High ABV bottling issues

[kuzi16]

Ive been brewing for 3 years and have made the move from all extract to all grain.
Due to a miscalculation (that i realized when taking the OG) on my first all grain beer i ended up with a higher ABV than expected.
i made a Weizenbock using WLP300. I previously made a starter so the high gravity was not too much of an issue. With the help of a good starter, some yeast energizer, and a hefty amount of aeration, the beer fermented out to a FG of 1.034 (where i expected it to) and an ABV of 12.25%

so... good for me, i pushed the yeast a bit beyond its means.
for bottling i used 4.5oz corn sugar for 5 gallon batch. I pitched fresh yeast in a small starter.
after 4 weeks i opened the first bottle...
nothing. ZERO carbonation. Im guessing its because the ABV is too high for the strain of yeast.

any way to save this?

the only idea i had was to get some WLP099, make a small starter and pitch each bottle individually and pray.
thoughts?

 

[Suicid]

Ive been brewing for 3 years and have made the move from all extract to all grain.
Due to a miscalculation (that i realized when taking the OG) on my first all grain beer i ended up with a higher ABV than expected.
i made a Weizenbock using WLP300. I previously made a starter so the high gravity was not too much of an issue. With the help of a good starter, some yeast energizer, and a hefty amount of aeration, the beer fermented out to a FG of 1.034 (where i expected it to) and an ABV of 12.25%

so... good for me, i pushed the yeast a bit beyond its means.
for bottling i used 4.5oz corn sugar for 5 gallon batch. I pitched fresh yeast in a small starter.
after 4 weeks i opened the first bottle...
nothing. ZERO carbonation. Im guessing its because the ABV is too high for the strain of yeast.

any way to save this?

the only idea i had was to get some WLP099, make a small starter and pitch each bottle individually and pray.
thoughts?

Yep, your yeast died because of high ABV, thus nobody takes care about carbonation.
Repitching directly into bottles will work, no doubts. And WLP099 should work.

Good luck!

 

[tootal]

Do you have a friend that kegs his beer? If you could borrow a Corny keg and pour your beer into it, force carbonate and then rebottle it you would be golden!

 

[brewmeister13]

A champagne yeast with high alcohol tolerance is an option too. It would be dry and you could just drop it in instead of messing with a liquid yeast.

 

[kuzi16]

A champagne yeast with high alcohol tolerance is an option too. It would be dry and you could just drop it in instead of messing with a liquid yeast.

id just have to divide it up into 48 portions.

will that produce smaller bubbles?

 

[HollisBT]

I have an imp stout with a similar situation... OG of 1.110, FG of 1.030, right around 10.5% abv. I opened a bottle at 2.5 weeks, which I knew was early but I was curious, got a little "pffft" out of the cap, but it poured perfectly still...

I'm going to try another bottle in a few weeks, and if it still isn't progressing I will pour the bottles into a keg and force carb. It sucks though, because I used some fancy bottle caps with my logo on them, and they were a gift from my sister

 

[helibrewer]

I have an imp stout with a similar situation... OG of 1.110, FG of 1.030, right around 10.5% abv. I opened a bottle at 2.5 weeks, which I knew was early but I was curious, got a little "pffft" out of the cap, but it poured perfectly still...

I'm going to try another bottle in a few weeks, and if it still isn't progressing I will pour the bottles into a keg and force carb. It sucks though, because I used some fancy bottle caps with my logo on them, and they were a gift from my sister

That beer could take up to 6 weeks to carb, you are checking too soon.

 

[cmschlatt]

My concern with adding such a powerful yeast to your bottles is the possibility of a continuing fermentation to a lower SG, combined with priming sugar could mean bottle bombs.

 

[HollisBT]

That beer could take up to 6 weeks to carb, you are checking too soon.

Yup, I knew it was too soon, but I completely lack the patience and self control lol.

Tomorrow will be exactly 4 weeks from the bottling date. Guess what I plan to do tomorrow lol.

 

[dlaramie08]

With that high abv beer I would expect that it would take much longer than 4 weeks to carbonate. What temperature have these bottles been at? I had a 5% beer once take about 6 weeks to carb because they were kept a little cool. Warm your beers up to 70-75 and leave them for another 4 weeks. Then after that it may be time to start thinking about drastic measures like kegging or adding new yeasts. Patience.

 

[Calichusetts]

I've had a 14% beer carb in two weeks, and a 11% take 5 months. Usually with WLP001. Don't know if you should wait it out or reyeast. Good luck