Re-bottle degassed witbier?

[Goodlander]

I made a batch of witbier that I bottled in E-Z cap style swing-top bottles. I also bottled a couple of regular capped bottles. Two weeks after bottling I opened one of the swing-top bottles, carbonation was a bit lighter than I expected, but the beer was good. A few days later I opened another bottle, carbonation was even less, but the beer still tasted fine. By 3 weeks post bottling, the swing-tops were totally flat, but the capped bottles were fine.

My question is what to do about this? Is it worth my while pouring it into a bottling bucket, re-priming, and re-bottling? I assume air is also seeping into the swing-tops, and this might be oxidizing the beer. I don't want to waste the time and effort re-bottling if the beer is going to be shot anyway.

 

[robtotten]

Don't do that, but you could use those carbonation drops and a few grains of yeast. When you do that, try lubricating the gasket on the stopper to get a better seal, or better yet replace the gaskets

 

[Clementine]

+1 to carb drops or make up a sugar solution and add it with a syringe same effect. IMO the yeast should still be good unless it is crazy high alcohol so I don't think you would need yeast.

Clem

 

[Goodlander]

Thanks for the responses.

The gaskets were just replaced because I had a total failure to carbonate on the last batch (my first batch with the new bottles). I'm afraid the swing mechanism is not providing a tight enough fit.

I do agree that the yeast should still be fine, it's only 6% alcohol or so and not too old. But the other question is about how long the beer can sit in these non-airtight bottles for before it gets oxidized?

If I do add some kind of priming sugar straight to the bottles, what should I lubricate it with?