Imperial Stout not carbing?!?!

CornyKegs 728
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beersteiner2345

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So I bottled my RIP on August 15th and decided to wait a while before even trying one, fully expecting them to take a while to carb.

Well, it's been almost three months, cracked one today and there are hardly ANY bubbles. If it hasn't carbed by this point, what are the odds that it won't ever carb?

This was a BIG stout, with an O.G. of 1.103 and an FG of 1.030. Not sure if that matters that much.

If this beer doesn't carb in the bottles (yes I am sure I added the sugar ;) ) is there a way to keg it and carb it up that way without risking too much oxygenation? Just autosiphon the beer to a keg?
 
How much priming sugar did you use?

The OG/FG is in the Barley Wine range which has pretty low carbonation due to the alcohol content.

Do you have a keg? If you really want carbonation, I would probably purge the keg with C02 and start pouring the beers into the keg. I'd probably throw all the filled bottles into a tub of sanitizer. Pull them from the tub, open and pour into the keg.

Is the desire for carbonation worth the risk of oxygenation? that's the gamble.
 
With a beer that size, carbonation should and will take some time; that said, 3 months should've been a reasonable amount to at least get some activity going. How long was it in bucket/carboy before bottling? Your yeast may have dropped out during the secondary/conditioning phase leaving you with insufficient amounts to get carbing up quickly.

As for kegging it, the suggestions above seem valid, but you're definitely risking oxidation regardless. Safest way I can think of would be to *gently* pour each one into a racking bucket (once you have enough liquid, keep the pour submerged, limiting exposure) and rack from there into your purged keg. However, I'd probably just set the bottles aside somewhere and forget about them for 6 months or so; I'd wager by then you'll have at least a reasonable level of carbonation in them.
 
Yeah... I do know that right now I have 45 bottles of stuff I probably wouldn't drink. Needs some carbing for sure...

I might give it another month, and then go the keg route... The CO2 is heavier than o2, right? So if I purge with CO2, theoretically I should have to worry about splashing, correct?

Friggin tough call. But there is seriously no detectable carbonation in this aside from small bubbles on top... I can pour one and take a picture if that helps...
 
smagee said:
With a beer that size, carbonation should and will take some time; that said, 3 months should've been a reasonable amount to at least get some activity going. How long was it in bucket/carboy before bottling? Your yeast may have dropped out during the secondary/conditioning phase leaving you with insufficient amounts to get carbing up quickly.

As for kegging it, the suggestions above seem valid, but you're definitely risking oxidation regardless. Safest way I can think of would be to *gently* pour each one into a racking bucket (once you have enough liquid, keep the pour submerged, limiting exposure) and rack from there into your purged keg. However, I'd probably just set the bottles aside somewhere and forget about them for 6 months or so; I'd wager by then you'll have at least a reasonable level of carbonation in them.
Click to expand...


This might be the way to go... I am in no hurry to drink them. Maybe give them until March, and if not I will keg them then.

There is a very very small amount of cabonation... and I did secondary it for a while, so you might be spot on. This beer was brewed in June...
 
What temp are the bottles at? You can try taking all the bottles and rolling them around on the floor to get the yeast into the beer a little more and warm them up. I had to do that with a 12.5% beer i made. What yeast did you use? Since you have a little carb going I would think they would finish.
 
If it were me, I'd keg it. At least that way you know what you've got right away. The alcohol should help protect it from infection.
 
ashplub- will give this a shot tomorrow and wait it out

BrewMU- not worried so much about infection, but more so oxidation by kegging. That, and all my kegs are full with two more batches in line. At least this one is stable enough that giving it some time won't hurt anything.
 
pointerDixie214 said:
cracked one today and there are hardly ANY bubbles
Click to expand...
Have you tried other bottles? Maybe you just opened a bad one? I have occasionally one or two bottles out of 48-50 without any carbonation at all, while the rest are all OK. Could be a bad cap, a bad bottle, or just me who did a bad capping job...
 
Sometimes the top of the bottle isn't nice and flat so the cap doesn't seat very well
I think this is the biggest reason for bottles having different levels of carbonation. Maybe you could add a little yeast to each bottle and recap , then put them away in a nice warm spot and forget about them. It needs to age anyway. My last RIP took forever
like 6 months to fully carbonate but they were in a 65 degree room. Yours will eventually carbonate , the sugar is in there. But yes check another bottle or two first.
 

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