[Uvolnit]

As the subject states, I recently bottled a winter warmer and even after 3 weeks of conditioning at around 66-70F it still has no to very little carbonation, which makes the malty, 8% ABV beer a little nasty to palate.  This is my 12th brew so I have a solid knowledge of how much priming sugar (dextrose) to use.  I used 3.9 oz of dextrose in 2/3 cup water, also mixed well in the bottling vessel.  Just before this winter warmer I brewed a DIPA that I carbed with the same amount of priming sugar and it turned out perfect.  All other environmental factors are the same, conditioning temperature and final beer volume.  Also, on the NB Priming Sugar calculator using the ambient temp the recommended amount of bottling sugar is 3.9 oz, which I straight up guessed and came out being perfect for 2.2 CO2 volume.
My DIPA was FG 1.010, dextrose bottling addition of 3.9g to about 5.5 gallons and conditioned at the same 66-70F.  The DIPA yeast was WLP-001 but was not cold crashed to the same extent, the DIPA was cold crashed in my sink by surrounding the fermenter with ice which did cool it down a tiny bit but not for long enough time to make it super effective.  The winter warmer was cold crashed in my cold, Colorado garage for half a day and dropped the batch to about 50F.  I highly doubt this was enough to kill/put the yeast into a dormant state.  The winter warmer FG was 1.018, 8% ABV, using WLP023 Burton Ale yeast.  Both were brewed using a 1L healthy yeast starter.  I have remaining 46 bottles still conditioning in my "warm" kitchen at 66-70F.  Is that not warm enough?

[ynotbrusum]

I once had a barley wine that did that.  I went back and added some dry yeast to each bottle and it carbed up nicely.  Just a pinch per bottle.  I would give it a couple more weeks before resorting to this, though.

[Robert]

Search the topic on the forum, a recent thread or two addressed the fact that high gravity beers have a far lower PERCEPTION of carbonation even at the same actual level.  Maybe this is in play.  I'll try to find a link and post it in edit.

[dmtaylor]

Yeasts have a tolerance limit for ABV.  It is likely that your yeast is very tired at the 8% ABV level, and just needs extra time to carbonate.  The limit is probably higher than that, but being very close to the limit can slow it down considerably.

[Uvolnit]

I once had a barley wine that did that.  I went back and added some dry yeast to each bottle and it carbed up nicely.  Just a pinch per bottle.  I would give it a couple more weeks before resorting to this, though.

That would definitely work but yeah, i'll give it some more time until I resort to that.

Search the topic on the forum, a recent thread or two addressed the fact that high gravity beers have a far lower PERCEPTION of carbonation even at the same actual level.  Maybe this is in play.  I'll try to find a link and post it in edit.

I'll try searching that.  It does make some sense but my beer is truly not carbonated/very lightly carbonated.  There is zero head when pouring and very few, if any, CO2 bubbles within the beer.  I opened another last night and even poured vigorously to try and force some head and foam but no luck.

Yeasts have a tolerance limit for ABV.  It is likely that your yeast is very tired at the 8% ABV level, and just needs extra time to carbonate.  The limit is probably higher than that, but being very close to the limit can slow it down considerably.

This is likely the culprit.  On White Lab's website it lists the Burton Ale yeast I used for Medium (5-10%) alcohol tolerance.  I'll just give the bottles more time and keep them in a warm (~70°F) location.

[dmtaylor]

I'll bet you will have normal carbonation in about another 2 weeks or so.  Maybe 3.  Hope I'm right!!

[Aksarben]

If you add additional yeast, you might go with PDM or Uvaferm 43.  These are wine yeasts, but have high alcohol tolerance and PDM is the go-to yeast for secondary -in - bottle fermentation. You've added a sugar that these yeast "will" ferment.  Also a very tiny bit of yeast nutrient like Fermaid - O  would also be beneficial when adding the yeast.