Flat ginger beer in Keg

[Andyyam]

So I brewed a coopers alcoholic ginger beer kit for a house warning party for a friend. The party never happened and the ginger beer has been in a keg for over 4 months now. It never carbonated. The friend in question is throwing a very late house warming on 31st of this month and I was hoping to take the ginger beer along. It is flat. Is there any way I can carbonate now?

Thanks in advance.

Andy

 

[ong]

Sure, that's plenty of time to carbonate. Put it on the gas at your desired serving pressure now.

 

[mpop]

You can definitely still force carbonate it and reach whatever level of carbonation you're looking for. That doesn't necessarily mean you'll be really happy with how it tastes. Did you purge all of the oxygen out of the keg when you filled it? How have you been storing it for the last 4 months.. in a keezer or just in a garage/basement?

 

[Andyyam]

Hi cheers for the replies. When I said Keg I meant Pressure Barrel. It's a Youngs Pressure barrel that its in. The kit didnt give directions for carbonating in a pressure barrel so I worked out the quantity of priming sugar based on the amount per bottle as suggested by the kit.

I believe I put about 90grams of sugar in. It's a 23 litre kit.

Is there anyway I can add more sugar I the barrel to get it carbonated?

 

[mpop]

Its possible that the yeast is still alive and has just gone dormant waiting for more food. I guess you could just treat it like you had a very long secondary and pitch more priming sugar in the hopes that the yeast will pick back up and start fermenting again. I have left a beer in secondary for approx 3 months prior to bottling and didn't have any problems but I wouldn't want to make a habit of it.

There's always the option of blooming some fairly neutral dry yeast and pitching it in with the priming sugar to make sure its active. I've never tried this but I've read about instances where it's been done.

 

[Andyyam]

Thanks very much. I think I will try that. What kind of quantities would you use in this situation? I have a brew belt but temperatures here in Sussex UK are fairly warm at the moment. I have 23 litres of wine that fermenter very well without any heating needed.

The ginger beer tastes great and I'm sure it being a bit stronger wont be a problem so the idea of adding a small amount of yeast and more priming sugar sounds good. I have yeast nutrient. Would this be advisable to give it a better chance so do you think I should leave that out?

 

[mpop]

I would use the northern brewer Priming Sugar calculator to figure out how much sugar to add. The link below will take you there, it works well and gives you a good measure regardless of what type of sugar you plan on using.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

I don't think you would have to bother with the yeast nutrient.

 

[Andyyam]

Thanks. Where it says Volume. Is that the alcohol Volume?