Waking up yeast in bottles

I have a question for you good folks about a weird occurrence. I bottled an APA two weeks ago, then had it in my basement to carb up. The temp was only about 62 degrees, which wasn't doing the job, so I brought it upstairs about a week ago. Last night, I opened a bottle to check it and still almost no carbonation. (I probably have a skewed view of how long this process takes because my IPA a few weeks ago was perfect after 10 days). I figured that the cold temps initially may have made the yeast go dormant, so I swirled the bottles a bit to them going. This morning, a loud crack alerted me to my first bottle-bomb. Big cleanup. So, I'm sure that fermentation was finished before bottling and I was careful with my dextrose measurement. Is it possible that churning up the yeasties caused them to create CO2 faster than it could be dissolved back into the beer? I opened another bottle to check this morning and it didn't seem to be under intense pressure, but it wasn't right either. The bubbles were big, like in champagne or pop. Any ideas? In the meantime, I have the rest of the bottles in a sealed rubbermaid tub just in case.

 

It'll carb at 62 degrees, it'll just take longer than if it was warmer. Put it in a room where it's close to 70 for 3 weeks and it'll be fine.

Rick

 

How did you stir in the priming sugar? Poorly mixed priming sugar would explain this.

 

I totally agree, but I thought that racking on top of the sugar solution would have mixed it properly. Do people out there stir after racking to make sure?

 

I usually add my sugar water solution to the bottom of my bottling bucket and use the auto siphon to create a swirl while it's transferring. I'll also use my plastic mash paddle as well to give it a gentle swirl.

 

I'm a stirrer.

I've seen tons of posts where people say stirring your sugar solution into your beer is the oxidation end of the world. I find that hard to believe. If you stir without splashing, you are likely introducing less oxygen than racking.

 

I use the autosiphon to create a swirl and use it to also to stir it a little.

 

I've heard a lot of people say this, but after my third batch with screwed up carbonation I'll always stir.