Can you force carb a beer that didn't carb naturally?

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jasonclick

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I've got a few beers that never carbed properly. These were bottle conditioned. I'm getting a keg setup at the end of the month. Can I dump all of the bottles in a keg and force carb it?
 
IF you can pour the bottles into the keg WITHOUT any splashing it's possible.

How long ago did you bottle the brew? Did you prime it correctly? If the batch wasn't at the yeast's maximum alcohol tolerance level, then eventually it should carbonate. It could take a long time though. It's not uncommon for high ABV batches to take several weeks, or even months, to carbonate in bottles. IMO, if you did everything correctly, you're far better off leaving the bottles at 70F and give them time. Try one every month, or so, after chilling the bottle for a week or more.
 
It's been about 5 weeks. They are both low alcohol beers. I'm planning on waiting but I'm trying to figure out my options just in case. I'd hate to just dump a bunch of beer without trying everything first.
 
What temperature are the bottles sitting at? How long have you chilled the sample bottles in the fridge before pouring? Low OG/ABV brews should carb in about 3 weeks (or so) IF they're kept at (or at least) 70F. I wouldn't go above 75F if it was me, so that you don't get bombs. Chilling the bottles for long enough gets the produced CO2 back into solution better too. If you're only chilling for a few hours, or a day, go a week and then try one.

If you hold a bottle up so you can see into it, can you see some sediment in the bottom??

IMO, trying to get the bottles into a keg is full of more risk than leaving them in bottles, or properly chilling them before pouring. DO you really want to risk oxidizing the beer at this point??
 
They are at around 76. I do see sediment in the bottom. And I've only been chilling for a day before sampling one. I guess I should put in the fridge for a week and try them.
 
They are at around 76. I do see sediment in the bottom. And I've only been chilling for a day before sampling one. I guess I should put in the fridge for a week and try them.

Chill a bottle (or a few of them) for a week and see how one is. Give the others a day, or three, more and try them too. As long as the bottles are properly capped, keeping the CO2 inside them, you'll have carbonated beer. If they hiss, at all, when you open them, you have carbonation. It's just a matter of getting it back into the beer so that it's also in the glass.
 
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