Help! Bottles haven’t carbed

[jwall]

Greetings! Brewed my third batch (extract Cannonball stout from AHB) and bottled in January. Beer tastes good and is around 9-10% abv, but has yet to carbonate. Not sure what happened as it had great fermentation and doesn’t seem so big the yeast would be spent. A few weeks ago I swirled them all, placed in warmer spot in the house, and still only a tiny hiss when opening but nothing more.

Would love to save this tasty beer and need some advice! Thanks in advance!

 

[kh54s10]

I assume you added priming sugar. What size batch and how did you prime?

 

[Jag75]

Might be because it's such a big beer why it's taking a while . How much priming sugar did you use . A typical stout of that abv is probably about 2 volumes . At 5 gallons you would of used about 3.7 oz @70 degrees. Temp plays a hand . What has been the temp these bottles were kept at ?

 

[jwall]

Primed around 4.75 gallons with 3.5 ounces of sugar at 70 degrees. Beer set for over 3 months now in temps between 70-75. Been in top of upstairs closet now for about 3 weeks. Guessing it’s closer to 78 degrees up there.

 

[Jag75]

Wow , that should be carbed by now. Does it have any head at all? What about bubbles ?

 

[lowtones84]

9-10% will certainly "poop" some yeast out. How long are you refrigerating them before opening them? Sometimes it's more carbed than you think, but if you don't allow at least 2 full days in the fridge (sometimes more like 5) the carbonation doesn't go into solution properly.

Either way I don't think it's worth opening them up and doing anything to them. Keep them in the warmest spot you have (but also consistently warmest. Check for temp sings where you have them) and maybe tip them on their sides occasionally. It will come around, just taking longer than expected.

 

[jwall]

No bubbles to speak of. I dumped hard into glass trying to will some head

Thanks for the advice. Refrigerated for only 1 day now. I’ll pop another in a few days and try again. I’m ok with letting them sit for weeks or months if that will improve them.

I’d read about possibly opening and adding a small amount of yeast to each bottle. I may try that as a last resort if I don’t get some carb this summer. Any experience with that and is the clock running out on that approach?

 

[lowtones84]

I’d read about possibly opening and adding a small amount of yeast to each bottle. I may try that as a last resort if I don’t get some carb this summer. Any experience with that and is the clock running out on that approach?

To me it's really not worth it, but do as you would like. Try putting one in the refrigerator for 5 days, then make sure you pour well into a nice, clean glass.

I think your yeast will carb this, they're just having a hard time. I think lightly agitate 1-2x per week, keep warm, keep fridged 2-5 days before opening for now. I could be totally wrong too, but I've been bottling all of my brews for around a decade now and this is the route I'd go.

 

[ESBrewer]

What is the yeast you are using? 10% is a lot of alcohol for many/most beer strains. I think either the yeast is too stressed or you have miscalculated / -weighed / mixed the sugar poorly. Adding some fresh yeast at the time of bottling could be useful in the future.

 

[FatDragon]

3 months is a long time, especially at a temperature that should encourage quick bottle conditioning. A packet of champagne yeast, 40-50 caps, and half an hour or less of your time seems like a low outlay to save the batch. If you are fairly organized in your bottling and bottles go into the cases in a relatively consistent order, try bottles from different parts of the batch - it's possible your priming sugar wasn't mixed well and you got some well- or overcarbed bottles and some that didn't get much sugar at all.

If everything is still completely or mostly flat, that would indicate that the priming sugar wasn't consumed and fresh yeast could eat it to carb up the bottles pretty easily. However, it's possible that you simply underprimed and you expect more carbonation than you've got. If there's a bit of sparkly feeling and acidic bite in the beer, there's a good chance this is the case. In that case, you'd have to add more priming sugar and yeast would probably be optional (since we're assuming that the yeast in the bottles did in fact carbonate the beer in this scenario).

Step one is to try longer refrigeration times, preferably with bottles from various points in the bottling process. Step two, if step one fails, is to determine if the beer is uncarbed (priming sugar is still good but yeast is dead) or undercarbed (yeast is probably good but priming sugar is already gone), and move on to step three, which is to remedy the situation by popping the caps, adding yeast and/or priming sugar as necessary, and recap (probably with new caps - recapping with the original caps drastically increases the chance of leaks that will put you back at square one).

 

[Nubiwan]

Hmm - I just started a similar thread, but my beer is much younger than this grand father. 2 weeks old, and I put one in the fridge, but similar result. Does it need the extra days in fridge to carb? Perhaps I forgot about that. Must read further on carbing. I opened her after just 24 hours in fridge, if that, and was disappointed. Not even a pfft from the cap, which limply fell to the side. Perhaps I was too early. To eager. Something I missed...... Not the first time........

OP, loved the line about trying to WILL a big head. Can picture you shaking that baby over the pint glass. I essentially turned my bottle upside down, and my beer just laughed at me. Tasted nice and malty, but very flat.

 

[kh54s10]

Hmm - I just started a similar thread, but my beer is much younger than this grand father. 2 weeks old, and I put one in the fridge, but similar result. Does it need the extra days in fridge to carb? Perhaps I forgot about that. Must read further on carbing. I opened her after just 24 hours in fridge, if that, and was disappointed. Not even a pfft from the cap, which limply fell to the side. Perhaps I was too early. To eager. Something I missed...... Not the first time........

OP, loved the line about trying to WILL a big head. Can picture you shaking that baby over the pint glass. I essentially turned my bottle upside down, and my beer just laughed at me. Tasted nice and malty, but very flat.

In your case it may just be too early. I find that most will carbonate in 2 weeks, some it takes longer, a few much longer. 70 degrees for 3 weeks. I find that all my beers have tasted better at 3 weeks or longer. For me 24 hours in the fridge is my normal routine. They are always fine in that time-frame. If there has been any difference in carbonation by staying in the fridge longer, for me it has been insignificant.

 

[jwall]

I double pitched White Labs Dry English Ale 007 so thought that should be enough. The refrigeration period was news to me as well. Will definitely give a couple of bottles a chance in there before doing anything else. Then go from there.

BTW, found a use for the last flat one I opened- poured over ice cream for a stout float. Even without the carbonation it tasted great. Although, I’d rather not put my body through it to drink 4+ more gallons that way

 

[lowtones84]

Do you know what your FG was? If so, you could "degas" a sample bottle and check gravity. If it's above FG, then there's still priming sugar to eat. White Labs states that the alcohol tolerance is 8-12% so I believe your yeast will do the job if there is sugar there, they're just on the struggle bus. To me what FatDragon proposes is an absolute last resort, but if it comes to that the procedure he described is sound. Otherwise this is a lesson for next time on using a second bottling yeast when alcohol content is that high.

 

[Nubiwan]

In your case it may just be too early. I find that most will carbonate in 2 weeks, some it takes longer, a few much longer. 70 degrees for 3 weeks. I find that all my beers have tasted better at 3 weeks or longer. For me 24 hours in the fridge is my normal routine. They are always fine in that time-frame. If there has been any difference in carbonation by staying in the fridge longer, for me it has been insignificant.

I shoved them back in a room at 74 degrees. Questioning my sanity and addition of the priming sugar. I am also wondering of my flip top sprung a leak. I'd go open another, but it wuld just be wasted. Wait till I am a little parched. Few hours should do the trick.