High ABV Belgian ale not carbonating

[manticle]

Maybe 3 or 4 weeks? The fermentation stopped, I gave it a few swirls and another week, but there was no further change. I figured it had finished. OG is about right. Wyeast's alcohol tolerance spec is bloody useless - "11 to 12% ABV or higher".


I'd like to know this as well. I was going to use a smack pack and syringe 1 or 2mL of the contents into each bottle? Or is this overkill? I'd rather the taste of whatever is in the smack pack doesn't get into my beer.

Reseeding I've done has always been done in bulk as a cautionary thing (high alc, long term bulk aged etc).

What I would consider in this case is making an active starter with some wort (pale malt extract or ag to 1040 and 1388), and adding a small dose via syringe. I'd do it to one bottle only (you've sat on it long enough, few more weeks won't hurt) then if there are any signs of carbing in the next 4 weeks and it tastes ok, do the lot. Still requires patience but you've got plenty of that don't you? Make the starter at normal ferment temps, no stirplate (or stirplate only at the very beginning - don't want to add oxidised beer to the main batch).

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

2 years? If it's not ruined by oxidation, perhaps you could carefully decant into a keg and gas it there?

 

[mofox1]

2 years? If it's not ruined by oxidation, perhaps you could carefully decant into a keg and gas it there?

Seems plausible...

Edit: With apologies to Shoobs for the thread derailment!

 

[antiphile]

Plus dextrose is not as fermentable as cane sugar as its a more complex sugar so again will take more effort to ferment.

Hi Brewnut

I'm not trying to be a smart-bottom, but my understanding is different. I was pretty sure dextrose is glucose (a monosaccharide). While cane sugar is sucrose (a disaccharide with one molecule of glucose joined to one molecule of fructose). This means for the yeast to use sucrose, it first has to break the bond between the glucose and fructose before it can use the basic components. The dextrose is the simplest sugar and can be used by yeast as is and fermented.

In terms of fermentability, they are both pretty well and easily utilised almost 100% and create the same amount of alcohol by weight of the sugar.

Cheerio, Phil

 

[kcurnow]

Hi Brewnut

I'm not trying to be a smart-bottom, but my understanding is different. I was pretty sure dextrose is glucose (a monosaccharide). While cane sugar is sucrose (a disaccharide with one molecule of glucose joined to one molecule of fructose). This means for the yeast to use sucrose, it first has to break the bond between the glucose and fructose before it can use the basic components. The dextrose is the simplest sugar and can be used by yeast as is and fermented.

In terms of fermentability, they are both pretty well and easily utilised almost 100% and create the same amount of alcohol by weight of the sugar.

Cheerio, Phil

Its all good, just getting myself confused between Dextrose and Dextrin in Maltodextrin.

Cheers :beer: