Re-bottling help

[elkshadow]

I bottled a batch of Quad on October 15th and it is totally flat. It's flat because after about 10 days in the bottle I moved from Denver to Seattle and they sat in a Uhaul three nights in a row very close to freezing temps. They are totally flat and they taste sweet like none of the priming sugar was consumed.

It was brewed on July 27 so it sat in primary for almost three months. It's about 13.5% so there may not have been any viable yeast for carbonation anyway.

So I'm thinking about opening all of them up, carefully pouring them into a bottling bucket and re-bottling with some fresh yeast. I'm aware that doing this may ruin it with oxidation and whatnot but it's a small batch and if it ends up tasting like cardboard I'll just dump it. If it works out, great!

The batch size is 27 bottles at this point so 2.5 gallons. Any idea how much yeast to add for priming? I was thinking about picking up some US-05 for this but the ABV might be too high for that anyway. I really don't want to buy liquid yeast just for this.

Or should I just drink them flat and move on?

 

[cannman]

Why not give a few a good shakes and store them at 80f for a few days and see if you get any noticeable carbonation BEFORE reopening the entire batch.

At 13.5% I'm not sure if the new yeast would take off any way, but it could be worth a shot, again with a few bottles first (I hate yeasty beer)

Have you considered the possibility of force carbing either via keg, the carbonator, or with a soda maker?

Otherwise, just enjoy flat at 13.5%, you won't care by the end of the bottle

 

[Aa760]

I had a batch of Belgian dark strong that clocked in at a similar abv. Similar problem, flat after months. I took half and reinnoculated with rehydrated us-05. Nothing a month later. I bought some of the carb capsules from NB, added those, then let it sit. I left half the batch sealed up with no additions, no extra yeast, no tabs, just time. Its been a year. Both halves are carbonated. Time is your friend. I learned that big beers like that take ALOT of time to carb. I get it, the days in the uhaul are concerning, but I would suggest you put your batch in the back of a closet somewhere and forget about it until next summer.

 

[danath34]

I had a similar problem with a big beer over 10% not carbing... One by one i uncapped each bottle and put in what I'm guessing is 1/32tsp of dry yeast. (my fiance has a really tiny, unmarked measuring spoon. Best guess 1/32, eyeballed. I did half the batch with CBC-1, and half the batch with EC-1118. Both were carbonated in 2 weeks @ room temp. The 1118 tasted a little drier in the end.

This way you avoid oxidation and significantly reduce chance of contamination. One thing to watch out for, even though my beers were completely flat... Didn't even bubble when poured hard... They would still foam over after adding the yeast if i didn't get them capped in time. I had about 10s before the foam rose to the top of the neck.

*edit*
You also get a lot of chill haze with this method. This wwasn't a problem for me and I enjoyed them anyway. The bottles that survived long enough did drop clear in a few months, however, if haze bothers you.