3 weeks and totally flat

[sictransit701]

Beer has been bottled for 3 weeks and there is absolutely no carbonation. The room temp is 72-75 F. No psst when opening and no bubbles. What are my options?
John Palmer says to shake the bottles. Will this cause oxidation with the O2 in the headspace?
I also have brewers best carbonation drops. Should I open up the bottles and drop one in? I will try this if the shaking method fails.

 

[elimn8u]

A buddy of mine had to open his and added the carbonation drops. The beer turned out awesome, even after reopening.

How much priming sugar did you originally use?

 

[cshamilton]

How big is the beer? Big beers can take longer.

Are you sure you added sugar and not something else (e.g lactose or maltodextrin)?

 

[sictransit701]

5 oz priming sugar. The yeast seem to have fallen out. The beer is very clear. I'll shake them and wait another week to try one. If nothing changes, I'll add the drops.

 

[cshamilton]

If you added corn sugar and the yeast is alive you will create bottle bombs if you add the carb drops. Go ahead and resuspended the yeast to rouse it up - you can shake it a few times a day.

What yeast are you using and what's the ABV?

 

[sictransit701]

Us05
Abv 8%

 

[sictransit701]

I've done this recipe several times. There is usually a sign of carbonation after a week. It's usually finished at 3 weeks.

 

[kchomebrew]

How many gallons did you bottle and do you remember how many packs of us05 you pitched ?


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[skw]

If you primed with the correct amount of sugar, then don't add more. The sugar you added initially didn't go anywhere, and a restarting fermentation could cause over carbonation. If you have doubts in yeast viability, you could add a little bit of dry yeast to every bottle.

I've had US-05 do this to me recently too. The bottles carbonated eventually by themselves.