I was makign a Cream Stout, and purposefully added only about 1/3 cup of sugar into the batch before bottling, because I didn't think this should be a heavily carbonated beer. I wanted something thick and creamy, not fizzy and bitey. What I didn't think of was that I don't have nitrogen injection when I pour my beer out of the bottle, unlike Guinness, Murphey's, etc! So, after 3 weeks of sitting, the bottles give only faint "pfff" when opened and even when poured aggresively, barely form any bubbles. There is no "head" to speak of. The taste is fantastic, but it's just darn near FLAT.
Rather than continue to drink them "flat", or worse yet, scrap the batch, I thought of a solution that might work and tried it last night. I took the remaining 1/2 cup or so of sugar from this batch's kit and disolved that in 1 cup of boiling water. That measured about 220 ml when finished. I divided that by the 27 bottles I had left, and that came to roughly 8 ml of sugar water per bottle. One by one I opened the bottles (felt like a bar tender!) and injected each, using a plastic measuring syringe, with the 7-8 ml of warm sugar water. Then I capped them back up as quickly as I could.
So, does this stand a chance to "spark" some yeasties into life again and make some carbonation? I guess I'm also risking over carbonating for this type of beer...but better than flat like they were I guess. Hopefully it does something! I wasn't sure if this method is useless or perhaps tried and true.
On a related note, I did put this batch in a secondary for a week or so before bottling, so it is super clear and free of resudue. Still, I would expect to see SOME caking on the bottom of the bottles due to bottle-fermentation, and there is NONE. I'm sure this is corrolated with the lack of carbonation. I'm hoping it's just a case of dormant yeast since I didn't give them much sugar to snack on the first time around. The batch fermented and developed wonderfully, so I don't think it's that there was something wrong with that part of the process.
Thanks!
Jeff
Rather than continue to drink them "flat", or worse yet, scrap the batch, I thought of a solution that might work and tried it last night. I took the remaining 1/2 cup or so of sugar from this batch's kit and disolved that in 1 cup of boiling water. That measured about 220 ml when finished. I divided that by the 27 bottles I had left, and that came to roughly 8 ml of sugar water per bottle. One by one I opened the bottles (felt like a bar tender!) and injected each, using a plastic measuring syringe, with the 7-8 ml of warm sugar water. Then I capped them back up as quickly as I could.
So, does this stand a chance to "spark" some yeasties into life again and make some carbonation? I guess I'm also risking over carbonating for this type of beer...but better than flat like they were I guess. Hopefully it does something! I wasn't sure if this method is useless or perhaps tried and true.
On a related note, I did put this batch in a secondary for a week or so before bottling, so it is super clear and free of resudue. Still, I would expect to see SOME caking on the bottom of the bottles due to bottle-fermentation, and there is NONE. I'm sure this is corrolated with the lack of carbonation. I'm hoping it's just a case of dormant yeast since I didn't give them much sugar to snack on the first time around. The batch fermented and developed wonderfully, so I don't think it's that there was something wrong with that part of the process.
Thanks!
Jeff