Beer Forum

I bottled a barleywine (OG 1.105 - FG 1.020) about 3 weeks ago. I opened a bottle the other night and I only got a faint little hiss when opening and no carbonation. The beer tastes great, but I am worried that there was not enough yeast to fully carb. Any ideas? I've read about popping each bottle and adding some rehydrated dry yeast with a eyedropper then re-capping. Sounds like a lot of work. Has anybody used this approach? Thanks.

How long did it sit before you bottled it? If it sat for an extremely long time then the yeast could die out and not have enough vitality to consume your priming sugar.
Did you rack it to a secondary? Perhaps by doing this lots of the viable yeast were removed.
Did the priming sugar get mixed in good before bottling? This could cause uneven carbonation.
I had a dortmunder that didn't carbonate even after a couple of months and I guessed that it was a combination of these things.
I'm definitely no professional though.


cheers,
Brannon

If you got even a little hiss then it would seem that the yeast are, slowly, working away at the priming sugar even in that high-alcohol environment you have them in. I would make sure the bottles are in a warm place (upper 70s, low 80s) and just give them time. And do that thing that Charlie P is always suggesting. (No, not "Never go on Justin's show again", the other one.)

I second the keep them warm, 68 plus. Even rocking the bottles every now and then for a week. 3 weeks is not that long. My wee heavy took a good 4 weeks to get even a low carbonation. I've never went this far but a buddy had the local store suggest pouring the beer back into a fermenter, add yeast to eat the priming sugar, when fermentation stops then re-prime and bottle. He did that and said the beer was fine. I never tried it so not sure if it tasted like carboard or was thin. He served it during poker night so most likely could have tasted like cat shit. However people drank it all. Personally I would not go that far. Especially for a barleywine. Age it and see what happens. Or force carb it with a keg or a 2 liter bottle and carbonator cap.

Thanks a lot for the replies. I will move them to a warmer location in my house and wait. They are sitting in my basement right now (about 62 F). Do warmer conditioning temps contribute any off flavors?

bhaslip wrote: Do warmer conditioning temps contribute any off flavors?

Not really for a Barleywine. Just forget about it for 6-12 months, it'll improve tremendously. Stash a few bottles away for a couple years and you'll be richly rewarded.

Thanks. The plan is to age them. I have just been so curious, I had to pop a few bottles. Luckily I have 2 cases worth, so one case is locked away.

If the beer doesn't carbonate in a couple more weeks especially after being moved to a warmer area (68 or higher), than your yeast might simply be too tired to complete the job. This has happened to me on several occasions and here is what I did to right the situation.

1. Boil 1/2 cup of water for 5 min. being sure to put the lid on the last 2 minutes for sanitation.
2. Cool and add 1 packet (sanitized scissors/packet) to water. (I use Lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast- its cheap and can handle high alcohol environments)
3. Let rehydrate 15 min.
4. Sanitize an eyedropper and enough bottlecaps for your entire batch.
5. Uncap a few bottles and carefully add about 1/2 eyedropper full of rehydrated yeast into each bottle and quickly cap them.
6. Store them warm for about 8-10 days and try one!
7. Don't worry if after adding the yeast that the total volume in the bottle is higher than normal, it will still carbonate just fine!
8. Once they are carbonated, place them somewhere cool (basement, cellar) for best aging. The cooler the better. You do not have to refridgerate them!

NOW.....to tackle this issue in the future....
Whenever I bottle a strong batch of beer (8% or more), I always rehydrate some fresh yeast to add to my priming sugar in my bottling bucket before racking the beer into it. This helps with immediate carbonation (7-10 days only) and eliminates the stupid eyedropper pain in the ass method. Good luck!