Add yeast to flat bottles?

[HorseHair]

I have a big RIS at 10% finished at around 1.022 that has been in the bottles for about 6-8 weeks at proper temperatures and there is absolutely no sign of carbonation. I know these things take a while with the big beers but my main concern is that there isnt even any sediment in ANY of the bottles. I oaked it so i have the feeling that maybe between the extended secondary and the bed of oak chips i didnt really get any yeast in the bottles.


So my question is should I rehydrate some s-05 and add some to each bottle?
if so how much for 22 oz vs 12oz bottles?

 

[flyiniron]

The yeast is already there. I'm guessing you didn't get enough priming sugar in during bottling. Lately i've been using the Copper tun carbonation drops. One drop per 10-12 oz. They have worked perfect everytime.

 

[HorseHair]

no I primed correctly if anything i may have added a little too much priming solution.

 

[jmalex]

This has happened with my big beers as well. For my RIS, I thought ahead and added in additional yeast at bottling. But for my quad, I brainfarted and just bottled. So after waiting it out for a few months, I just cracked each one open, sprinkled a little dry champagne yeast in each bottle (doesn't take much), and recapped. A few weeks later, they were all good to go.

 

[Revvy]

The yeast is already there. I'm guessing you didn't get enough priming sugar in during bottling. Lately i've been using the Copper tun carbonation drops. One drop per 10-12 oz. They have worked perfect everytime.

Wrong.

More than likely the yeast for the RIS, is tired. If he added the proper amount of priming sugar to begin with, which I'm sure he did, then more than likely the yeast is too beat to eat it. Happens in big beers all the time. That's why adding more yeast at bottling time is usually not a bad idea.

If not, the beers will usually carb eventually, but take a hellova long time. I had a big beer take 6 months to carb up, had I added fresh yeast more than likely it would have carbed up quicker.

Horsehair, yes adding some more yeast is a good idea. An easy way is to make a slurry of champagne yeast and use a children's medicine dropper with ML gradiations on it, to add the same amount to each bottle.

And recap with fresh caps.

Adding sugar is never a good idea in attempting to "recarb" the bottles, you run the risk of bottle bombs. But adding yeast will usually not cause bombs, since the yeast is only going to eat the unfermented sugars already present.

Best of luck.

 

[smokinghole]

Yes add more yeast. I have a similar situation. Even though I added yeast at bottling it still didn't show any signs of carbonation after 3+ months. So I picked up a vial of 099 with plans of giving it some sugars to chew on to wake them up. Then while it's at a decent activity I'll pipette the yeast into my bottles and recap them. Mines at like 14% so I know it's the damn yeast.

 

[HorseHair]

thanks for the replies ill probably give revvys suggestion a go and well see how it turns out. hopefully well because this thing tastes amazing.

 

[derekge]

I believe this particular thread is good reasoning for a yeast starter. Was a yeast starter used?

 

[Revvy]

Even properly pitch yeast with a starter can get tired and peter out in big beers. Yes starters are important, but I don't know necessarily that it would or wouldn't still result in undercarbed beer.