Roomate needs a kick in the junk

[DeathBrewer]

OK, so my roomate and I have been brewing together the entire year we've lived together. We're continuously improving our processes and have become quite efficient, clean, and knowledgeable brewers.

i was bottling my AAH hefe a little over two weeks ago and i boiled the DME for priming. I removed it from the pot and told him I was going to let it cool before I pitched it. I leave the room for a moment and when i come back the jackass is siphoning the beer into the bottling bucket and telling me to pour the boiling hot primer in.

He's all "this is the way we've always done it before and never had a problem. Even the LHBS directions say to do it this way"

Me: "C'mon, dude, we've been IMPROVING our processes! I don't want to risk it just to save a few minutes."

"It'll be fine. We've always done it this way" <--- this is my biggest pet peeves, being a large fan of continuous improvement at work and in every day life

Guess what. It's been two weeks and my beer doesn't have a bit of carbonation. Nothing. MOFO killed my yeast.

What should I do? Is there any way to save this batch. It was such a great tasting brew through the whole process. Now, with the DME, it's too sweet to empty the bottles into a keg or something. I can't drop yeast in every bottle.

I was going to wait another two weeks and, if nothing happens, dump it. I can't believe this crap. I'm almost out of HB and my next batch won't be ready for three weeks. God, I want to strangle him!

 

[Hermish]

Maybe that isn't the best technique, but I don't see how it could kill all of the yeast. Just wait I guess.

 

[subourbonite]

How large was your priming solution? Everything I've read says that the amount of yeast killed by siphoning onto a hot priming solution is not significant enough to make a difference in bottle conditioning.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Sorry, can't join in your misery.... I always add the boiling hot priming solution into the bottling bucket and siphon and have never encountered a problem. I sincerely doubt this is really the source of your problem.


However, I'm all for kicking a dude in the junk, so have at it if it makes you feel better. Be sure to post the video to youtube.

 

[DeathBrewer]

what else could be the explanation? i've opened three bottles so far. one at 10 days, one at two weeks and one at like 16 days. nothing. the temperature in the closet has been about 75 the whole time.

never had this problem before. i still think it's a good idea to cool down the priming sugar before pouring it in.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

What else could be the explanation?

How long was it in secondary? Have you agitated the beer since bottling? You might try that to rouse the yeast.

What did he do? Add 4 gallons of boiling water with a cup of DME to prime? The beer was down in the normal temperature range before a third of a gallon of beer was in the bucket. If there's a problem, it's not with that part of the process. As for it being a good idea to let it cool, I'm really not sure it's worth the risk of infection. Personally, I don't have a wort chiller small enough for a pint of priming liquid and I am loathe to let it sit for an hour to cool, or to stick my finger in it to find out. What a hassle. Just dump it in the bottling bucket and move on, I say.

Anyway, back to your problem, sometimes yeast just does weird things. Sometimes there is just no explaining it. Try rousing the yeast in the bottles. Shake each one and wait a few more days. Also, what kind of DME did you use? How much?

 

[DeathBrewer]

1½ cup wheat dme in 2 cups of water.

i'm going to give the bottles all a little shake tonight and wait two more weeks.

everything went perfectly. I didn't rack it. i roused the yeast in the carboy a bit by slightly brushing the siphon against the bottom to get them up so i could transfer as much as possible to the bottling bucket (wanted a cloudy hefe)

there was a good mixture of dme in the bottling bucket (obviously, every bottle of tasted has that dme sweetness). This beer tasted amazing at every stage.

i'm pretty much just pissed at my roomate for being an ass and doing something against my wishes when my back was turned. i really want to blame this on him

 

[BierMuncher]

Yeah, give the bottles a slight rocking. Enough to rouse the yeast but not suds up the beer.

Maybe you killed off enough yeast that they are "short handed" and the little bottle orgy they go through is just getting off to a slow start.

Turn the lights down low, put on some Lou Rawls, and show your bottles some beer porn.

They'll get their groove on soon enough.

 

[cubbies]

As others have mentioned, I always pour the liquid in hot and siphon on top of it...not worth risking infection, and I have never had a problem. That being said, two weeks with 1.5 cups DME, you should be seeing some nice carb. I wish I had a good answer for you.

 

[DeathBrewer]

thanks all. i'll give them a rockening when i get home and let you all know what's up in a week or so. btw, to fix an early ranting-induced typo...this is my bavarian weisse-bier, not my AAH