Carbonation Problems

On my third batch so far only one out of 8 randomly selected bottles had any carbonation. I used 3/4 cup corn sugar and stirred vigorously as always. It is a high gravity strong ale and used White Labs 007. It was only in the secondary for three weeks. The ABV is about 9 or so. Is it possible the yeast died on me before bottling and can I fix this now by opening the bottles and adding a carbonation tablet and recapping?

No, you have plenty of yeast. One of the benefits of homebrewing is that your yeast is still alive (unless you added a yeast killer of some type) Probably not long enough in the bottles or not enough priming sugar. Sometimes it even takes over a month for my underprimed beers to make good bubbles. If you want to add sugar or a carb drop, make sure the beer is VERY cold, uncap, add, cap quickly. I keep hearing that 3/4 is the perfect amount, so I used it in the first 3 or 4 batches I made. Then I found this:

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html?8674392#tag

and realized I had been undercarbing the whole time. Please state how long they have been in the bottles and at what temp (should be at low to mid 70's) for clarification. If it's been 3 weeks, I would add some sugar to the cold (referidgerated or more) beer, then cap. You may still get some boil over (foam) when you add the sugar, just wash the bottles and let them get warm again for another week. Good luck!

I can taste a distinct sweetness so I don't think the priming sugar has been fermented. They have been in the bottles since the 6th, so about 3 weeks. I guess I could wait another two weeks and check them. Then I could add some carb drops if necessary. It's not like the flat beer will get worse in two weeks.

I don't think adding any more sugar will help, probably make things worse in the long run.

What temperature do you have the bottles? I keep mine in the mid 70s and it can take over a week or two (or three) to reach max carbonation. One thing you can do is take the bottles and give them a flip, get the yeast back in suspension.

I have them in the cellar which keeps at around 70 - 75 in the summer, but the temp went up a little a few weeks ago with the heat. I just gave them all a flip to resuspend the yeast. I'll check again in a few weeks and then decide what to do from there.

Off the top of my head I'd say...if your brew is sweet either you underhopped or bottled too soon.

For an ABV of 9% the difference between your gravities should have dropped approximately 0.068. Does that sound right?

What was your OG and FG?

OG = 1.088
FG = 1.018
I used 1 oz. Chinook for bittering, 1 oz. Centennial for aroma, and 1 oz Centennial dry hopped. Perhaps I bottled too soon then?

I just wanted to quickly update the situation. Tasted two brews tonight and both were very well carbonated. It appears flipping them a couple of times woke up the yeast and permitted carbonation to occur. Beer tastes great as well.