High ABV Bottle Conditioning

[jbarone]

I've got a carbonation problem with an imperial stout I bottled back in December. The beer is roughly 14% ABV and I foolishly though I could bottle condition without adding fresh yeast.

I didn't want to introduce any oxygen mixing priming sugar into the batch and so I bottled with Cooper's drops.

8 weeks later, I had zero carbonation. I re-opened the bottles and added some fresh CBC-1 to each bottle. Now, roughly two months later, it's still flat. 14% is probably pushing the CBC-1 to its limits as well.

I'm thinking about giving EC-1118 a shot, but I'm debating if I should add an additional carbonation drop to each bottle. My gut is telling me the sugar from the first one is still there 4 months later.

Any thoughts?

 

[NTexBrewer]

The sugar is probably still there. I had the same problem with a big beer. That is one of the reasons I started kegging. Any beer above 15% I force carb and then bottle.

 

[BigCrazyAl]

My only experience is adding EC-1118 to my bottling bucket with the priming sugar. It carbed just fine.

I feel like your sugar is still there so I'd recommend only adding the yeast. Before doing so, rehydrate some of it and test a few bottles first by adding a mL or 2 and re-capping. My gut tells me it may be a lost cause but EC-1118 and 50ish caps only sets you back a few dollars so it may be worth a shot.

 

[S-Met]

I'm afraid you may be stuck, I'm not sure that fresh yeast will tolerate 14% alc. Possibly 1118. B
ut to dose by bottle may be a challenge. Any option to keg?

Or let it sit for a year and tell yourself it was cask aged.