Westvleteren 12 clone not cabonating

[Jayfro21]

Hi all,

I've read all over the forum about how high gravity beers take longer to carbonate, so I am not surprised my clone at 10+% ABV is following suit. My question is this: I've cracked a bottle at 1 month, 2 months and around 3 months, and the carbonation level is either exactly the same or very slightly (and possibly imperceptibly) increasing. Should I: a) wait longer and forget about it for 6+ months, or b) open bottles and slowly pour into new 2.5 gallon keg and force carbonate? I have no problem waiting it out, just want to make sure it's for a purpose. Any insight would be great, thanks!

 

[Rivenin]

how many gallons was it?
what did you carbonate with?
how many grams of ^^^ did you carb the batch with?

 

[Jayfro21]

how many gallons was it?
what did you carbonate with?
how many grams of ^^^ did you carb the batch with?

2.5 gallon batch, carbonated with corn sugar as calculated by my normal priming sugar calculator to around 2.5 volumes of CO2.

 

[botigol]

How long did you age it before bottling?

 

[Jayfro21]

How long did you age it before bottling?

Probably 4-5 weeks, not very long

 

[botigol]

Anecdotally, my 9%+ beers have taken around three months to carb. As long as you have some carbonation, I would say that waiting, at least a little while longer, is the way to go. You could also move the bottles to a warmer spot in order to help speed things along, especially if they're not currently sitting in a 70°F location.

 

[Jayfro21]

Anecdotally, my 9%+ beers have taken around three months to carb. As long as you have some carbonation, I would say that waiting, at least a little while longer, is the way to go. You could also move the bottles to a warmer spot in order to help speed things along, especially if they're not currently sitting in a 70°F location.

Unfortunatey (or I guess fortunately) I am in sunny San Diego, so it is rarely less than 70F here! My expectation was that the carb level would be progressively better, but by mouthfeel that does not seem to be the case. I think I'll prob just wait it out...