Help, Flat Beer!

Just cracked two bottles of my double IPA last night after four weeks in the bottle--much to my dismay the beer was as flat as a board! The first bottle was from a Hoegaarden (which has an unusual ferrule style) so, thinking that maybe the crimp seal was bad, I opened another with the same disappointing result. The beer smelled & tasted great, but was utterly flat, which is majorly disappointing considering I spent a small fortune on the hops for this batch.
Some details about the batch:
-Size = 5 gal.
-OG = 1.082, FG = 1.022
-Primary 12 days, secondary 7 days w/ dry hops
-Primed with 3/4 cup corn sugar in 1 pint water, boiled before adding
-Stored bottles in my closet for four weeks (temp shouldn't get below ~ 60° F in there)

I've never had problems with bad cap seals, and the temp might have been a little low but I'd expect at least a couple bubbles after four weeks!

My question is, should I relax and give them more time to condition, or take some action (add yeast, sugar, etc). I really don't care to drink all that flat beer! Any tips are greatly appreciated.

Two things come to my mind- the first is what kind of yeast did you use? You're already at 72% attenuation- I'm not sure that many yeast strains would have enough "left" in them to carbonate after such a big beer fermented out.

Secondly, if you could get the temperature to 70 degrees (space heater maybe?), that might help. If your yeast has a preferred temperature of 68-72, for example, and it's already tired out, then warming them up might help. I'd also gently turn them end over end so that any yeast that might have gone to sleep on the bottom can be roused.

Is there any yeast sediment on the bottom of your bottles at all?

Used WLP001 in a 3 L starter--this is advertised as a fairly attenuative strain and I've made an ~1.080 ale with this strain before, with good results.

The bottles I drank last night didn't have much in the way of sediment at the bottom--you think the cell count might be too low to finish off?

I like the space heater idea--that could be a useful tool with winter coming on.

Thanks Yooper.

jim650 said:

Used WLP001 in a 3 L starter--this is advertised as a fairly attenuative strain and I've made an ~1.080 ale with this strain before, with good results.

The bottles I drank last night didn't have much in the way of sediment at the bottom--you think the cell count might be too low to finish off?

I like the space heater idea--that could be a useful tool with winter coming on.

Thanks Yooper.

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You should get some more out of the WLP001, so they should carb up. Since you don't have much sediment, I'm thinking it's too cold for it. There should be plenty of yeast still in suspension to carb this up, so you shouldn't need to repitch. I think 3 weeks at 70 degrees would be the ticket here.

Space heater + patience it is...thanks for the tips.

I made a cream ale and had in in secondary for like 4-5 months and bottle conditioned after that much time and the beer carbed up fine.

I think if you keep the bottles at 70 they will carb up fine

yes try the elevated temp for a while, if it is still flat, you can pop all the bottles and add a little dry yeast to each bottle and re-cap. Then wait another couple weeks.

I did an IPA had the same issue. I think their was not enough yeast left from a long seconary. so the next batch i just took some trub from the bottom of the fermentor & mixed it in...a little dab will do yah good