Belgian wont carb

I left my Belgian in Primary for 1 month and then in secondary for 2.

I added the appropriate amount of sugar and let it sit for another month around 70 degrees.

I opened one up and it tasted awesome but sweet, and wasn't really carbed up at all. Very very slight carbonation but clearly barely carbed since it tasted so sweet. What can I do. I have 24 bombers of this awesome beer and it wont carb up!!!

If its a high abv then it will take a very long time to almost never if you didn't add extra yeast at bottling. I had a belgian dark that I didn't add extra yeast at bottling and it took 8+ months to carb.

Are you sure you got the attenuation you were looking for since it is so sweet? What's the alcohol %? Sometimes big beers take a long time to carb up. I would wait more and don't worry.

If it doesn't carb after 6-8 months, pop the tops, sprinkle in a few grains of dry champagne yeast, recap, and swirl. I had a 13%er that exhausted all of my yeast and wouldn't carb after 7 months.

It's a big beer, big beers take time. I would check it in a couple more months. I don't think you need to wait 6, but at least a couple more before considering re-yeasting.

Its about 9.2 ABV. I'll give it until 2013.

I've had something similar happen with my last Dark Strong Ale. I usually add yeast at bottling on this beer, but last time I didn't... My notes indicate that the beer was in secondary for just over 3 months before bottling.

These have been in bottles for over 6 months without any carbonation. I'm not in any rush to drink these but if a year rolls around and they're still not carbed up, I'll either open the bottles and add some champagne yeast, or just dump them all back into a keg and drink this on tap. All that time corking... 'sigh'

btw: This beer is ~12.5% ABV

i would think after 6 months of no carb then you wont have any after year

Out of curiousity if I wanted to add champagne yeast how would I go about doing that?

jms5180 said:

Out of curiousity if I wanted to add champagne yeast how would I go about doing that?

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you can either:

1) add grains of the dry yeast directy to the bottle - uncap, put a few grains in, recap.

2) rehydrate the yeast and use an eye-dropper - uncap, put in a few drops, recap.

option #2 is preferable, IMO.

Why not pop the tops and add champagne yeast now? That way it will be ready in 2013 when you want to drink it and you won't be disappointed in a few months.