Flat shakespeare stout?

[kbidness]

I brewed the Rogue shakespeare stout over a month ago. It spent 7 days in the primary, 10 days in the secondary, and after using the priming sugar provided, it's on its 4th week in the bottle and it's barely carbonated.

It must be a lack of yeast issue, yet the OG and FG were on par (more or less) with what the kit's instructions predicted so I'm confused as to why it's not very carbonated.

Should I keep waiting or is this batch botched?
Any tips?

 

[Ultima]

What yeast was included with the kit? To make a true Shakespeare Stout clone it should have been Pacman, which is Rogue's proprietary yeast, and I've heard it flocculates really, really well, to the point that bottle-conditioning can be problematic. You could try rolling all of the bottles around every couple of days to try to get the yeast back in suspension and test one out periodically to see how they're doing. If that doesn't work, buy a corny keg and a CO2 bottle and dump all that flat beer into your new keg and don't look back at bottling

 

[Pommy]

does the beer have a sweet taste? that would indicate a lack of yeast in the bottles (unfermented sugar)

 

[statseeker]

From what I hear, the bigger the beer, the longer you want to wait in the bottle for carbonation. It can take a long time, up to 2 months.

 

[JonM]

Just give it some more time. I made a stout and a porter last fall and they both took forever to carbonate (and the waiting sucked!!). Give the bottles a gentle swirl every now and then and you might be pleasantly surprised in a couple more weeks.

 

[stevo155]

Where are your bottles stored? What's the temperature where they are? If it's cool, move them to a warmer place, 68-70F. Tip the bottles upside down a couple times if it seems stuff has settled to get back into suspension.

How many bottles have you tested? Did you mix the priming sugar in the bottling bucket? Could be some bottles got more sugar than others if it wasn't stirred gently. I rack the beer on top of the priming sugar mix and "gently" stir to get an even mix.

Even if you cold crashed it, there shold be enough yeast to carbonate.

edit: Also the Brewing Network Can You Brew It? show just did a rebrew of this beer and they cloned it. Something to think about if the kit doesn't come out the way you expect.

 

[kbidness]

Sorry for the slow response (I've been insanely busy)

Yeah I racked it over the priming sugar in the bottling bucket. I've been storing it at around 70 degrees. And yes I used the pacman yeast that they recommend with rogue beers. I think i'll just give it more time and try rolling or lightly shaking the bottles periodically as per everyone's advice.

Thanks guys, I appreciate it!