No carbonation, what next?

[anton005]

I brewed my beer earlier this winter, fermentation was fine. I just got too bogged down with other stuff to do and it sat in primary in my sometimes 25-40 degree garage for two months after fermentation was complete. I finally decided to bottle. I used coopers tabs for priming (same as prior batch which turned out perfect). It has been 6 or 7 weeks and I still have no carbonation

My assumption is the yeast just couldn't hack it in the cold, and the fairly high alcohol content (around 8%) brew...

Can I open them back up and just add some dried yeast?

Should I just use some yeast slurry from my next batch of beer as a better alternative?

Any other ideas?

Thanks for any input.

Anton

 

[brewmasterpa]

i would say that bottle carbonating with confined yeast is dangerous, whether it be dry or slurry. the only thing i can think of is to place your beer back into the fermenter, add some low yield wort, and a new pitch of the same yeast you used for this batch, let that ferment out at room temp for 7 days, and re-bottle it. ive done this and it worked. just make sure everything is sanitized well.

 

[cellarman]

I just fixed a batch of flat beer but I had a slightly different problem. I forgot to put my priming sugar in the bottom of the bottling bucket prior to siphoning. I dumped it in after and stirred but about half of my bottles failed to carbonate.
I lacked sugar. I think you are dealing with dead yeast. My solution should work anyway.
I rehydrated some dry yeast (about 1/4 of a pack of Safale S-05), opened every bottle and used a small syringe to add a couple drops of yeast and 3 Munton's carb tabs. Recapped. Don't use a lot of yeast. I just tested one after 7 days and it was drinkable with moderate carbonation. I'm letting the rest go for another week.
I wouldn't worry about bottle bombs because it sounds like it was done fermenting. The fermentation that happens in the bottle will be limited by the amount of sugar and you know what you added there.
This was a lot of work but I couldn't bear to dump the batch.
Good luck.

 

[double_e5]

i would say that bottle carbonating with confined yeast is dangerous, whether it be dry or slurry. the only thing i can think of is to place your beer back into the fermenter, add some low yield wort, and a new pitch of the same yeast you used for this batch, let that ferment out at room temp for 7 days, and re-bottle it. ive done this and it worked. just make sure everything is sanitized well.

Why would adding yeast be dangerous?

They can only ferment the amount of sugar you added. You just want to make sure you add too much because it would affect the taste.

I would go with what cellarman said. I have never done it, but I have read here other people having success doing it like this also.

 

[Yooper]

I had the same problem a couple of winters ago. How I solved it was simple. I just opened each bottle and gently dropped in a very small amount of nottingham dry yeast. I mean, like one grain of yeast in each bottle. I recapped, and kept them in a warm place and they carbed up perfectly in about 2 weeks.

If you're certain you added the carb tabs, you could add a tiny bit of yeast and it should be fine.

 

[anton005]

I guess I'll give adding yeast a try. I'll go with the YooperBrew method. Thanks for all the input.

 

[brewmasterpa]

well i couldnt assume that his fermentation was complete, and adding yeast directly to the bottle is a surefire way to make a bottle bomb if its not complete. doing what i said is a way to make certain that there are no bombs in the house. but if fermentation was completed, then have-at-it. good luck!!

 

[Doog_Si_Reeb]

Bump... Do you think this would work for a barleywine that is, say, 10.5%? I have the same problem. I added sugar, but there is no carbonation after a couple months in the bottle... I have Nottingham and am planning to do drop one or two grains in each bottle.

 

[anton005]

Well I went ahead and opened them up and added a bit of yeast to each one... Been almost three weeks... Nothing, no carbonation. Poured it down the drain today. Some of them developed a haze, probably infected. Oh well, time to move on.

Learned a good lesson. To not be a lazy bastard and let my fermented beer sit for too long before I get off my butt and bottle it.