My barleywine never carbonated

[chilort]

I make 1 barley wine a year because they are expensive and time consuming. The one I made in the fall a year and a half ago took several months to carbonate. I "tested" so many bottles in the early months that by the time it was really ready I had almost none left (now a year and a half later, out of 5 gal, I have 24oz or so left).

This years barley wine also is not carbonating but it isn't even trying. Last years got slowly better. This year is just nothing. Totally flat now even nearly 4 months after bottling.

What can I do?

I've read that I can open each bottle, add some dry champagine yeast to each bottle and then reseal each bottle and wait.

Will this work? The OG was 1.108 and the FG was 1.036 and I don't want to make fizz bombs.

 

[cvstrat]

Pasteur champagne yeast has approximately the same attenuation as your barleywine yeast likely did. As long as you don't use a champagne yeast that ferments to dryness you should be able to do that. Uncap, sprinkle a small amount, recap and wait it out. Good luck!

 

[chilort]

IIRC I used Wyeast London Ale Yeast ... or was it Irish Ale Yeast? I need to keep better notes.

Okay, I will keep this in mind.

 

[chilort]

Any other thoughts on this?

 

[threeeight]

How long did you age it before bottling? I bulk aged a barleywine for about 6 months before bottling, added some bottling yeast, and waited - I've had inconsistent results thus far.

 

[bknifefight]

Is there no hiss at all when opening the bottles? Even with the slightest noise, you can expect more carbonation with time.

 

[chilort]

Is there no hiss at all when opening the bottles? Even with the slightest noise, you can expect more carbonation with time.

Zip, zero, nothing, nada.

It aged for about 3 months in a secondary.

 

[ssf]

when i bottled my last barleywine I mixed champagne yeast into the bottling bucket beforehand and had no carbonation problems. i believe cvstrat's advice is the way to go - a few grains in each bottle and some waiting.

 

[marshman]

Well, this isn't gonna solve the no-fermentation issue, but it will allow you to drink carbonated beer...

About 4 years ago my mom bought me a seltzer bottle for Christmas. It took me forever to find the appropriate CO2 canisters for it, and then I really lacked any ideas for what to do with it. Buying carbonated water at the gorcery store is cheaper than using the cartridges, it seemed silly.

Then, a few months ago, I had a beer not carbonate. I get this great idea and popped two bottles and dumped them into the seltzer bottle, hit it with a charge and WHAM-O, carbonated beer. It tased a bit off due to the un-consumed bottling sugar, but it does do the trick. And as a bonus, it gives beer the G-mix effect.

But it gets better. You can buy the Nitrogen charges used for whipped cream, too. I recently brewed some Stouts for some friends, and as they progressed, we used the technique to test the flavors (we were adding chocolate to 1 and coffee to another) until we got the ideal coffee/choco balanced.

Good Luck

 

[chilort]

I should probably update this.

I went to my LHBS and they handed me a packet of S-05 when I told them them my problem and asked for champagne yeast. I kind of laughed because I didn't think S-05 would handle the high alcohol content of the barleywine. They said, "when it doesn't work, come back and will give you a packet of champagne yeast."

Well, I went back to them. I went back to them to apologize. The S-05 carbonated the beer and didn't mess it up. I drink about 1 bottle a month and they just keep getting better.

I think the key for me will be 2 packets of Wyeast when I start my barleywines and then maybe throw in some S-05 about a week before I plan on bottling.

The problem with champagne yeast at the end, and I know a lot of people use it so if it works for you keep doing it, is that it can dry out the beer and a barleywine should have some residual sweetness.

 

[bknifefight]

I'm glad to hear that the S-05 worked well for you.

I have to disagree with you about the champagne yeast. The only way it dries out a beer/wine/mead more than another yeast is if the other yeast stalls because it hits it's alcohol tolerance and the champagne yeast can finish the job. Ideally you would want a yeast which has a alcohol tolerance to match your beer. If you didn't, and it stalled out early, adding champagne yeast at bottling could be trouble because there is more to eat than the priming sugar. But if you did pitch enough yeast in your barley wine, which could handle the alcohol, you wouldn't have to worry about a champagne yeast dropping from 1.022 to 1.006 or something. At 1.022, it is done and champagne yeast won't have any simple sugars to eat.

 

[Nashbrewer]

You got hosed on the yeast. At my LHBS US-05 is 3.99. Red Star Champagne yeast .49. I'm glad the US-05 worked, but if your prices are similar to mine, you got ripped off as the Champagne should have worked.