No carbonation from bottled Imperial Stout

[GFHomebrew]

Red Star Premier Blanc white wine yeast works to 17% and will chew every bit of sugar left in those bottles and carbonate beer as thick as motor oil and it's $1.79 a packet.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Megary]

So 6 weeks after my OP, I decided to just get on with it. (I did try one more bottle with the hope that more time was all that was needed, but alas, still flat).

I probably should have experimented on only one for now, but I decided to add a bit of yeast to every remaining bottle (8). Thankfully, removing the wax was rather easy. After recapping, I flipped them upside down a few times and then stuck them in a cooler with the lid closed and a heavy box on top! To be continued…

View attachment 25933

So, about 4-5 weeks after trying to re-carb this Imperial Stout, I decided to see where I’m at.

I’m stoked.

Now to try and figure out how to avoid this problem next time. Funny, I’ve had no issues carbonating my yearly Barleywine, but this Imperial Stout was a bugger. Is it the dark malt? Was it the bomber bottles? The yeast? It all seems so stupid…I’m completely stumped.

 

[Donoroto]

So, about 4-5 weeks after trying to re-carb this Imperial Stout, I decided to see where I’m at.

View attachment 26307

I’m stoked.

Now to try and figure out how to avoid this problem next time. Funny, I’ve had no issues carbonating my yearly Barleywine, but this Imperial Stout was a bugger. Is it the dark malt? Was it the bomber bottles? The yeast? It all seems so stupid…I’m completely stumped.

Sometimes it just happens. But now you know
A) How to fix it
B) Why I keg

 

[Megary]

Oh yeah…completely agree. I keg just about everything. But I can’t justify kegging a beer like this. Because I want to pull one of these out of the netherworld 5-10 years from now.

 

[Mark Farrall]

So, about 4-5 weeks after trying to re-carb this Imperial Stout, I decided to see where I’m at.

View attachment 26307

I’m stoked.

Now to try and figure out how to avoid this problem next time. Funny, I’ve had no issues carbonating my yearly Barleywine, but this Imperial Stout was a bugger. Is it the dark malt? Was it the bomber bottles? The yeast? It all seems so stupid…I’m completely stumped.

I've had a few batches with bad carbonation. So I promise myself I'll add some yeast at bottling, but I always forget. And inevitably the next few batches are fine, so I don't think it's worth it. Then the next batch is flat. Got a flat imperial stout in the shelves at the moment that I'm planning to rework into a slightly different beer next week while moving it to a keg to force carbonate.

Not completely sure when extra yeast is needed, but I'm thinking ABV above 11% or the beer took longer to hit terminal than expected. I'll probably add some dry yeast when I have either of those next time. The main imperial stout I brew is 10 batches old and I had more flat batches at the start when I didn't take yeast as seriously as I do now. The grain bill hasn't changed a lot in that 8 or so years, soI don't think it's grain bill. And I have a completely evidence free opinion that I get better carbonation in the bombers than the small bottles.

I just think it's exhausted yeast, but to tie it down to particular fermentation observations is the harder part.

 

[Donoroto]

Oh yeah…completely agree. I keg just about everything. But I can’t justify kegging a beer like this. Because I want to pull one of these out of the netherworld 5-10 years from now.

Bottle from the keg after carbonating.

 

[Megary]

Bottle from the keg after carbonating.

Next time I'm sure I'll be weighing that option vs. bottle priming.

The only thing bottle priming has in its favor is how little time it takes. Because I bottle from the fermenter spigot, I only have one 12" piece of tubing to clean, besides the bottles. The whole process takes me about 15 minutes. Which is nice, if it works.

 

[Brewer #410819]

July was my first go round with an imperial and I'm currently in the same boat (although I have a mix of 22oz and 12oz).

I see the CBC-1 packet, measuring spoons and liquid. Do you have some more details?

 

[Megary]

July was my first go round with an imperial and I'm currently in the same boat (although I have a mix of 22oz and 12oz).

I see the CBC-1 packet, measuring spoons and liquid. Do you have some more details?

I remember doing a lot of math and coming up with about 1/16 tsp per 22oz. bottle. My precise level of measurement accuracy was solely dependent on how hard I squinted.

 

[Brewer #410819]

So if dissolved the whole pack of CBC-1 in a cup of boiled room temp water, I'd be looking at 48tsp of solution. The smallest measure the wife has is 1/8tsp, and that'd give me 384 spoons. A 1/4tsp would give me 192 spoons and 1/2tsp would give me 96 spoons.

After being disappointed twice, I've got 10-22oz and 24-12oz bottles.

To account for any spoon spillage, I'm kinda thinking I could use 1/2tsp per 12oz and 1tsp per 22oz because the yeast can only eat the sugar that's left in each bottle. Does that make sense? If the LHBS doesn't have any CBC-1, or that Red Star wine yeast that was mentioned, will a pack Nottingham or US-05 work?

 

[GFHomebrew]

So if dissolved the whole pack of CBC-1 in a cup of boiled room temp water, I'd be looking at 48tsp of solution. The smallest measure the wife has is 1/8tsp, and that'd give me 384 spoons. A 1/4tsp would give me 192 spoons and 1/2tsp would give me 96 spoons.

After being disappointed twice, I've got 10-22oz and 24-12oz bottles.

To account for any spoon spillage, I'm kinda thinking I could use 1/2tsp per 12oz and 1tsp per 22oz because the yeast can only eat the sugar that's left in each bottle. Does that make sense? If the LHBS doesn't have any CBC-1, or that Red Star wine yeast that was mentioned, will a pack Nottingham or US-05 work?

Just check the Alcohol tolerance for them yeast is enough to handle to job but I expect it would be most are up around 10% Alcohol tolerance unless your RIS is higher lol.

 

[Brewer #410819]

It came in shy of 9%. US-05 might do the trick, but I see Nottingham goes to 14%.

 

[GFHomebrew]

It came in shy of 9%. US-05 might do the trick, but I see Nottingham goes to 14%.

Nottingham is clean and a beast of a yeast either I'm sure will get you there.

 

[Megary]

So if dissolved the whole pack of CBC-1 in a cup of boiled room temp water, I'd be looking at 48tsp of solution. The smallest measure the wife has is 1/8tsp, and that'd give me 384 spoons. A 1/4tsp would give me 192 spoons and 1/2tsp would give me 96 spoons.

After being disappointed twice, I've got 10-22oz and 24-12oz bottles.

To account for any spoon spillage, I'm kinda thinking I could use 1/2tsp per 12oz and 1tsp per 22oz because the yeast can only eat the sugar that's left in each bottle. Does that make sense? If the LHBS doesn't have any CBC-1, or that Red Star wine yeast that was mentioned, will a pack Nottingham or US-05 work?

I sanitized the packet of yeast and the 1/8tsp spoon. Then stuck the spoon in the pouch and eyeballed a one-half dose…1/16tsp. It was not very scientific and all I can say for sure is that I got at least some yeast and it was less than 1/8tsp.

 

[Brewer #410819]

Sounds like you did the "tweezer method" with a spoon.