Beer Forum

Cooked up a Scottish Ale.
http://morebeer.com/view_product/18346/ ... t_Beer_Kit
All went well during the cook (very Breaking Bad). I wanted to really get a clean, clear beer so after 2 weeks in primary I put it into secondary for 6 weeks. Dropped some gelatin in and a few days later bottled.

Bottle conditioning the beer. After 4 weeks at about 68 degrees I have mostly flat beer. What do I mean by mostly? Well, some of the bottles give me a little his when I open them, but no carbonation of note. Some bottles are completely quiet. One bottle that was only filled up to the shoulders was nicely carbonated! (and really very tasty).

So I can think of two places where I may have screwed the pooch.

First, I didn't get enough stirring action when I added the bottle conditioning sugar (I may not have stirred at all and just let the turbulence distribute the sugar - I now make sure that I give it a gentle stir after all of the beer is moved into the bottling bucket). Maybe inconsistent bottle sugar?

Second, between the highish alcohol levels, the longer time in secondary and the stripping out of yeast with the jello shot, there isn't enough yeast left to carb the bottles.

So, any thoughts on the more likely culprit? Or other problems?

Should I leave the bottles hanging around for 3-4 months and see if they carb? (and do I risk bottle bombs if some have a lot more sugar than others - I wonder if the bad mixing plus the natural tendency for Scottish heavy to have higher residual sugars is a recipe for shattered glass)

I think it would benefit a wee heavy to bottle condition for a few months anyway and may carb some more as it does. I would think if you can keep at 68 degrees you should be ok. I had one pop last summer after 7 months in the bottle, but the room temp had gotten to about 75 then.

I've had problems with big beers carbonating. I figured that most of the yeast was dropping out while it was sitting in secondary for long periods of time. Whenever i bottle condition beers that sit for awhile, off the yeast, I add about 1/4 or less of a pack of dry yeast in the bottling bucket. that does the trick. you don't need too much.

if you wait a few more weeks with nothing, the only option i see is to crack those bottles open and sprinkle a few grains of yeast in each and re-cap. or buy a keg, and pour them all in there and force carbonate. if you put the right amount of priming sugar in, and the beer is flat, it's still in there, so it has to be a yeast issue. that or get it somewhere room temp for a few weeks and see if that kickstarts the process. i'd try that before futzing with opening the bottles.

slanted & enchanted wrote:I've had problems with big beers carbonating. I figured that most of the yeast was dropping out while it was sitting in secondary for long periods of time. Whenever i bottle condition beers that sit for awhile, off the yeast, I add about 1/4 or less of a pack of dry yeast in the bottling bucket. that does the trick. you don't need too much.

if you wait a few more weeks with nothing, the only option i see is to crack those bottles open and sprinkle a few grains of yeast in each and re-cap. or buy a keg, and pour them all in there and force carbonate. if you put the right amount of priming sugar in, and the beer is flat, it's still in there, so it has to be a yeast issue. that or get it somewhere room temp for a few weeks and see if that kickstarts the process. i'd try that before futzing with opening the bottles.

Don't sprinkle the grains of yeast. It'll be very inconsistent and hard to do.

Rehydrate the yeast in water. Stir it with a sanitized spoon, and put a few drops in with a sanitized plastic eyedropper. You can get disposable plastic transfer pipettes very cheap. I think they're pefect for this. http://www.amazon.com/3ml-Plastic-Trans ... 026&sr=8-1

One of those packs will last you your whole homebrew career probably, so split it with some friends in your homebrew club