The Beer Nerd - what are you drinking / brewing thread

Preparing for lockdown! Woo!

(Narrow Gauge literally stopped letting people in while we were there, this trip is wild)

 

Must ration carefully. Tried the hazy life double. One of the best doubles I’ve had. Super crushable.

 

A question for the home brewers. I’ve given my Tripel 10 weeks in the bottle now, it’s been exposed to some slightly warmer temps but I still have no carbonation. Seems like the yeast played out before I bottled.

So, would it be possible to empty my bottles into a keg and force carb it? Would I risk too much exposure to oxygen? The beer has a good flavor, just flat. I’d really like to save it if possible.

 

Classic Homebrew question! No wrong/right answer...

If you decided to pour it into a keg and added more high gravity yeast maybe the new yeast would eat up some of the oxygen? Might thin out the beer.

Maybe if you force carb it would push out all the O2 you introduce?

maybe a combo of both?

Let us know what you decide.

 

Hmm, this is what I was looking to add to my next bottling to keep this from happening again.

But your saying to add it to the pressurized keg as well? If refrigerated wouldn't this impact the fermentation? Thinning it out a bit wouldn't be a bad thing and I wouldn't mind taking the sweetness down a notch. Let's see what this small amount yeast can do.
Thanks

 

I have no idea but your question is why homebrewing is so fun. I’m just throwing out ideas you get to see what sticks!

I need to brew again.

 

Also let us know what works. Might be I. The same situation at some point

 

We shall see if I use this as (another) reason to get a Kegerator. On the plus side I can leave this Belgian sitting for a few more months while I talk my wife into me getting another piece of beer related equipment.

 

Maybe @christyle knows

 

Yuengling lite. Have to watch my figure

 

Do you have kegging stuff then, or is this hypothetical? I forget...

You could Purge the keg with c02 and then try to gently pour them in, carbonate and hope for the best? At 10 weeks if it hasn't, it's unlikely it's going to carb in the bottle later on. I'd see what @Beer:30 thinks

 

Picked me up some Radiant beauty
Unfortunately my camera apparently has taken a shit though

 

I have fortunately never had to deal with an issue like this, but I have prepared for the day it might happen.

I would just crack open each bottle and add some bottle conditioning yeast. Opening and pouring would introduce too much O2 in my opinion. It will be a painstaking process, but worth it to save the beer.

Here is a bottle conditioning yeast pitch calculator. It uses gallons, but I believe the bottle measurement is ~.09 gallons if using 12oz bottles. Please feel free to check my math on that one. https://www.lallemandbrewing.com/en...brewing-tools/bottle-conditioning-calculator/

 

This is what I'd suggest. The yeast strain doesn't matter too much as long as it can handle the ABV. There is not enough sugar present to alter the flavor, assuming you don't go throwing a Brett or Lacto strain in there. As long as the bottles remain sealed, they should be okay for quite a while, so maybe open a couple and add a bit of yeast and seal back up. Wait another month and see what you get. If it works do the rest of the bottles. Nothing to lose but time, really.

The keg idea could work. As several have noted above, exposing the beer to O2 is going to be the main concern so that's what you need to focus on mitigating. You could connect CO2 to the out post and flood the keg from the bottom up for a couple minutes prior to and while emptying the bottles into it, which would minimize O2 exposure. Maybe on top of that, after getting all the bottles poured into the keg, add yeast, purge with CO2 after sealing and let the keg naturally carbonate. The benefit to that is that the yeast should consume most, if not all, of any O2 still present.

Good luck and let us know the course of action you settle on, as well as the results.

 

My homebrew English Pale Ale/Bitter/whatever you wanna call it is there after a week and a half in the bottle. This might be my favorite brew yet. It just tastes like I would expect an English beer to taste if I bought one from the bottle shop.

 

I was thinking this, but worried a bottle conditioning yeast could go ham on the sugars left in something like a tripel and make for some bottle bombs... I know i've heard on the Sour Hour podcast rare barrel is crazy about their bottle conditioning regiment and wants to avoid bottle bombs at all costs, so they had some different ideas on bottling, and one of them was to use the same strain of yeast you pitched into the original beer, so it would likely see the same final OG, rather than over-attenuate with some new yeast.

 

Legit point!

 

Don't have a kegging set up yet. Yes, I need a plan for the transfer and hopefully keep it protected with a layer of c02.

Ok, looked at the calculator - question: What's my desired c02 saturation?

I have some Safale s-04 handy, just need to figure out the dosage.
For the keg, was thinking about running transfer tube from a funnel the bottom of the keg and pouring ever so gently.

So maybe just start with a couple of bottles and keep them in totes.

Guys - Much thanks for all the input.