No carbonation...origin...solutions?

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by NEhophead, Nov 11, 2012.

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  1. NEhophead

    NEhophead Pooh-Bah (1,897) Apr 28, 2004 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    I am only 7 batches deep into mash-extract transition brewing, so my apologies in advance if there is a pretty straightforward answer...and hopefully, solution...to my question:

    Six weeks ago I brewed a mash-extract English Barleywine, transferred to secondary a week later, and bottled just shy of two weeks after that. After just a little more than two weeks in the bottle I decided to try a sample...understanding that I'm still at least 6 weeks away from 'ideal' maturation. With that said, I was definitely not surprised by the rough alcohol presence, but I became more than a little concerned by the absence of carbonation.

    First, I do not recall any deviations in terms of procedure between this batch and my previous six efforts, all of which came out well with normal carbonation.

    So, here I am...wondering where I may have gone wrong...and more importantly, is there anything that I can do at this point to salvage this batch?

    Any advice/feedback/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
     
    #1 NEhophead, Nov 11, 2012
  2. mattcrill

    mattcrill Pooh-Bah (1,845) Mar 16, 2004 Ohio
    Pooh-Bah

    I was an impatient bottler so I used to take a sixer and place it on top of my water heater. Knowing that it wouldn't get too hot but it would definitely be warm. Also, I would invert each bottle every day to make sure that the yeast was "roused" enough to generate some carbonation.

    Other than that, your only other options are carbonator caps from liquid bread which require a kegging set up...

    http://www.liquidbread.com/

    Just some ideas. Good luck...
     
    #2 mattcrill, Nov 11, 2012
  3. ventura78

    ventura78 Pundit (972) Nov 22, 2003 Massachusetts

    Too early, try another one at 4 weeks, 6 may be better.
     
    #3 ventura78, Nov 11, 2012
  4. kscaldef

    kscaldef Initiate (0) Jun 11, 2010 Oregon

    I've never had a Barleywine carbonate in less than 4 weeks, and 2-3 months isn't uncommon. And, it might never carbonate if the yeast was too stressed by the fermentation and you didn't add any fresh at bottling.

    (Also, too late for this now, but 3 weeks is pretty early for bottling a barleywine, IMO. Did you take gravity measurements to ensure you'd hit FG? My barleywines have spent 1-2 months in the fermenter before they bottomed out.)
     
    #4 kscaldef, Nov 11, 2012
  5. kjyost

    kjyost Initiate (0) May 4, 2008 Canada (MB)

    Agreed. It took 3+ months for the carbonation in mine to be what I considered complete, with a re-yeasting (but I had also bulk aged it for 6 months)
     
    #5 kjyost, Nov 11, 2012
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