Another question about carbonation.

[Davin]

Ok before I get upset cause my third brew in a row did not carbonate, I figured I would ask you guys some questions.

The first brew I posted about earlier in the year partially carbonated, but I did not stir in the sugar, easy enough to fix. The second batch though was a whole different story. I used a secondary fermenter/clarifier on it and it cleared up nicely, I then bottled after about 9 days. I used carbonting drops so I know each bottle had an equal amount of sugar in them, but none of them even partially carbonated even after a month.

My next batch is ready to bottle, its been on secondary fermentation for about 12 days (got busy) and I'm afraid its going to do the same thing since its cleared nicely. So what I was thinking about doing was adding some yeast just before bottling. The question is how much and what type? I would prefer it be a type readily available at the co-op, but I've heard champaign yeast works great for this.

If I'm wrong, anyone got any other ideas?

[psfred]

Hydrate a package of Superior Lager yeast, then mix it up and stir it into the beer just before bottling. This will give you good carbonation with very little extra ester flavor or other problems. It settles well, and stays down.

Peter

[Chris Norrick]

I tried those carb drops once and it seems that one per bottle was not enough. They were really under carbonated.

I've never had to add yeast back in to carbonate unless it was a really high alcohol beer.

What type of bottles are you using? I know the seals on my swingtops seem to wear out fast. If not swing tops, how do the caps look? Maybe you are not getting a good seal with them, bad batch or something. Maybe get a new bag of caps.

How warm are you keeping the bottles for carbonation?

Get a kegging system and never have to prime again! WooHoo! Force that beer into carbonation with 900 psi of pure co2 POWER! YOU WILL CARBONATE! I might have had too much caffeine this morning...

[Davin]

The Kegging system is actually my next project, but I have to get the stuff together first. Plus these are my ultra small batches (1g) so I can't keg them very easily without some different equipment.

[Chris Norrick]

Get some 2L or 3L bottles and The Carbonator Cap: http://www.weekendbrewer.com/carbonatorcap.htm

[sirgiovanni]

I do all grain but cheat at bottling. I have always bottled after 5-7 days in the primary and somewhere around 2 weeks in the secondary. I bottle with 2 cups water and 1/3 cup malt extract. I can honestly say that I can not remember ever having a carbonation problem with that. Although, you mention 1 month and I don't even think about touching my beer until 2 to 2.5 months. It's just not worth it to me for the flavor.

[BREWsmith]

Four weeks ago today I bottled a 7% Pumpkin Ale. I didn't touch it until yesterday just to make sure it had carbonated. It was as flat as the day I bottled it. I store my bottled beer in my basement (currently around 65 degrees). Because I was a bit concerned with the temperature, I actually kept this batch on the main level for the first several days. Now I'm worried I might have had a senior moment and forgot to prime since I was brewing that same day. Should I give it a couple for weeks or should I go to a plan B, e.g., re-prime, dump the contents in a keg, etc.? Thanks.

[Chris Norrick]

That's not looking good. Best bet is to pour it into a well purged keg. Maybe even add a little co2 into the keg half way through to keep most of the oxygen out. I've read high alcohol beers may need some fresh yeast at bottling along with the priming sugar because most of the original yeast is dead from the alcohol.

[john mills]

Should I give it a couple for weeks or should I go to a plan B, e.g., re-prime, dump the contents in a keg, etc.?

Best bet might be to pop the top on another bottle. Pick one that has the least amount of head space and keep it warm. Don't put it in the fridge for a nice cold one. 75 degrees would be great, but what ever ambient is would be fine. Open it in a quiet room...slowly near your ear listening for that faint sound of excaping carbon dioxide. (Sounds kind of kinky!)
If you hear something, give the batch another month of bottle conditioning, and open another warm one. If at that point there is no increase in pressure, then re-bottling might be your future. Or drinking flat beer.
A spiced 7% beer would probably not be coming into it's own until at least 3 months of conditioning.

[sirgiovanni]

I don't know if this would work or not. But if you are opening these caps and nothing is coming out at all, I would do the below because I'm afraid if you pour them all by hand into a keg, you will definately oxidize it. But I'm paranoid like that.

I'd take a few grams of dry wine yeast along with a teaspoon yeast nutrient and let it soak into a half to 3/4 cup of luke-warm water. Then use a measuring dropper to put about a half teaspoon per bottle, re-cap, and start conditioning again in the temps mentioned above.

I would also probably drink one and make a decision if you think there is enough sugar in there to work with the yeast. If you don't taste any sweetness, I'd re-prime it as well. If it tastes sweet to you, I would think the yeast and nutrient would do it.

If you end up doing this to even half your stuff as an experiment, I'd really like to hear the results. You should know within 2 weeks.

[john mills]

I don't have any experience using wine yeast for repriming but wouldn't the higher attenuation properties of wine yeast just create bottle bombs? If the FG of the pumpkin beer was a dry 1.009, that is almost like 1 # of sugar (or 2 cups) left in a 5 gallon batch. I've used wine yeast to ferment 12+% meads to 1.000, and champagne yeast making 18% beverages down to FG 0.995.
or just repitch using the wine yeast and also utilize a plastic 20 oz bottle checking for pressure build up, and quickly cool and consume like in homemade rootbeer?

[sirgiovanni]

I bottle with dry wine yeast all the time. Just not to beers that did not ferment in the bottle. But I have even used wine yeast on stuck belgians in carboys. They never attenuated out to what they should have before had they not stuck in their attenuation. In my experience you have one chance to properly attenuate out a beer. When you start correcting stuck fermentations with dry wine yeast, they still will just not get to where they orignally should have had your ale yeast worked properly in the first week. Just my experience.

If you're worried about it, you can store them at my house. Mmmmmmm Pumpkinnnnnnn

[john mills]

Interesting. I'll keep the wine yeast in mind, and may give it some purposeful small batch experimentation.

What strain do you normally use?

[BREWsmith]

I don't know if this would work or not. But if you are opening these caps and nothing is coming out at all, I would do the below because I'm afraid if you pour them all by hand into a keg, you will definately oxidize it. But I'm paranoid like that.

I'd take a few grams of dry wine yeast along with a teaspoon yeast nutrient and let it soak into a half to 3/4 cup of luke-warm water. Then use a measuring dropper to put about a half teaspoon per bottle, re-cap, and start conditioning again in the temps mentioned above.

I would also probably drink one and make a decision if you think there is enough sugar in there to work with the yeast. If you don't taste any sweetness, I'd re-prime it as well. If it tastes sweet to you, I would think the yeast and nutrient would do it.

If you end up doing this to even half your stuff as an experiment, I'd really like to hear the results. You should know within 2 weeks.

How much is a few grams?

[sirgiovanni]

2 to 3 grams Jeff.

john, I think it's because you don't add oxygen late in the game so you don't have a big reproduction which might take it farther. I dunno, my theory. I just know it works. Just any dry wine yeast should work.