Uncarbonated batch

[Lucas]

I popped the cork on the first two bottles of my quad last night 7 weeks after bottling and there is no carbonation. I think that the high alcohol content (~11.5%) killed the yeast because I can still taste the bottling sugar. It was stable at FG 1.012 from OG 1.100 so I thought it was just done fermenting, but it seems more likely now that the yeast just died. It was Wyeast 3522 and they give the alcohol tolerance as ~12%. Damn.

What is the best way to salvage the rest of this batch? I am thinking champagne yeast and I guess that I will have to pour all of the bottles into a carboy rather than pitch yeast into each bottle and recork to avoid possible overcarbonation in case the champagne yeast drops the FG? Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Lucas

[RubberToe]

I'd wait it out and move the bottles to a warmer place if you think they're too cold.

[Lucas]

I suppose waiting wouldn't hurt. The only thing that makes me think that it won't help is that one of the bottles was sitting at approximately 25C for the whole seven weeks while the other one was in my much cooler basement and there was no difference between them.

[jeffsmith]

I would avoid pouring the bottles out and rebottling. I think that your best bet would be finding a way to add a small amount of yeast to each bottle. Maybe make a small starter and use a syringe to add a measured amount to each bottle and recap?

[Lucas]

I want to avoid pouring out the bottles too but I am worried about the gravity dropping and getting bottle bombs if I introduce a new yeast to each bottle directly. If I poured them out then I could avoid this problem by letting it sit in a carboy with the new yeast for a few weeks (or months) or whatever. There are obvious problems with pouring the bottles out too, though - exposure to oxygen, risk of infection (probably pretty low at 11.5%, but still), etc.

[Lucas]

Huh, just did some googling and it seems that champagne yeast doesn't break down complex sugars. If the ale yeast did break down all of the simple sugars before it died then I would have no problems with bottle bombs.

[mr x]

I'd pour 'em easy into a keg before I'd dump them. Even keep a few for cooking.

[Lucas]

Hmmm it would probably make a mighty tasty Carbonnade Flamande...

[mr x]

What's the IBUs

[Lucas]

About 27 IBUs. I was aiming for something close to Rochefort 10.

[mr x]

Probably work well in lots of stuff. Mussels, banana bread, jelly, etc...

[LeafMan66_67]

Probably work well in lots of stuff. Mussels, banana bread, jelly, etc...

Mmm ... beer jelly