Wee Heavy Will Not Carbonate

[chemnitz]

In April, I brewed a Wee Heavy, which was intended for Christmas presents this year. It was a big one--OG 1.100, FG 1.032. After a month in primary, I aged it for a couple weeks on oak chips, and I bottled it at the very end of May. I primed as I always do, but I did not add any additional yeast. Since then, it has been maturing at a temperature of about 70 degrees. However, as of today, it is still not carbonated. The flavor is good, but the lack of carbonation is unacceptable. There's not even a little "whiff" or "pop" when I open a bottle. I know that it is important to be patient with a big beer, but this has been in the bottles for 6 months.

So, can I save this before Christmas? Should I re-yeast it? If so, how would I go about that (it's not something that I've had to do before)? I don't have the luxury of time to try something and then wait and then try something else.

Thanks for helping a rather panicked, intermediate brewer.

 

[adiochiro3]

I brewed a Wee Heavy last winter, aged it for 6 months and bottled in August. When I bottled it, I added a packet of champagne yeast along with the priming sugar to make sure I had enough to carbonate it. Worked like a charm. It was carbed up lightly at one month, beautifully at 6-8 weeks.

Assuming you primed with the appropriate amount of sugar, I would consider opening each one and sprinkling a couple of "grains" of dry yeast and then re-cap and shake a bit to integrate the new yeast.

 

[zachattack]

You can also rehydrate the dry yeast and use an eye dropper or pipette or something to put a small amount in each bottle. I've learned this the hard way also, for high gravity beers the $4 packet of dried yeast in the bottling bucket is definitely worth it.

 

[jhay_x7]

You can also rehydrate the dry yeast and use an eye dropper or pipette or something to put a small amount in each bottle. I've learned this the hard way also, for high gravity beers the $4 packet of dried yeast in the bottling bucket is definitely worth it.

Do this ^