High-Gravity Ale Bottled 2 Weeks Ago - Completely Flat

[scruff311]

I bottled my Christmas ale 15 days ago and stored them in a cardboard box in a closet. We put 2 in the fridge yesterday to chill and drink today and both turned out to be completely flat. No sound when opening, no bubbles, nothing.

I left the beer in the primary fermenter for almost a full month. We did not do a secondary. The batch was about 4.25 gallons so I added 2/3 cup corn sugar at bottling. It's a 9% ABV beer with a final gravity of 1.010. It was brewed with cinnamon, ginger, and orange peel. Could any of this had any effect on the bottle conditioning? Could there have been no viable yeast left in the beer when it was bottled? The bottles were securely capped (no leaks).

Can I fix this?

 

[DASBrewers]

I had a double hopped IPA take almost a month to carbonate in the bottle. It was pretty high gravity as well, not sure if that had an effect of the lengthy time to finish. Ive noticed with a few of my high gravity beers having more carbonation after refrigerating for three days compared to just over night.

 

[alangione]

First things first, your beer is fine! I would suggest moving the box to a warm location (70F) and giving the bottles a few more weeks to carbonate. A big beer like that will take a lot longer to carbonate and condition compared to a lower gravity beer. The rule of thumb is usually 3 weeks at 70F, but a beer that big could easily take a month or two to fully carbonate and condition. Time and patience are a brewer's best friend. Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew!

 

[sfrisby]

You will find the higher the ABV, the longer it takes to carb up. You will be surprised where it is 2 months from now.

 

[scruff311]

Damn, wish I knew that ahead of time. Looks like this Christmas gift is going to be a late gift :-(. Thanks for the info everyone!

 

[TNGabe]

I haven't yet, but I'm going to start repitching when I bottle some higher gravity beers, lagered beers over 8% or so for sure..

 

[beergolf]

I left the beer in the primary fermenter for almost a full month. We did not do a secondary. The batch was about 4.25 gallons so I added 2/3 cup corn sugar at bottling. It's a 9% ABV beer with a final gravity of 1.010. It was brewed with cinnamon, ginger, and orange peel. Could any of this had any effect on the bottle conditioning? Could there have been no viable yeast left in the beer when it was bottled? The bottles were securely capped (no leaks).

A month is not that long in the primary. Almost every beer I brew sits that long. I often leave some of my Belgians in the primary for 2 months and have no carb problems. Bigger beers just take longer to fully carb. If you put them in bigger bottle they can take even longer. Let it sit somehwere warm for for longer and they will carb up just fine. Two weeks is no where near enough for a big beer like that.