Lack of carbonation

[Brewski]

so i brewed a 5 gallon batch of imperial stout a few months ago, and bottled last weekend. i added the carbonation drops, waited a week (which has always been enough time in the past), but i just tried a beer and it's flat. i used different bottle caps, some oxygenated ones (i think that's what they were called), would this affect my carbonation? any suggestions are welcome, not sure what to do...

Thanks!

[backyard brewer]

After a few months of aging, you probably didn't have enough viable yeast to get the job done. Does the beer taste sweet? If the beer tastes sweet, then you didn't have enough yeast, if the beer tastes just like you expected, then you might have had leaking caps, but that would be odd they would all have blow seals.

[bwarbiany]

Imperial stouts are typically very strong, and the yeast has been heavily stressed to finish fermentation. Then, several months of aging will ensure that most of the yeast has fallen out of suspension. 1 week on a beer like that probably won't be enough. For now, I'd let it sit a bit longer. If you go another 1-2 weeks and have no carbonation, you might want to intervene.

[brahn]

I agree, for now just wait. I only bottle conditioned one imperial stout and it took over a month to carbonate.

How strong is the beer? I also tried to bottle condition a barleywine that never actually carbonated (at least not yet, it's been 3 years...) I even added fresh yeast at bottling time to that one, but I guess the yeast just didn't want to work in a 12% beer. If the beer is too strong you may just have to learn to enjoy it flat...

[Brewski]

im not sure exactly how strong it is, forgot to do the reading... but, from the recipe, it should be around 8 or 9%. alright so i guess there is still hope, since it's strong and it aged in a secondary for about 5 months, the yeast is probably pretty much spent. ill try one a week for a month, and if that doesn't work, would it possibly help to reopen the bottles and add another carbonation cube? or, since the yeast isn't present, would that be useless?

[bwarbiany]

You wouldn't want to add more sugar... You'd want to add more yeast.

[backyard brewer]

Yeah, no more sugar, you'd have bottle bombs if they did ferment. I've heard of people opening them up and dropping 4-6 granules of dry yeast per bottle. Not sure if that's enough or too much though. I think I'd empty them all into a CO2 purged keg, force carb them and then re-bottle them.

Course, you probably would have already done that if you had kegs.

[lexuschris]

Was wondering if you could rehydrate some yeast in sterile water (a small amount) and add a couple of milliliters to each bottle and recap?

And use a high ABV tolerant yeast .. champagne yeast even..??

--lexuschris

[brahn]

At 8-9% I don't think you need to worry about using special yeast. If I were going to do anything I would probably rehydrate some US-05 and then dose a few ml into each bottle. However, I still think you're best off just being patient.

[oc eric]

Have you thought about kegging? $189 gets you a full kegging setup. Just force carb the beer and it will be ready to serve.

[bwarbiany]

While I'm an *enormous* advocate of kegging, I don't think it helps here. You'd end up having to pour those bottles into a keg, and no matter what you do for CO2 purging, you're likely to oxidize the hell out of it.

I say stick with Brent's suggestion and wait. Even if you end up with a relatively low-carbed beer after a month, it's better than nothing, and better than trying to fix it. If it stays 100% flat after 6 weeks, try adding yeast.

[oc eric]

I should have been more specific:

Keg the beer, carb it same day, and serve. Take it to a party or host one and get the best and most out of that batch.

[brahn]

You might also consider that a still imperial stout can still be quite tasty, even if it's not what you were looking for.

[Brewski]

thanks to everyone for the insight, im going to wait it out a few more weeks and hope for the best. it's a tasty brew even without carbonation, it's just that most people are turned off by the lack of bubbles... hold on, maybe that's a good thing, more beer for me! just kidding, i like sharing my creations with friends, call me a show off hah. if waiting doesn't work, i actually do have a kegging system but i messed up a batch once while kegging and have been scared to go back to it. plus, i'm moving this week, and don't have the kegerator set up in the new house yet. excuses excuses, i know, but ill save my kegging questions for another post though.

thanks again, wish me luck

[Haemon]

You might also consider that a still imperial stout can still be quite tasty, even if it's not what you were looking for.

I laughed at this, then when I realized how true it is, I laughed again.