Bottle conditioning: No carbonation

[PAjwPhilly]

I have had a few random cases of beer over time, not carbonate. I have tried on to rouse the yeast and warm the bottles up to around 70°F. But neither worked.

I recently built a keezer and no longer use my bottles. So I thought, why not make high gravity beer and use these empty bottles to age it. My first batch (winter warmer) is one of these random cases with out any carbonation. I have another batch ready to be bottled and I want to try to find out the problem.

Both these beers are ~10% ABV. The beer that has already been bottled sat in primary for 3 weeks, and has been bottled for 4 weeks (room temp ~68°F). It fermented correctly* (London Ale yeast) and was primed with table sugar to 2.5 volumes. And there was a slight but faint hiss when the refrigerated bottle was opened.

If the bottle was not capped correctly, it would leak the CO2... What does an incorrectly capped bottle look like? Does the cap pry off or twist?

Should I be using a bottling yeast for every high ABV beer?

Also, in about 6-7 months I want to try the Winter Warmer (non-carbed) again. If it is still flat, can I add a few drops of liquid yeast, like White Labs from a sanitized eye dropper, and carb tabs? What else can you do?


*OG, FG, and fermentation temps all expected and in normal ranges

 

[midfielder5]

High ABV beers (above 8%) generally take longer to carb if no new yeast was added at bottling. It could take 2-3 months, instead of 2-3 weeks for a 1.050 OG beer. Usually this is OK because the high alcohol beers need time to condition and become more drinkable.
I have no experience adding yeast so i won't talk about it- but it will work also.

 

[m3n00b]

High ABV beers (above 8%) generally take longer to carb if no new yeast was added at bottling. It could take 2-3 months, instead of 2-3 weeks for a 1.050 OG beer. Usually this is OK because the high alcohol beers need time to condition and become more drinkable.
I have no experience adding yeast so i won't talk about it- but it will work also.

I never add yeast at bottling and my 10% IIPAs carb up in 1 week. Usually s04 or us05.

 

[PAjwPhilly]

TY for your response.

Sigh of relief.... learn something new everyday.

 

[midfielder5]

A pitch of healthy and enough yeast (per mrmalty.com or yeast calc)-- will help the yeast tolerate the high OG, be less stressed and ready to bottle carb more quickly.
The OP used liquid yeast, and as we are in the beginner forum, I would guess there was no starter made. So the yeast crapped out. It will carb but takes a while.

 

[Coldcrashintome]

Is it possible to over carbonate and blow up a bottle? Can you bottle in swing top growler?

 

[mcbaumannerb]

As for your question on what an incorrectly capped bottle looks like. Just look at it at eye level and see if it is level across the top of the bottle. Is there an area where it "rises" slightly? I'm guessing you are using a wing capper and those can be tricky to get even pressure when capping the bottle. That said, if you didn't use a starter, didn't add more yeast just before bottling and have 10%+ beer, then it can definitely take time to carbonate. Leave it another month (at least) and then try again. Also make sure you refrigerate the beer for two days before sampling - that will give the CO2 ample time to be absorbed into the beer.

 

[peterj]

All of the above advice is good, it will probably just take a while.

Also, in about 6-7 months I want to try the Winter Warmer (non-carbed) again. If it is still flat, can I add a few drops of liquid yeast, like White Labs from a sanitized eye dropper, and carb tabs? What else can you do?

But, this part of your original post caught my eye. If you already added priming sugar you don't need to add more (in the form of carb tabs). The priming sugar isn't going anywhere (which is actually the problem) so adding more sugar and adding yeast to eat it all will result in double the carbonation that you wanted and possibly explosions.

 

[PAjwPhilly]

I do use a starter and stir plate (yeastcalc.com, Troester). Everything was taken care of as far as I know except the beer is not carbonating in the bottle. Since this is an infrequent occurrence, I was guessing it may be the capping of the bottles leaking CO2.

I do use the cheap wing capper and just thought I would add tabs/yeast if it hasn't carb'd in 6 months time. Under the assumption that my bottles were poorly capped, and as a last option.

Thanks for all the feedback. I appreciate any and all advice on the situation.

 

[PAjwPhilly]

This was and has been a serious question of mine from time to time....

So if your reading this down the road, here is what I learned.

1.) Table sugar (white sugar) takes longer than dextrose (corn sugar/ priming sugar) to ferment.
2.) temperature

If you primed with table sugar give your beers some extra time to prime. If you are freaking out like I have in the past.... +2 weeks with some warmth gave my beers all the carbonation they could handle.

My brew club all gave me the response that 3 weeks at 70°F and everything is fine. Well with cheap table sugar (sucrose) it takes a little longer. Give it an extra 2 weeks, and if necessary, place a small heater next to the bottles to get the temps to ~70°. No real need to start a fire. Warm and whatever but keeping them around 70° will yield the fastest results.

I have went from 0 carbonation in a 10% winter warmer after 3 weeks...... to fully carbonated with a little heat and 2 more weeks. I primed with table sugar (cheap) and I live in PA which had a bad, cold winter.