Bottles Not Carbonating

[bugwan]

Hi guys, I couldn't find another thread to ask this in, so thought I'd start my own.

I brewed an Imperial APA recently (based on Ross's version of Ruination). I transferred the fermented beer from primary to secondary (corny keg) and dry hopped for a week or two. I then bottled from this secondary vessel, via a filter.

It seems my filtering was a little too effective, as there has been absolutely no carbonation in the bottles after three weeks at 19 degrees. All bottles were primed with dextrose.

So my question is, how do I proceed? Do I lift the caps of each one and inject a small shot of hydrated US-56? If so, how much yeast per 330ml bottle?

The yeast used for primary fermentation was dry US-56 and attenuated nicely to give me 9.1%ABV.

Thanks for any assistance.
Dave

 

[razz]

Did you sample one of them bugwan ? Are you sure you used dex ? Sorry to be asking the obvious.

 

[bugwan]

Did you sample one of them bugwan ? Are you sure you used dex ? Sorry to be asking the obvious.

No probs Razz, certainly worth checking the obvious first. Yep, dex it was. It dissolved pretty quickly and there is absolutely no trace of sediment at the bottom of the bottles.

I've cracked two of the smallest bottles so far and they've been completely un-carbonated. Such a waste opening them! I've only bottled about 15 litres (it was a big beer after all!)...

 

[razz]

I haven't had to to pitch yeast into bottles before. You could try hydrating some yeast in boiled water and adding a few mil into each bottle and recap. I think the amount of fermentables is more important than the amount of yeast.

 

[chris.taylor.98]

Dave,

I have had similar issues with bottle conditioning, and I think it mostly comes down to the amount of yeast that is left to do the carbonating.

These days I tend to add a tablespoon of the yeast from the primary back before bottling to make sure there is something to carbonate with.


Once bottled even with a very small amount of yeast, it will eventually carbonate, it just may take a very long time.

I have had batches that took over 3 months to carbonate.

Also during winter with the low ambient temps can also be a cause of problems (especially with ale yeasts). If you can but some in a place with higher ambient temperatures this might speed up the process.

I think adding more yeast will definitely speed up the process.

Cheers

Chris

 

[Kingy]

ive got 2 batches that are still slowly carbing up after 2 months. And ive wasted 2 longsnecks on each batch checking them.Im just gunna leave em till it gets warmer. As ive definatly added enough priming sugar

Does the lag time with cold temperstures stop the yeast working after a certain amount of time or will they eventually carb up in the long run?

cheers kingy

 

[chris.taylor.98]

Kingy,

I found that given enough time they will carb up. If it is ale yeast, then of course it will not being doing much at the moment, but as it warms up it will eventually get there.

One way I found to help speed things up was to put a fishtank heater in a bucket of water in an old fridge ( or a low wattage light bulb ), and put the bottles in there for a couple of weeks.

Although I have had brews that come out so devoid of yeast after finings and lagering that even at warmer temps it has taken a long time, but I have not had a brew yet that did not eventually get there.

I have found that bottling at least one in a PET bottle such as the cooper's 750ml, is a good way of determining how carbonated they are without having to open them.

... now if only I could afford one of those fancy kegging system things

 

[Tony]

I had a Roggenbier a while back that firmented strong and stopped deat at 1.018. So dead thjat i prmed it with dex and it did nothing in 3 months.

I put 1ml (used a dropper from a pack of kisd panadol) of WLP833 lager yeast in after de capping the flat beer and 3 weeks later at aboujt 15 deg inthe garage..... tery were gassed.

It took out awards too.

rehydratre some fresh yeast or take some from a yeast cake.

cheers

 

[matti]

Good thread.
I racked a FWK a bit too early.
It hardly fermented at all for a week in secondary.
I cc:ed fo a a week or two (cant remember)
and primed it with dex a week ago.

Sitting inside the house between 15-18 degrees.

Hasn't cleared at all.
It usually take only a week to detect some sedimentation.

I'll might have to resort to Tonys advise if nothing next week when I check.

matti

 

[bugwan]

Thanks for all the replies lads. Maybe 2 weeks just isn't enough!

All the bottles are kept at 17 degrees, thanks to a temp controller running a fan heater inside the fridge - kids, don't try this at home! The heater has a trip-switch that will kill the heater if it falls over. That said, it's been taped down pretty well.

I might leave it another week yet and check for any signs of carbonation. If there's not joy, I might go the eye-dropper thing. I managed to save nearly a litre of the slurry from this batch, so I can re-use a small amount of the same yeast.

I agree with you Razz - the fermentables are more important than the yeast count. All bottles have been dosed as usual, I guess I just need to add a population of viable yeast.

I'll post back the results...although that could be a couple of weeks yet.