Carbonation Problems, Ch. 479

I'm getting dangerously close to kegging. Probably tackle it in the next month or so. I've really gotten fed up with all the possible problems that are inherent in bottling. Sometimes I get gushers. Other times I get flat beer. Sometimes I can pinpoint the problem, other times it seems like the beer is just haunted. The latest:

I brewed a big-ass Barleywine (my 2nd BW) in January. Aged it in carboy for about 4 or 5 months. Bottled it a couple months back. Primed with 0.75c Dextrose (DME has given me problems lately). Boiled a small amount of water, cooled it, and hydrated about half a packet of dry yeast to add at bottling as well, just to be sure that I had some viable yeast in there.

OG was 1.125. FG was 1.030.

So it's been in the bottle for 6-8 weeks, and...no carbo. None. Pop the top of a bottle, there's a small hiss from the pressure equalization, but there's no "haze"on top of the beer in the neck to indicate any fermentation. I pour it into a glass, and it's damn good stuff, but it's not carbonated at all.

By all accounts, I've done everything right on this batch. I've been through every possible scenario with 38 batches under my belt, but I'm stumped on this one. I opened a test bottle this morning, dropped a few carb tabs in, recapped it, and swirled it around. Guess we'll see what happens. I'm not optimistic, considering that I used dextrose to begin with, and that's really all those carb tabs are.

Like I said...I'm getting dangerously close to kegging. I have 4 cornies and a picnic tap. Now I just need to figure out all the disconnect, etc. (I basically know zippo when it comes to kegging).

Sorry, just had to vent...just seems like my bottling operation is in the sh!tter. Sure, I've got plenty of great batches that turn out with perfect carbonation----munchen sommerbock just turned out perfectly---but it seems like my problems are too frequent, even though I'm doing everything right as far as I can see. I'm in the process of chilling down my hefe and wit bottles (they have low carbonation because I used laaglander DME to prime with). If I try to open them warm, they gush, but if I chill them down, I can open them, let them vent the small amount of co2 that they do have without gushing, drop in the tabs, and quickly recap them before they gush. I'm praying they turn out okay---that's 10 gallons of excellent wheat beer right there.

Who knew that this would be the most troublesome part of this hobby?

Evan, my gut reaction would be that you have a temperature problem. At what temp did you store your beer? Given that you know you had yeast and sugar in the bottles, it really only points to temperature (assuming that your capper is working properly).

Anyways, I would give a few bottles a roll across the table and store them at 75F for a couple of weeks to see if that helps. If it does, then you know temps were the problem.

FlyGuy said:

Evan, my gut reaction would be that you have a temperature problem. At what temp did you store your beer? Given that you know you had yeast and sugar in the bottles, it really only points to temperature (assuming that your capper is working properly).

Anyways, I would give a few bottles a roll across the table and store them at 75F for a couple of weeks to see if that helps. If it does, then you know temps were the problem.

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If temps were my problem, then I'm not sure why some batches are fine while others are not. They're all stored in the same place, my basement, at 68-70f. Even batches that use the same yeast strain have different results.

We'll see if my fix helps. I just dusted off all my barleywine btls, uncapped them without chilling them, and all but maybe 4 btls were flat. There were several btls that gushed, but that doesn't mean much. We'll see what happens with the carbtabs.

Yeah, I guess. The only thing I can think of is that those yeast in the barleywine are tired and stressed from the high alcohol environment. Maybe that also makes them more sensitive to temps. Or maybe the dry yeast you added requires a higher temp? Very strange.

What kind of dry yeast was it? Maybe they couldn't handle the alcohol. Do you see a layer of anything on the bottom?

It was primarily fermented with Nottingham, and I believe that US-56 was added at bottling.