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Author Topic: Imperial porter not carbonating. Add more yeast or let it be?  (Read 3795 times)

Offline 202brew

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I cooked up an imperial porter that came out at OG of around 1.080. I had a lot of yeast through the first week. Even in my 6.5 gallon carboy I found myself cleaning out the airlock several time. I let it sit in the fermenter for just over a month. I primed with slightly less priming sugar than I had intended (4 oz instead of 4.5). It been in the bottle for more than 5 weeks and still hasn't carbonated. I tried tipping a bottle to get more yeast into suspension. I drank it a few days later with no luck.

The beer tastes sweet. The issue doesn't seem to be a lack of fermentables. Could it be that the yeast kicked out in the fermenter? Should I add more yeast? If so, how? I have liquid and dry yeast laying around. I could add a little dry yeast to each bottle or I could pour the bottles back into the bottling bucket and add some liquid yeast. (The beer is in EZ-caps, so neither would be a tragedy.)

Or do I just need to be patient?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Offline euge

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Re: Imperial porter not carbonating. Add more yeast or let it be?
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2012, 10:46:38 pm »
It should have carbonated by now. So there's a problem.

Try adding actively fermenting yeast to the bottles. If you have access to syringes this will be a snap.
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Offline snowtiger87

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Re: Imperial porter not carbonating. Add more yeast or let it be?
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2012, 04:29:49 am »
Don't poor the bottles into another bucket if you can avoid it. That is a good way to oxidize the beer. If you have some dry yeast around (like US-05) I would activate it in water then use an eye dropper to put some in each bottle. Of course you will have to un-cap and re-cap but that is not a big deal since the beer is not carbonated now.

You did not give us a FG reading. It may taste sweet from a high FG or the lack of carbonation.
Brewing since 1989 - BJCP National Rank
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Offline Mark G

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Re: Imperial porter not carbonating. Add more yeast or let it be?
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2012, 06:32:37 am »
What temperature are the bottles sitting at? Before you try adding yeast, you might want to see if warming them up will get them to carb.
Mark Gres

Offline tygo

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Re: Imperial porter not carbonating. Add more yeast or let it be?
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2012, 07:59:44 am »
What temperature are the bottles sitting at? Before you try adding yeast, you might want to see if warming them up will get them to carb.

+1 Based on the gravity and time in the fermenter I would think that there should be enough yeast left to carbonate.  Although since it's in EZ cap bottles throwing a little more dry yeast in each bottle and warming them up wouldn't be too hard.
Clint
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Offline 202brew

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Re: Imperial porter not carbonating. Add more yeast or let it be?
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2012, 05:08:41 pm »
Thanks all for the good advice.

A little more info... My apartment runs warm but the temp is a pretty stable 75-77. Final gravity was 1.018.

I have some Nottingham dry yeast in the fridge that I can add. How long should I wait for it do its magic. Another week or two?

Offline Hokerer

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Re: Imperial porter not carbonating. Add more yeast or let it be?
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2012, 05:42:29 pm »
At those temps it certainly should have carbed up if it was going to.

And yes, two weeks is about right.  Maybe less considering how warm it is.
Joe