I cant believe it's flat...

[spin02]

I made a Belgian Strong last August. The brewday went well, hit all my numbers and tasted great when I moved it to the secondary. Recently I opened my first bottle (bottle conditioned) and, well, it was completely flat.

I suspect the reason was spent yeast. It is over 11% and it was in the secondary for a couple months. I had planned on adding a little fresh yeast at bottling, but forgot to buy it. I tried to siphon a little from the bottom of the carboy, hoping it would be enough.

I have been using soda bottles and a carbonator cap, but now I'm considering a more permanent solution.

Is there a safe way(no oxygen pickup) to pour the bottles in a keg and force carb? Any experiences?

Thinking about:
Purging the keg with CO2
gently pouring in each bottle
adding a small amount of yeast (to finish eating the priming sugar)
then force carb to get desired level

 

[IrregularPulse]

*Edit* Don't Mind me

 

[weirdboy]

you'll likely have better success adding something like Munton's Carb drops.

Munton's carb drops aren't going to magically make the yeast start working. He's presumably already added sugar to it.


If it's really the yeast that's the problem, you might try making a slurry of champagne yeast and adding a little bit to each bottle.


EDIT:
So far as pouring and force carbonating... maybe you could purge a bucket with CO2, effectively filling it with the gas, then pour each bottle into the bucket getting it as low as possible in the bucket before pouring. Of course your hand & arm will be displacing some CO2 when you do that so you'll want to be careful. Then you could rack that into a purged keg.

You could probably do the same thing directly into a keg, but I don't think you can physically fit a bottle in there and pour it out without pouring from the top, which I don't think you want to do.

 

[Homercidal]

I made a Belgian Strong last fall and it seems the same thing happened. After a month or two of prime time, the first taste was fairly sweet and very flat. My plan was to open each bottle and drop in a few mL of champagne yeast. I have not go to it yet, so maybe I should think about doing that soon.

I think the yeast was probably pretty much dead at bottling time, or just worn out.

 

[DKershner]

Thinking about:
Purging the keg with CO2
gently pouring in each bottle
adding a small amount of yeast (to finish eating the priming sugar)
then force carb to get desired level

I think this would work fine. I have never done it, but I don't see the difference between this and siphoning. Just be really careful to be gentle and dont be afraid to repurge in the middle of the process.

 

[samc]

How about adding a few grains of dry yeast into each bottle ? Seem to recall someone mentioning this recently, maybe they will chime in.

If you were to lay the keg on it's side you should be able to pour the bottles into the keg without too much aeration of the beer. Slowly tilt the keg upright as you start to fill it.

Which way would I go, hmmm . . . probably stick with what you are doing if it is working.

 

[VonStigler]

I had this same problem with a Rochefort 10 clone. I poured each bottle into a sanitized keg, slowly against the side wall of the keg to minimize aeration. Force carbed and it was perfect. Just be careful when pouring not to splash the beer too much and it should be fine. I did not add any additional yeast.

 

[spin02]

I just finished up. Followed my original plan. It took a while, but I think it went well. Time will tell.