottom of the bucket to mix with the sugar solution that awaits the good stuff. Of course, there are exceptions. Sometimes I get consistent conditioning, and in other cases, like this one, I don't.

In a few days, I'm bottling the English bitter I made over a week ago. I'm going to break with convention and gently stir my sugar solution into the primary, carefully, so as not to stir up any of the trub. Once I do that--figuring I'll stir for a good 10 or 20 seconds--I'll throw the lid back on and get to washing a few dozen bottles while the sugar diffuses. I got some new German looking 500 ml bottles I'm dying to try out.