Another "beer didnt carb" thread

[taulpondolo]

Brewed a flapjack oatmeal stout from the forum back in January. Bottled it in March. Made a priming solution that should've got me to about 2.0-2.2. Been open bottles with 0 to just a mm of carbonation after a hard pour. Ive relocated the bottles to a warm place in my house for months, flipped/shaken bottles every few days for weeks.

I was debating on buying carb drops just in desperation but I'm afraid my yeast popped out and the drops will be a waste of time and money.

Any productive input would be appreciate

 

[lumpher]

Have you checked your capper to make sure it's getting a good seal?

 

[taulpondolo]

Have you checked your capper to make sure it's getting a good seal?

Yeah ive done 4 brews since and all carbed up beautifully

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Was it a high ABV beer? I've had one beer that failed to carbonate (even after over a year in the bottle), which was a 10%+ imperial stout made with Nottingham. Anyways, ever since, I've always added yeast to the bottling bucket for my strong beers (over 8%). CBC-1 and EC-1118 both work just fine for fermenting the priming sugar and not adding any weird flavors.

 

[taulpondolo]

Was it a high ABV beer? I've had one beer that failed to carbonate (even after over a year in the bottle), which was a 10%+ imperial stout made with Nottingham. Anyways, ever since, I've always added yeast to the bottling bucket for my strong beers (over 8%). CBC-1 and EC-1118 both work just fine for fermenting the priming sugar and not adding any weird flavors.

Yep. I think it was close to 9% (wlp004 irish). I pitched additional yeast during bottling the couple times I brewed a russian imperial. With the adjuncts and high abv i figure i shouldve done the same.

Did you end up saving your stout?

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Yep. I think it was close to 9% (wlp004 irish). I pitched additional yeast during bottling the couple times I brewed a russian imperial. With the adjuncts and high abv i figure i shouldve done the same.

Did you end up saving your stout?

I uncapped and added sugar to half the bottles, but that ended up making no difference (other than wasting bottle caps). After 12 months, I decided I needed the bottles, so the rest got dumped down the drain.

 

[taulpondolo]

I uncapped and added sugar to half the bottles, but that ended up making no difference (other than wasting bottle caps). After 12 months, I decided I needed the bottles, so the rest got dumped down the drain.

I was afraid that was your solution. I was debating on opening them and adding a few granules of yeast and a carb tablet. Probably end up dumping them in a few months

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

I was afraid that was your solution. I was debating on opening them and adding a few granules of yeast and a carb tablet. Probably end up dumping them in a few months

The reason I didn't try adding extra yeast before giving up on my beer, was that:

• I'd already opened them (well half of the bottles) and figured re-opening them again would just guarantee that it got oxidized.
• Wasn't sure how much (if any) additional sugar to add, didn't want to risk bombs.
• The beer itself didn't taste very good (being flat didn't help, obviously).

If I were you, I'd open up two bottles. In the first one, add JUST yeast, recap. In the second one, add yeast AND sugar (half-teaspoon?), recap.
Set both aside in a warm-ish room, and check on them in 2 weeks. If the first bottle, with just yeast has carbonated decently, then put some leather gloves on and carefully open the second bottle!

And if it tastes good, then it's probably worth trying to fix all the remaining bottles! Just make sure you use "a few granules of yeast" from something like CBC-1 or EC-1118, which work well up to about 16% abv, iirc.

 

[OleBrewing]

hell if it tastes great i would drink it still.

could soda stream it when one wants to drink it, of course never used the device and assume it is high pressure and not sure if it is adjustable.

going to assume the availability of co2 dispensing equipment is not available since bottling. in the past i have modified a plastic pop/soda bottle cap with a chrome plated two pc. valve stem for vehicle tires. filled up 20oz and 2 liter pop/soda bottles with beer got it very cold and then blasted at high psi with co2 and shake the crap out of them. let them sit for span and enjoy. this could probably be done with various paint ball equipment, although not sure of the quality of materials used as far as heavy metals in manufacturing. as far as i know the tanks are aluminum and or steel. source of co2 for refilling those tanks are probably same source all berverages companies use in the local area.

 

[hotbeer]

Don't know if it will have made a difference, but you might have used a different yeast when you primed and bottled it. WLP004 is only said to have moderate alcohol tolerance (5-10%) and attenuation is only 69-74%. It also likes to be at 65-68°F (18-20°C) when fermenting. Which carbonating is another fermentation process.

Irish Ale Yeast

Your primary fermentation made most of the characteristics of your beer. So the little bit of priming sugar you add isn't going to give the different type of yeast that much of a chance to change things up, other than make CO2 for you. Perhaps if the type of yeast you get uses more of the unfermentable sugars remaining in your beer, you'll get a thinner tasting beer, but maltodextrin or something else can be added to make up for that once you do a few batches and figure out how much of what is needed.

Maybe someone can suggest a more appropriate yeast for priming that somewhat big beer. I don't ever get that high with ABV.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Maybe someone can suggest a more appropriate yeast for priming that somewhat big beer

I use CBC-1.

EC-1118 was mentioned earlier.

adding a few granules of yeast

You may want more than a "few granules".

With CBC-1, Lallemand recommends a pitch rate for 5 gallons. Scale that down to a bottle to determine how much yeast to add to each bottle.

Lallemand also has a recommended range for CBC-1. At the low end of the range, I find it takes about a week to carbonate. At 75F, it takes a couple of days less. There's also 'conditioning' after carbonation, but that may not apply in this situation.

 

[tracer bullet]

There's a chance it's more carbonated than you think. I carb all my beers (keg) identically, same force process and same serving pressure. Even after a few weeks, where I'm sure all of my beers are carbed identically, a lager will come out with lots of bubbles arising from it, a heavier ABV stout will seem almost flat. I think something about the style or the ingredients, maybe the ABV can "trick" you a bit.

Your beer may in fact not have carbed well but - consider that perhaps it actually did. Maybe put some in a container with a lid and shake it, see if you don't actually get a lot of CO2 coming out and foam / bubbles / head on it.

 

[taulpondolo]

Don't know if it will have made a difference, but you might have used a different yeast when you primed and bottled it. WLP004 is only said to have moderate alcohol tolerance (5-10%) and attenuation is only 69-74%. It also likes to be at 65-68°F (18-20°C) when fermenting. Which carbonating is another fermentation process.

Irish Ale Yeast

Your primary fermentation made most of the characteristics of your beer. So the little bit of priming sugar you add isn't going to give the different type of yeast that much of a chance to change things up, other than make CO2 for you. Perhaps if the type of yeast you get uses more of the unfermentable sugars remaining in your beer, you'll get a thinner tasting beer, but maltodextrin or something else can be added to make up for that once you do a few batches and figure out how much of what is needed.

Maybe someone can suggest a more appropriate yeast for priming that somewhat big beer. I don't ever get that high with ABV.

Ive done about 20 brews or so, i understand bottling. I just didnt pitch additional yeast in this beer. I have in the past with a few batches of russian imperial since its high abv and had a long conditioning in secondary.

On this batch i bottled about 3-4 weeks after pitching so i figured there was still some yeast kicking.

Thanks for the reply

 

[taulpondolo]

There's a chance it's more carbonated than you think. I carb all my beers (keg) identically, same force process and same serving pressure. Even after a few weeks, where I'm sure all of my beers are carbed identically, a lager will come out with lots of bubbles arising from it, a heavier ABV stout will seem almost flat. I think something about the style or the ingredients, maybe the ABV can "trick" you a bit.

Your beer may in fact not have carbed well but - consider that perhaps it actually did. Maybe put some in a container with a lid and shake it, see if you don't actually get a lot of CO2 coming out and foam / bubbles / head on it.

Definitely not carbed. I drink mostly stouts. As i said, ive rough poured this with not a single mm of head, as in pouring from 2 feet above the glass.

 

[taulpondolo]

The reason I didn't try adding extra yeast before giving up on my beer, was that:

• I'd already opened them (well half of the bottles) and figured re-opening them again would just guarantee that it got oxidized.
• Wasn't sure how much (if any) additional sugar to add, didn't want to risk bombs.
• The beer itself didn't taste very good (being flat didn't help, obviously).

If I were you, I'd open up two bottles. In the first one, add JUST yeast, recap. In the second one, add yeast AND sugar (half-teaspoon?), recap.
Set both aside in a warm-ish room, and check on them in 2 weeks. If the first bottle, with just yeast has carbonated decently, then put some leather gloves on and carefully open the second bottle!

And if it tastes good, then it's probably worth trying to fix all the remaining bottles! Just make sure you use "a few granules of yeast" from something like CBC-1 or EC-1118, which work well up to about 16% abv, iirc.

Your thought process is directly in line with mine, except im not too worried over oxidation, id work one bottle at a time. But yeah i definitely don't want breakfast stout bottle bombs.

I was debating on just doing yeast if anything.

Thanks for the input, greatly appreciated

Edit: added the word stout

 

[taulpondolo]

hell if it tastes great i would drink it still.

could soda stream it when one wants to drink it, of course never used the device and assume it is high pressure and not sure if it is adjustable.

going to assume the availability of co2 dispensing equipment is not available since bottling. in the past i have modified a plastic pop/soda bottle cap with a chrome plated two pc. valve stem for vehicle tires. filled up 20oz and 2 liter pop/soda bottles with beer got it very cold and then blasted at high psi with co2 and shake the crap out of them. let them sit for span and enjoy. this could probably be done with various paint ball equipment, although not sure of the quality of materials used as far as heavy metals in manufacturing. as far as i know the tanks are aluminum and or steel. source of co2 for refilling those tanks are probably same source all berverages companies use in the local area.

Definitely tastes good, just really cant do a flat brew.

All that equipment sounds nice (especially since i drink like 8 seltzer waters a day) but i still rent and i keep telling my wife the more stuff we buy the more we move.

Thanks for the reply

 

[balrog]

If you've already primed, I wouldn't add more sugar with adding yeast.
If it's not carbed, the existing Notty has not eaten the sugar, leaving it still there for the CBC-1 or whatever.