Help with carbonating a high ABV Honey Steamer, please

[Pabski]

Hi all, wondering what you good folks may give me as advice on a little problem I encountered: I brewed a LME/Specialty grain Honey Steamer.

Here's the recipe, my question right after it:

Honey Steamer

5 gallons, extract/specialty grains

Ingredients:

6.5 lbs. light malt extract syrup
0.5 lb. crystal malt, 40° Lovibond
2.5 lbs. honey
1 oz. Bullion hops (8.1% alpha acid), for 25 min.
1 oz. Cluster hops (7.4% alpha acid), for 10 min.
1/3 oz. Irish moss
Wyeast 2112 (California)

The Situation:

The LME tubs I got are 1.3 Kg, (2.6 lbs). I got two tubs (5.2 pounds), which is not enough for the recipe, so I decided to substitute the remaining 1.3 pounds of LME with more additional honey than the recipe already calls for. (I suspected that this would raise my ABV, which I didn't mind, but wasn't sure exactly by how much.).

I'm not at home now and don't have my notes for the OG and FG, but the ABV at bottling time was 10.1!! Wasn't expecting that. There was no fermentation activity when I bottled. I primed with dextrose aiming for 3.0 volume, putting the disolved dextrose in the racking buckets.

Two weeks later, I opened a bottle to see how it was doing and saw that it had no carbonation whasoever. I checked and Wyeast 2112 has a alcohol tolerence of about 9%, so I'm pretty sure the high ABV is preventing the yeasties from doing their thing.

My plan is to make a starter with champagne yeast,(high alcohol tolerance) uncap all the bottle, put a few grams of starter in each bottle and recap, not adding any sugar as I had already done so and want to avoid bottle bombs.

Is this a good plan? Is there a better yeast than champagne I could use? any other tips?

Welcoming all advice!

 

[tedclev]

That should work. I wouldn't make a starter though. Just rehydrate the yeast. You could probably just get away with sprinkling a little unhydrated yeast in the bottles and have it work, but that's your call. CBC-1 would also work as an alternative to champagne.

 

[Pabski]

Thanks Tedclev! much appreciated.

 

[duboman]

If it's really 10%, 2 weeks is nowhere near long enough to assume carbonation even at 70F

I would anticipate more like 6-8 weeks! Make sure your bottles are at least 70-75F and give them more time. If the yeast fermented the beer it will be able to carbonate it but not in two weeks

 

[Pabski]

I wasn't expecting the beer to be fully carbonated after two weeks, I just wanted to see if the process had started at all, which it had not. I wouldnt worry about if it wasn't for the fact the the ABV is higher than my yeast's threshold. I'm afraid the yeast won't work at all, no matter how long I wait.

 

[duboman]

I wasn't expecting the beer to be fully carbonated after two weeks, I just wanted to see if the process had started at all, which it had not. I wouldnt worry about if it wasn't for the fact the the ABV is higher than my yeast's threshold. I'm afraid the yeast won't work at all, no matter how long I wait.

just be patient even if you add fresh yeast you are asking it to work in 10%alcohol to start, it won't speed things up.