Any hope for this beer?
 

I just finished my first partial mash APA and put it in the secondary for 2 weeks and then bottled. To prime, I used the measured out DME instead of Dextrose. (I tried to change too much too quick I guess :( ). It's been 4 weeks since bottling and it is still not carbed. The OG was 1.09 and FG 1.023. The flavor is amazing, but it's flat, do I have any hope?

As a side note, this may have pushed me over the edge into getting a kegging system. Any major disadvantages of this transition?

What temperature are you storing your bottles at to carbonate? Everything sounds fine to me.

I would just make sure that you're keeping your bottles as close to 70F as possible. If you're storing them in a cooler place, it will take more time to carb up, but DME will carb just fine for you. You're only 6 weeks from brewing anyways, so this will give your beer some more time to mellow out as well.

I also just took the plunge into kegging and am quite happy with the results. Much less work and it's so nice to pour a cold pint whenever I want one.

There's a couple of things you may be fighting. First, high alcohol beers are notoriously slow at carbonating. It looks like your beer is near 9%. Second, you need to use about 30% more DME than sugar to get the same rate of carbonation. Did you make that adjustment?

Thanks for the quick reply's. I have been storing the bottles at 65 F. As far as DME i used a little over 1 1/2 cups per 5 gallon batch. I only boiled it in water for about 25 minutes. Could it be a problem of not enough conversion, resulting in the small amount of carbing? I understand the yeast will take longer with high ABV, but I saw no noticeable difference in week 2 to week 3 in carbonation.

DME's already been converted, so the boil time is no problem. I think the advice you've been getting is just fine -- give it some time.