DOUBLE IPA WON'T CARBONATE IN BOTTLES

[kevindalyus]

HEY GUYS, SORRY FOR THE LAME QUESTION. I BREWED A DOUBLE IPA (USED THE NEW SUPER SAN DIEGO YEAST BY WL) AND BOTTLED IT THREE WEEKS AGO. OG WAS AROUND 1.096. I JUST HAD ONE AND BESIDES A SLIGHT 'PSST' WHEN I OPENED IT, IT WAS PRETTY FLAT.
I USUALLY DON'T BREW HIGH GRAV BEERS LIKE THIS. IS THIS WHY IT HASN'T CARBONATED YET?
IF NOT, WHAT'S WRONG AND WHAT IS THE BEST OPTION???

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR YOU HELP.

PS IT WAS THE RECIPE USED IN CYBI FOR AVERY MAHARAJA. PRETTY DARN GOOD BEER.

[snowcapt]

DID YOU CHECK THE FG?
WHAT TEMP ARE THEY BEING STORED AT? IF IT IS RELATIVELY COOL, LET THEM SIT AWHILE LONGER.
YOU COULD ALSO PUT THEM SOMEWHERE A BIT WARMER TO SPEED UP THE PROCESS.
THERE ARE MANY VARIABLES AT PLAY HERE AND WITHOUT KNOWING YOUR PROCESS OR HOW YOU PRIMED THEM, I WOULD SAY BE PATIENT AND BRING A FEW UP TO SIT AT A WARMER TEMP FOR ANOTHER WEEK.
ya dig?

[spiderwrangler]

WHAT DID YOU USE TO PRIME YOUR BOTTLES? ARE YOU CERTAIN IT WAS THOROUGHLY MIXED THROUGHOUT? IF NOT YOU MAY GET SOME BOTTLES UNDER AND SOME OVER CARBONATED. HOW LONG WERE THEY IN THE FERMENTOR, AND WHAT WAS YOUR FG? IF THEY WERE IN THERE A LONG TIME, YOUR YEASTIES MAY BE A BIT WORN OUT AND WEREN'T HEALTHY ENOUGH TO KICK UP AGAIN FOR YOUR CONDITIONING FERMENTATION.

I AGREE WITH WHAT THE CAPT SAID, PULL SOME OUT AND LET THEM WARM, TEMPERATURE CAN PLAY A BIG ROLE.

AAAAAAAAH! LOUD NOISES! OBSCENITIES!

[BDawg]

Try putting them up on top of the fridge. The warm air rises off the coils in back and the yeast love it.

Oh, and all caps is hard as hell for us old guys to read. Besides, it's like you are shouting.

HTH-

[kevindalyus]

Caps lock is off (!)

I brewed 18 beers last year without ever having this problem. I always use 3/4c corn sugar, boiled, cooled and then added to the bottling bucket while I'm transferring.

I'm in Chicago, and it's been consistently around 68 degrees in my house. I could put them in a closet and crank it up to 80 or so if you guys think that would help??

As far as OG and FG, I dry hopped for one week and ended up at around 1.016 (10.5% approx).

At what point do I uncap them all and add some yeast?? Do I give it another couple of weeks?

[spiderwrangler]

Are the bottles being stored in the same portion of the house your thermostat is? I'd at least try warming them (BDawg's suggestion of fridge heat is a good one) and hold them there for a week and see if it improves. The ABV may have made life harder for your yeast, but if you can get them to take off again, that would be best. Adding new yeast is problematic and may not work as well as one might hope (and open up other sources or problems).

[brewinhard]

If you did not pitch fresh yeast at bottling then you might have seriously pooped out yeast on your hands. Every time i bottle a beer that is 8% ABV or higher, i add fresh yeast at bottling to ensure proper carbonation. i learned this the hard way by having a couple of big strong alcohol batches not carbonate.

If you do let them warm up for another week or so with no luck of carbonation, here is what you can do to remedy the situation.

1. Buy one 5 g pack of lalvin EC-1118 dry champagne yeast. (it only costs 1$ and is alcohol and pH tolerant).
2. Rehydrate this yeast properly.
3. Sanitize all new bottle caps for your whole batch.
4. Sanitized a clean medicine dropper.
5. Uncap a bottle, carefully inject about 1 mL of rehydrated yeast solution into the bottle and quickly recap before any foaming occurs.
(be ready, as sometimes this happens)
6. When all have been freshly injected and recapped, keep them in a warm place for about 1 week. Chill one down and try it. If not carbonated then wait 1 more week.

Just be sure that you actually added your priming sugar before doing this or it wont make a difference. Next time always repitch a pack of fresh rehydrated yeast with strong alcohol beers. It is just too much to ask of your yeast after already helping you ferment a big batch of beer.

[kevindalyus]

Excellent advice!!

I heard back from White Labs. They basically suggested the same thing. He suggested using .5 vile of their british ale or champagne yeast added to the bottling bucket, add all the beer back in, stir well, and re-bottle.

He agrees that the yeast at this level of FG are pretty pooped. And yes, the best way to make sure this doesn't happen is add fresh yeast when you're ready to bottle.

Thanks again for all the responses.