Afternoon fellow homebrewers,
I've got two cases of barley wine, which didn't carbonate up. It's been in the bottle for several months at room temp (65-70`) and there's a thin layer of yeast on the bottom. I do get a little bit of a "ppfft" when I pop the top, but I'm thinking that between the high alcohol (10%) and the long secondary (I should have pitched some fresh yeast at bottling) it probably just isn't going to happen. I am now happily kegging, and was wondering if there was a way to transfer the bottles to a keg and force carbonate without completely oxidizing the batch. My thoughts were to purge a keg with co2, and then outfit a funnel with a tube that ran to the bottom of the keg. I could then pour gently into the funnel. I could even go one step further and attempt to blanket the funnel in co2, so that co2 might enter the bottle instead of oxygen.
So, what say you? Anybody attempt this? What method did you use and how did it turn out?
Thanks for your input,
Jeff