Carbonation tabs did not work

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pineknot

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Hello all!

I made an all grain pale ale about two months ago. I strayed from my normal carbing methods and used carbonation tablets. Over a month later, the beer is flat. I put three tabs in each bottle. In an attempt to save the batch, I was thinking about popping each bottle, dumping it into my keg and force carbonating. Any thoughts, suggestions or advice?
 
Seems like your biggest challenge will be to keep it from being exposed to oxygen or contaminants.

As I was typing this, I thought of a way you might accomplish this.

If you have a bottling/fermenting bucket available, you could purge it with CO2 to give a protective blanket, empty all the bottles in there, carefully, and then empty the bucket as you would normally into the keg. With good sanitation, and keeping CO2 over the beer, this might work.

I might also add, that you should probably sanitize each bottle right before pouring it, along with the bottle opener!
 
What was your O.G.? What temp. have you had them stored at? What size bottles did you use? They probable just need more time to carb. I have never used the carbonation drop but they have to be made of some type of sugar, sugar plus yeast will equal carbonation.
 
before you do anything drastic, try this trick my LHBS owner uses to fix undercarbed bottles

rouse the yeast by turning the bottles upside down and let them rest that way for 3 days. turn them back right side up for 3 days, then fridge for 3 days

worked for my undercarbed Belgian ale

got nothin' to lose but 9 days
 
before you do anything drastic, try this trick my LHBS owner uses to fix undercarbed bottles

rouse the yeast by turning the bottles upside down and let them rest that way for 3 days. turn them back right side up for 3 days, then fridge for 3 days

worked for my undercarbed Belgian ale

got nothin' to lose but 9 days

I will definitely try that before I open each bottle, dump in keg and waste CO2. Thanks for the tip.
 
OG was 1.052, temp was about 68 degrees (give or take a degree) and the bottles are 12 oz.
I had this issue once before. Only the first time, it was a chocolate stout. Way heavier than the pale ale I'm having issues with now.
I may chalk this one up to a loss.
 
Did the carb tab fully dissolve? I like the rousing suggestion too. When I used tabs I ended up needing to rouse them all a couple days after bottling because I could see some undisolved tabs. One reason I still use one or two clear bottles in every batch.

Also FWIW 3 tabs is going to be low to moderate carbing for tabs if they are same size as mine. I like that better than risking over carb but I'm thinking that will mean it will take longer to reach a perceptible carb level. 3 weeks at 70 degrees is bottle conditioning standard. How long and at what temp did you give these.
 
Carb tab is fully dissolved as far as I can tell. It was my first time using these things, so I used enough (as suggested by the manufacturer) to moderately carbonate the beer. They have been sitting for a month @ ~68 degrees.
 
Used Carbtabs once...won't ever again....not even for a few bottles.
Expensive and never consistent.
3/4 cup of corn sugar per 5 gallon batch...always!
Live-n-learn.

I couldn't agree more! I gave it one try and I'll NEVER again try it. I've got a strong scottish ale that has been sitting for almost a year and the only thing those friggin tabs did was make a bunch of debris in the bottle. One of these days I'm going to try adding some dry yeast to a few bottles to see if that works.
 
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