Luxo_Aussie
Well-Known Member
G'day All,
I made an attempt on a very low alcohol beer (for those still keen to drive) but it's now been bottled for 8 weeks and still no carbonation has developed in the bottles. My logic in this was to use largely speciality malts & flakes to give it more body/mouthfeel that it would suggest, mash high & also use a poorly attenuating yeast to (hopefully) leave something there, here's the overview & recipe:
Designated Driver
Batch Size: 25.00 L
Boil Time: 30 min
Final Bottling Vol: 24.00 L
Original Gravity: 1.014 SG
Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Bitterness: 9.4 IBUs
Est Color: 17.0 EBC
0.150 kg Rice Hulls (Brewferm)
0.550 kg Munich Malt (Weyermann)
0.300 kg Rye Malt (Crisp)
0.175 kg Wheat, Flaked (Brewferm)
0.125 kg Barley, Flaked (Brewferm)
0.125 kg Cara-120 (Brewferm)
0.125 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (Weyermann)
0.100 kg CaraBohemian (Weyermann)
0.030 kg Chocolate Malt (Brewferm)
5.00 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Boil 15.0 min
5.00 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Boil 10.0 min
7.50 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min
17.50 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 5.0 min
1.0 pkg Octoberfest/Marzen Lager (White Labs #WLP820)
28.00 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days
15.00 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days
Mash was 20@73, 20@75 & 10@78 & bulk primed with LDME at 7.4g/l. Came out to 0.9%. This turned out tasting quite well albeit the dry hopping was a bit excessive leaving some overly harsh grassy overtones - luckily it's getting better with time. None of 7 or so bottles I've opened so far haven't had any carbonation so I'm guessing either something was wrong with my bulk priming or there wasn't enough yeast left over in the fermentation to create an effective in bottle carbonation.
I could toss most of it & try again, but if a lack of yeast is the issue would there be any benefit in emptying all bottles into a fermenter with some fresh yeast & re-bottling? This is assuming that the LDME from my first bulk prime is still there un-fermented of course. Any thoughts?
Cheers & Thanks!
I made an attempt on a very low alcohol beer (for those still keen to drive) but it's now been bottled for 8 weeks and still no carbonation has developed in the bottles. My logic in this was to use largely speciality malts & flakes to give it more body/mouthfeel that it would suggest, mash high & also use a poorly attenuating yeast to (hopefully) leave something there, here's the overview & recipe:
Designated Driver
Batch Size: 25.00 L
Boil Time: 30 min
Final Bottling Vol: 24.00 L
Original Gravity: 1.014 SG
Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Bitterness: 9.4 IBUs
Est Color: 17.0 EBC
0.150 kg Rice Hulls (Brewferm)
0.550 kg Munich Malt (Weyermann)
0.300 kg Rye Malt (Crisp)
0.175 kg Wheat, Flaked (Brewferm)
0.125 kg Barley, Flaked (Brewferm)
0.125 kg Cara-120 (Brewferm)
0.125 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (Weyermann)
0.100 kg CaraBohemian (Weyermann)
0.030 kg Chocolate Malt (Brewferm)
5.00 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Boil 15.0 min
5.00 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Boil 10.0 min
7.50 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min
17.50 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 5.0 min
1.0 pkg Octoberfest/Marzen Lager (White Labs #WLP820)
28.00 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days
15.00 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days
Mash was 20@73, 20@75 & 10@78 & bulk primed with LDME at 7.4g/l. Came out to 0.9%. This turned out tasting quite well albeit the dry hopping was a bit excessive leaving some overly harsh grassy overtones - luckily it's getting better with time. None of 7 or so bottles I've opened so far haven't had any carbonation so I'm guessing either something was wrong with my bulk priming or there wasn't enough yeast left over in the fermentation to create an effective in bottle carbonation.
I could toss most of it & try again, but if a lack of yeast is the issue would there be any benefit in emptying all bottles into a fermenter with some fresh yeast & re-bottling? This is assuming that the LDME from my first bulk prime is still there un-fermented of course. Any thoughts?
Cheers & Thanks!