Barley wine with no Carbonation

[rmg2800]

I bottled a barley wine about four weeks ago. I primed with bries light dme as suggested as a substitute for corn sugar to give a longer lasting head. Week 3 at 70*f I tried a bottle and it has no carbonation. I Tried agitating the bottles and raising the temp to 73*f. Tried a bottle on week 4 and still no carbonation. Any thing I can do, or am i just going to have a flat barley wine?

Thanks

 

[bighand]

You could try to add some champagne yeast to each individual bottle but anything you do from this point has a higher risk of oxidizing your beer. It may be difficult to get a small enough amount of yeast into each individual bottle but I can't think of anything else you could do other than to drink flat barley wine. I guess there are worse things to drink??

 

[hehawbrew]

What's the ABV of the BW?

Big beers can take longer to carbonate. Give it time.

I had a brown ale that took 6 months to carb. Opened the last one yesterday after 8 months and it was overcarbed!

Sometimes it's a big game the beer gods play on us!


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[Paradigm]

+1 on the time thing. When did you ferment? I've been itching to do a Barley Wine, but most recipes suggest upwards of a year fermenting and I really want to make sure I've got my process down before committing a carboy for a year...

 

[duboman]

Using DME to prime and being a barley wine means that 4 weeks is just simply not enough time. IME, DME will double the amount of time for carbonation as it is more complex sugar and being a barley wine means the ABV is probably up there as well. My guess would be 6 months or more. Park them somewhere at least 70F and forget about them for a while

 

[dantose]

You could try to add some champagne yeast to each individual bottle but anything you do from this point has a higher risk of oxidizing your beer. It may be difficult to get a small enough amount of yeast into each individual bottle but I can't think of anything else you could do other than to drink flat barley wine. I guess there are worse things to drink??

I'd be concerned that this would lead to bottle bombs. If the champagne yeast is able to attenuate more, they are going to eat not just the priming DME, but also residual sugars in the beer itself. I'd only repitch the same strain you finished with.

Obviously, if you used champagne yeast to finish it, disregard.

 

[pfgonzo]

Patience is your friend here. Revy has a standard carbonation post he sometimes pastes in response to similar questions. He claims he once had a barleywine (or maybe an imperial stout, or belgian quad or something similarly heavy) take 3+ months to carb up properly. Your barleywine needs to age anyway. Park it somewhere warm and leave it until Winter.

 

[rmg2800]

Thanks for the replies! I guess I will just have to be patient and wait 6 months or so.

 

[hehawbrew]

+1 on the time thing. When did you ferment? I've been itching to do a Barley Wine, but most recipes suggest upwards of a year fermenting and I really want to make sure I've got my process down before committing a carboy for a year...

I'm a huge barley wine freak. I've only known about them a year now, but love them! The buddy who introduced me to them has a great recipe. We made it back it may, so, I'm still waiting!

I've been experimenting with northern brewers bomber barley wine one gal kit. I do AG, but thought it would be worth trying. For 12$ and extract, I was pretty impressed with it even after a month in a bottle.

I got the kit again, but steeped some grains and added oak chips soaked in whiskey and vanilla to primary. I should know in a month or so how it taste. But, for 12$, it satisfies a brewing craving and a barley wine fix while I wait for my others to Age.


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[gradnin]

I had a very similar barleywine carbonation issue recently. Back in January, I bottled my barleywine into 750ml bottles and I also went with a few smaller bottles just to test flavor and carbonation. I am somewhat new to brewing all grain and decided to start with something complex. This is the first barleywine I have made.

After about a month, I opened one of the small bottles and I was shocked that it was barely carbonated. My first thought was that I had ruined the batch. I waited another month and the carbonation on the next small bottle was definitely coming up, but the barleywine just tasted too young. At this point, I am just going to leave it in my basement and check back on it in six months or a year.

 

[Calichusetts]

I never had an issue with my big beer before (even my 15% had carbonation after 5 weeks) until my wee heavy at 10% Took 5 months! Patience.