imp stout zero carbonation - what to do?

[JonBrew]

Would really appreciate some views here guys. I brewed an imp stout about 3.5 months ago. Finished up at about 11.5% but spent a good while in primary to ensure complete attenuation.

I ended up splitting the batch about 8 weeks ago, primed and bottled half and put the rest on figs.

The non fig stout has therefore been in the bottle for 8 weeks and sad to say almost zero carbonation to date. Opened a bottle at about 6 weeks to be greeted by only the faintest of hissies. I opened another one today to the same result. To the eye the beer is flat. On the tongue there is the faintest of prickles but this is possibly from the alcohol.

Conversely, the stout that I aged on figs has been primed and packaged and is almost properly carbonated after 4 weeks.

I don't know what to do about the first stout. It tastes delicious but is being let down by the lack of carbonation. I appreciate big beers can take a while to carb up properly but I feel more should have happened with this one, particularly when compared with the same beer aged on figs.

I'm confident that the priming sugar was evenly distributed through the batch, the bottles have been kept warm so i'm wondering what options I have now. Would I be mad to try and add more yeast to the bottles to try and get the carbonation going?

Any views / suggestions would be most welcome.

Cheers

 

[Dcpcooks]

It is worth considering. I'm sure the figs helped the other batch from a sugar and yeast health standpoint. You could add some champagne yeast or other alcohol tolerant yeast. You may want to consider a little extra sugar as well. They sell priming tablets now. I haven't used them though.

The challenge will be adding the right amount of yeast to each bottle. Maybe a sterile eye dropper worth and a couple of priming tablets per bottle recap and keep them on the warm side of 68 for a few weeks.

Good luck

 

[ba-brewer]

If you have a keg setup and carbonation cap, you could goose them up a little before drinking. Maybe drink as a black and tan or mix with a second stout that is slightly over carbonated to get some carbonation.


What yeast did you use and what is the alcohol tolerance. Did you check the attention before bottling, was the attenuation in line with expectation. Maybe the yeast died off before the fermentation was complete so that is why you did not get any carbonation.

 

[JonBrew]

I used a high alcohol tolerant strain (Scottish ale) and there's question the yeast were still healthy enough because they fermented out the fruit in the split batch.

I like the idea of adding champagne yeast and recapping the bottles. However, don't think i'd want to add any further sugar - I know there's sugar already there, it just not getting eaten for some reason.

Could possibly look to prime some champagne yeast and add a millilitre to each bottle using a syringe?