Failed to carbonate the Dubbel

[jason4bc]

I made an all grain Belgium dubbel... and didn't put nearly enough priming sugar in and so it totally failed to carb up.
my local beer store guy suggested the following:
mix 1/4 cup luke warm water with 1 pack of coopers yeast (just their generic yeast it looks like), and 1 TBSP of sugar. Then open each bottle and divide the mixture into each (40 bottles!) and re-cap.
Will this work? do i have other options? is corn sugar the type i should add?
i really want to make this beer work. of course!

thanks,
jay

 

[madscientist451]

Try a syringe and add some sugar/boiled water mix to some of the bottles as a test. How long has it been since you bottled?

 

[OldWorld]

How much sugar did you add? Sometimes you can simply put the bottles in a warmer area to rouse the yeast.

If you shake the bottle and see gas bubbles, I wouldn't sweat it. How long has it been?

 

[Singletrack]

Based on the priming sugar used, and priming calculators, how many volumes of CO2should the beer have? Your problem may be that Belgian Dubbels need about 3.0 volumes, which is more than most beers. However, Belgian yeast can be slow to carbonate, so maybe you just need to rouse the yeast, put the bottles in a consistently warm location, and wait a while longer. More information is needed to provide the correct advice. If you can get any reasonable carbonation using the existing priming, I would skip the syringe priming and drink a little flat.

 

[jason4bc]

It has been in the bottle for two months. I have tried to rouse the yeast by shaking bottles and moving them to a warmer location. Nothing yet. There simply wasn't enough priming sugar to start. So now what? Will a small amount administered by syringe really help?

 

[Singletrack]

I think the procedure suggested by your LHBS (dry yeast plus sugar) will work, but I have not done it. Carb drops would be easier, but may take a long time to carbonate due to low yeast count.

You will need to calculate how much sugar should be added. One TBSP for a batch won't do much. If you can tell us batch size and amount of sugar used initially, and type of sugar, we can help with that calc.

 

[jason4bc]

Right. I forgot, in addition to the yeast/sugar blend, I was going to add a carb drop as well.

It's a 5 g batch. Can't recall the amount of priming sugar. It was a standard mix ratio (3-4 grams to two cups water), but the guy only put a bit into each bottle and there was a lot leftover. I've since gone to mixing it all in a bottling bucket and I seem to have it down pat.

 

[Singletrack]

Okay, then I think the LHBS procedure is about the best you can do. Add a little rehydrated dry yeast and a carb drop (or two?) and wait 3 weeks for carbonation. I don't know why you need any sugar with the dry yeast, but there may be a good reason. I don't use carb drops, but I seem to recall seeing one type that required 2 per bottle. In that case, even if you already have some carbonation, it may be okay to use 2, since Dubbels are better with a higher level of carbonation -- as long as you don't create bottle bombs.

I have not done any of this, so you may want to wait for the advice of someone who has. Good luck!

 

[jason4bc]

Thanks. I will give it a shot in a couple days. In the mean time I'll wait for some supporting or dissenting opinions from your fellow brewmasters.