No carbonation is a 1.095 OG barley wine

No cabonation in a 1.095 OG barley wine

First off, please bear with me, I'm still somewhat of a noob and I'm trying different things to see what works and what doesnt....

I just tasted the first of a small batch of barley wine I made to see how it was coming along (its about 1 month old) and there was very little carbonation to it. Because of some equipment limitations, I'm bottling straight from the secondary fermenter, so I have to add a small amount of corn sugar to each bottle.

I am bottling in 22 oz crown top bottles with oxygen seal caps. I put in about 1.25 TSP per bottle (which seems like a lot to me.... works out to about 7/8 of a cup for 12 22's)

This was the first batch I did using corn sugar. The previous ones I have done have been with table sugar and those did just fine.

My question is; was the low carbonation caused by;
A.) substituting table sugar for corn sugar
or
B.) did the yeast just lose the ability to digest anymore dextrose by the time I bottled it due to the gravity of the beer? (I used Wyeast 1056 w/o doing a starter)
or
C.) something completely different that I haven't thought of.

I have got an Imperial Stout in the primary right now with a similar gravity and I want to make sure that I dont make the same mistake twice.

B.) did the yeast just lose the ability to digest anymore dextrose by the time I bottled it due to the gravity of the beer? (I used Wyeast 1056 w/o doing a starter)

that's your answer. A high OG with no starter stressed out the yeast. If the yeast were alive I'd say you'd have bottle bombs though because that's too much sugar. That's over twice as much. Keep hanging around the forum and researching every aspect of your process, i.e. Your bottling practice. There is an easier way.

yeah that's a LOT of sugar for 12 22's. Usually you would use 3/4 cup corn sugar for a 5 gall batch (~30 22's). Was there a mistype? It could also be a product of time. Big beers like that take a LONG time to carb up. Wait another month and try again.

flaminpi3 said:

yeah that's a LOT of sugar for 12 22's. Usually you would use 3/4 cup corn sugar for a 5 gall batch (~30 22's). Was there a mistype? It could also be a product of time. Big beers like that take a LONG time to carb up. Wait another month and try again.

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No mis-type. That was the instruction of the first beer kit that I got, and it actually has been working out very well until now. With the exception of a little but of a cidery taste in a few batches, they have all been okay. I just figured the cider taste was due to the use of cane sugar, which is why I switched to corn sugar.

So for the next high gravity beer in the primary, I was thinking of using 2g of dry yeast, pitching it into a sugar/water solution and puting a small amount in each bottle (again becuse of some of the equipment limitations). It seems pretty unorthodox, but I am otherwise screwed because I already brewed it and started fermentation.

yeah i would agree with these other Gents on this subject. and if they don't carb up in another month (which they probably won't). then go to your brew store and buy a packet of dry yeast. the RED packet. Safale US-05(american ale yeast) and some bottle caps, and pop the top of each bottle and just sprinkle a really tiny pinch into each bottle. you could always do 3 bottles with different amounts of yeast in each, and wait a couple weeks. see which one is perfect, then open the rest and do the same. and make sure that you put them in a safe place. (in case one of them blows)

forces said:

No mis-type. That was the instruction of the first beer kit that I got, and it actually has been working out very well until now. With the exception of a little but of a cidery taste in a few batches, they have all been okay. I just figured the cider taste was due to the use of cane sugar, which is why I switched to corn sugar.

So for the next high gravity beer in the primary, I was thinking of using 2g of dry yeast, pitching it into a sugar/water solution and puting a small amount in each bottle (again becuse of some of the equipment limitations). It seems pretty unorthodox, but I am otherwise screwed because I already brewed it and started fermentation.

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Ignore kit instructions. They are usually pretty bad.

When you add that extra bottling yeast, you can add just one flake of yeast per bottle. That's all you need. My experience with this stems from a batch where the yeast died and had to crack open the bottles a couple months later and add that flake of yeast. Worked like a charm.

You need to get the equipment to bottle your batch properly. But if you have no bottling bucket you can use 3/4 cup corn sugar boiled with a small amount of water, and then pour the sugar solution into the secondary and swirl it around a bit with a sanitized spoon or long utencil. Let the mixed up sediment settle for an hour and then bottle from there. Also, you said that you secondary, why not use the cleaned primary fermenter as a bottling bucket?

Sit on the batch and wait. It will eventually carb. Big beers can take many months. I'd personally check every couple weeks...once the carbing is adequate, place them in the fridge as you most likely put in too must sugar which can cause over carbonation.

Do what I did on a 10%abv IIPA. Get a packet of wine yeast, make a 1.060 starter (just some DME in water, boiled and then placed into a growler), pitch the yeast into the cooled wort and shake for a day. Then take and chill down the starter, rack of the nearly clean wort up top and take the yeast from the bottom and put that into your newly purchased bottling bucket (for $3 at home depot) and stir it up along with your sugar syrup solution and bottle away, stirring every five bottles to keep the yeast in suspension. After one week I tried a bottle and it has low amounts of carbonation, but it is working. I need to put them in a warmer location is my real problem there.

Now that is what to do from the get go. I would say wait on your current bottles. That and get a bottling bucket, they are cheap.

wonderbread23 said:

Sit on the batch and wait. It will eventually carb. Big beers can take many months. I'd personally check every couple weeks...once the carbing is adequate, place them in the fridge as you most likely put in too must sugar which can cause over carbonation.

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This is the correct answer. It can take months for a big beer to even begin to show signs of carbonation, if you didn't add any extra yeast at bottling time. My 1.090 Belgian Strong took 3 months to carb up.

Lazy Llama came up with a nice diagram to explain this;