Bottle carbonation issues after 3 weeks

I bottled my triple three weeks ago using Cooper's carb tabs and have almost zero carbonation. The first bottle I opened at one week, and there was a tiny "tsst" when I opened it, so that gave me hope that after three weeks it'd be fine. The bottle I opened today was the same, sadly

There is a thin layer of yeast on the bottom, so I'm not 100% sure what could have caused this. I used the same bottling procedure on the brews immediately before and after this (bottled another batch the night after I bottled this) and have had no problems. I'm thinking that 6 weeks in secondary combined with almost 10%abv could have just been too stressful for the yeast to wake up and carb.

It's really, really good - probably the best thing I've brewed so far - so I'd really hate to let it go to waste. Anyone have any experience or tips they could give me? I was thinking about doing a small, small starter of US-05, letting it ferment out, decanting, and adding a little bit of yeast to each bottle then re-capping, but I've got no idea how well this would work or if it would work at all.

indigi said:

...I'm thinking that 6 weeks in secondary combined with almost 10%abv could have just been too stressful for the yeast...

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this seems logical. your idea of repitching may do the trick. yeast should ideally be acclimated to a high ABV environment prior to pitching, but pitching a starter would be better than nothing.

Bigger beers need more time to carb. It's as simple as that. Leave them alone, keep them warm and check one again in a month. Seriously. You're trying them WAY too soon. Don't bother trying to repitch. There's yeast in there and they'll do their job, but they're drunk and aren't in a hurry.

LazyLlama spent a lot of time and money creating a graphic to demonstrate this principle. I'll see if I can find it.

If you have anything at all, I'd wait it out some. Yeast obviously wasn't dead. Stressed? Yeah, but..... It won't hurt to give it another month at this point would it?

Found it! Here it is:

I have a Belgian Dark Strong that has just begun to carb up after ninety days in the bottle. I expect it to take another 60 to "fully" carb and another 60 to get good. I brewed it on 3/21.

You made a tripel here, we're talking months, not weeks!!! The name itself should be a clue.....when you make a big beer you shouldn't expect your beer to carb or condition right away.

There's nothing wrong...it's a big beer you have there, it will take time. The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."

If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them ore time. If you added your sugar, then the beer will carb up eventually, it's really a foolroof process. All beers will carb up eventually. A lot of new brewers think they have to "troubleshoot" a bottling issue, when there really is none, the beer knows how to carb itself. In fact if you run beersmiths carbing calculator, some lower grav beers don't even require additional sugar to reach their minimum level of carbonation. Just time.

ChshreCat said:

Found it! Here it is:

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I miss Llama, for nuggets of wisdom and wit like this

Me too Pappers...

Thanks, everyone!

This is what I love about HBT. I just bottled my first Quad and after two weeks opened a bottle and there was nothing. Almost freaked out, but then thought to check here. As always, I wasn't alone. Thanks guys.