Help me save my beer!

Back in february I brewed a Belgian strong ale, OG at 1.082. After 5-6 weeks in the primary/secondary I bottled. FG was at 1.019. Probably bottled too early, yadda yadda yadda, and five months later I have a very sweet, very flat beer. Is there any hope of saving this beer?

Seems like my yeast died/went dormant/just stopped working. It seems like fermentation never finished and it never carbonated. Would it be advisable to dump the bottles back into a carboy and repitch some fresh yeast this far after primary fermentation?

I'd just re-dose the bottles with some fresh, alcohol-tolerant yeast.

Alcohol tolerant yeast - like what? You wouldn't repitch the a fresh dose of the original yeast?

Depends on what the original yeast was. Check with the manufacturer for alcohol tolerance info.

Will adding a small dose of yeast to each bottle take care of finishing fermentation as well as finally carbonating this thing?

Your attenuation seems reasonable - the sweetness is probably mostly unfermented priming sugar and lack of carbonic acid bite. It's tricky to carb high-gravity beers in the bottle. I'd try an ale or lager yeast first, and if that doesn't work, use a wine yeast as a last resort.

Thanks for all the tips! I used wyeast 1762 - Belgian abbey II which says tolerable to 12%. I think I'll give that a try first.

If anyone has any alternate advice I'd like to hear it!

ArcaneXor said:

Your attenuation seems reasonable - the sweetness is probably mostly unfermented priming sugar and lack of carbonic acid bite. It's tricky to carb high-gravity beers in the bottle. I'd try an ale or lager yeast first, and if that doesn't work, use a wine yeast as a last resort.

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+1, although I like my Belgian Golden Strongs to be a bit lighter in body and less sweet than a 1.019, I like mine to be around FG: 1.006 – 1.016.

I would recommend trying a dry yeast. Pop the top of each bottle, sprinkle some in and recap. That way you are not running the risk of oxidation by pouring them all out into a bucket to get this yeast mixed in properly.