2 Year Old Barelywine, no carbination

[Mark Passarella]

Long time lurker, first post.

I brewed a SN Bigfoot clone about two years ago and the bottles never carbed, I was still new to brewing at the time and didn't add the proper amount of priming sugar. Hoping that they would someday carb the bottles have stayed deep in the brew closet gathering dust until I recently had to move everything out.

I cracked open a bottle and it tastes amazing, just no carbonation, completely flat. I have about 20 bottles. Any suggestions on getting these bottles to carb?

If I have (20) 12oz bottles, that's 240oz (1.875 gallons). According to a priming sugar calculator I would need 1.23 oz of priming sugar. Would i just split that sugar into 20 small segments and add to each bottle and recap? Would the yeast still be active in the bottle after 2 years or would I need to add some dry yeast to each bottle as well?

Thanks for your help.

 

[cegan09]

2 years might be asking a lot for the yeast in the bottle.

I've never tried to get bottles to carb up after the fact, but have read that it's possible. I'd grab something like CBC-1 yeast which is meant for bottle conditioning, and add a little with the sugar.

 

[cubalz]

Everything about this could lead to a dangerous bottle bomb ending. It is hard to tell how viable (if at all) any of the remaining yeast is and to think about putting in more yeast and priming sugar while flying blind to that question is just asking for trouble. I would drink it the way it is or cut it in your drinking glass with some light, yellow fizzy beer to add carbonation.

 

[Mark Passarella]

Yeah, i'm also scared of the bottle bombs! The beer is just so good, I don't want it to go to waste. I just hate drinking flat beer.

I think i'm going to try to add a small amount of yeast and sugar to a few test bottles (put them in a sealed container) and wait a few weeks and see what happens. Just wondering if anyone else has been down this road before.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Buy some of these: https://www.homebrewing.org/Coopers...7fHvH-ljtPvdpO0gPopQuWPbGIEdZv8MaAlaxEALw_wcB

Open up the bottles, sprinkle in a little Nottingham dry yeast, add the carb drops, recap. Wait 2-3 weeks. Drink.

 

[STR87]

bottle bomb happens not because of too much yeast, but because too much sugar. So it doesn't matter if there is old yeast or not. But there may be old sugar, maybe there has been problems with old yeast.
So to make sure you can add some yeast (and no sugar) in one bottle and keep it in room temperature for 2 weeks. If after that there will be no carbonation, then you are sure that you need to add both sugar and new yeast.
Any yeast for bottle conditioning will do a job.

 

[Mark Passarella]

Thanks for everyone's input.

I think i'm going to test out two bottles, one with just yeast added and one with yeast and a little bit of corn sugar. From there i'll know how to handle the remaining bottles.

 

[mirthfuldragon]

I expect you will need to add fresh yeast. If you are afraid of exploding bottles, and in an abundance of caution, store the bottles in a heavy plastic container with a solid lid and maybe some towels or blankets on top of it, so in the event of an explosion, everything would be contained.

Personally, I would rehydrate some yeast (using a minimum amount of water as necessary), add some yeast and a sugar cube to each bottle, recap, store in a covered container, and see how it goes.

 

[pantherburn]

If you keg or have access to CO2 you could get a carb cap and some empty soda bottles.

 

[b-boy]

I'd just get some champagne yeast and add a little of that into each bottle.

I wouldn't add sugar. When you bottled, you already did that.

 

[jheinikel]

I would pitch some CBC-1 and see how that bottle goes in a couple of weeks. It’s best to see how much sugar is left rather than gambling a big mess or worse.

 

[sfgoat]

I'd just get some champagne yeast and add a little of that into each bottle.

I wouldn't add sugar. When you bottled, you already did that.

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