Strong Stout didn't carbonate much... why?

[Jobe5217]

I brewed up a strong, 10%, stout. It turned out great flavor wise but the the bottles didn't carbonate very well. I used two yeast vials so the fermentation seemed to go fine and I used the standard (5 oz ?) amount of sucrose.

Do stronger beers usually require more sugar to feed the yeast in the bottle? Should I worry about bottle bombs?

Would those tablets that you drop into bottles at bottling work well for strong beers?

Thank you for any info or advice!!

 

[Hello]

More info is needed. How much priming sugar did you use? Did you boil it in water then toss in your bottling bucket? When did you bottle? What's the temp of the room where your bottles are stored?

 

[Rockn_M]

We are going to need to know how much sugar, what temp are the bottles stored at and how long have they been bottled?

 

[oddroot]

The higher the ABV, the longer a beer supposedly takes to carbonate. Also you'll want to have those bottles somewhere around 68F, if it's lower than that they will take even longer to carb up.

 

[Jobe5217]

I used approximately 2/3 (heeping) DME as priming sugar, boiled it in water and put in bottling bucket prior to beer and it was in a closet that is around 65F.

Since my initial post I have had a few more and I found one that was way over carbonated. It was a bottle with the hinged flip top lid and as soon as I popped the top half the beer foamed out. This makes me wonder if I just didn't stir the priming solution enough so some beers got a lot and some not enough.

Thanks guys!

 

[BigFloyd]

To get accurate priming, you have to WEIGH the priming agent. "2/3 heaping DME" really doesn't give us much of an idea about how much you really used.

Beer will take longer at 65 than 70 to carb. A 10% stout will take much longer than a 5% pale. It also needs extra months for the flavors to meld. Leave this batch alone for a few months, grab a couple then and fridge them 3+ days before drawing any more conclusions.

 

[shortyz]

ya measuring priming sugar is really important... it can really bugger your beer if u dont.

 

[TopherM]

Here's the peer-reviewed scientific research on the relationship between gravity and carbonation time:

 

[djfriesen]

My money is on uneven stirring. I try to get the boiled priming sugar into my bottling bucket ASAP, even if it's still hot. The heat will likely kill some yeast, but not enough to worry about, and it will give the siphon action as much time as possible to mix everything together. I have had consistent results doing this.

If inconsistent mixing is your problem, you may run the risk of bottle bombs. It might be wise to store them in a hard-sided container if possible. Otherwise, you could put them all somewhere cold, and stop the priming action. You'd stop everything about where it is (some under- and some over-carbed), but you wouldn't get any bombs.