Brewed a saison over a year ago, used dregs from SARA, Fantome, and HF. Beer came out beautiful and was ready to bottle about a month ago. I did not add any extra yeast at bottling because I forgot honestly. Had the smack pack activated and everything, just didn't realize until all the bottles were capped. A month later and there is only a very faint amount of carbonation, it's basically still. I'm assuming there just isn't any viable yeast left after a year +. I'm at a loss. Pretty unfortunate to waste such a great beer to a careless mistake. I'm not expecting some magic answer, but figured it couldn't hurt to ask. Anyone have any suggestions?
It's a lot of work, but I suppose you could open all of the bottles and recombine them back into a bucket, re-pitch your yeast and re-bottle.
Considered it. Would expose the beer to so much oxygen it might just be worth drinking flat though. Also considered uncapping each one and adding a drop of yeast. Would be a ridiculous amount of work but less oxygen exposure.
I've never used them, but there are also these things: http://www.amazon.com/Coopers-Home-Brewing-Carbonation-Drops/dp/B003E5ZYB8 I guess some people use them as an alternative to priming sugar. Just one drop per 12oz bottle from what I've read.
Well, from doing a bit more reading, it looks like those drops are composed primarily of sugar....so I guess if your yeast is dead they may not work afterall.
After one year in the fermenter, a beer has close to no residual carbonation. Bottle priming calculators assume a residual carbonation of ~0.8vols. If you primed for 2.5 vols and used a calculator, what you got was 2.5-0.8 vols or 1.7 vols which is low, but technically still carbonated. If you do anything, your safest bet is to add yeast and sugar to each bottle with a dropper. How much sugar to use will require some thought and calculations. Dumping the bottles into a bucket is not a good idea.
If you re-yeast, champagne yeast is the way to go. If you re-prime with more sugar, you should re-yeast. Extra yeast won't hurt. Drinking flat sour wild beer is how the old school Belgians do it. Americans prefer the fizz...
