Impy stout carbonation

[hoppyscotty]

Hi, last feb I brewed a big impy stout. Left it until last December and added bourbon soaked barrel chips for a couple of weeks or we before transferring to a keg and priming with yeast and sugar to condition for a couple of weeks before bottling with a counter flow bottle filler.

The beer itself is a big 10% thick and viscous impy and is great, maybe could do with a few months to a year more conditioning before it hits its best, but any level of carbonation has failed. A few mates reckon that’s not an issue and this style doesn’t need it or is usually not highly carbonated.

Going to brew another batch this weekend and pondering this, so what’s the consensus on carbonation for this style? I’m not sure if my efforts to carbonate failed or with it being such a big and viscous beer then it can’t hold much carbonation but just thinking about any changes I’m going to make for this next batch. Thanks.

 

[aamcle]

Try using bottling yeast the big suppliers make them or force carbonate. 1 to 1.5 volumes IIRC.

aamcle

 

[hoppyscotty]

Thanks I did use a bottling yeast (Lallemand CBC-1), but in a keg then bottled from the keg so not sure if that process failed. Think next time I’ll bottle prime rather than keg prime.

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

A beer that big can take months to properly carb up with priming sugar, even if a lower level of carbonation and small amounts of sugar was used. It is a high alcohol environment and the yeast is tired. Time and patience are your friends with beers like this.

 

[hoppyscotty]

hope you're right. We primed the keg with east and sugar and left for a couple of weeks before bottling. Though the beer tastes great I think it would benefit from a bit more conditioning so am going to leave the rest for a good 12 months more I think so maybe by then the carbonation might have built up. Not bothered about there being active carbonation running through the beer, it is meant to be velvety smooth texture anyway, but would be nice to have a bit of foam sat on top.

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

If no yeast followed the beer in to the bottles nothing will happen anyways.
Your best bet would probably have been to let the keg sit a few months instead of weeks before bottling from it.

 

[hoppyscotty]

assume the yeast transferred to the bottle from the keg but I obviously didn't make any allowances when conditioning in the keg for the higher ABV and just used my normal schedule. In any case it's perfectly nice and drinkable as it is. Just no head. brewing this years batch this weekend, so have a good 9 months or so to suss out what I'm going to do next time.

 

[Pennine]

Imperial stouts are infamous for not producing heads. I would keep the carbonation low like 1.5 to 2 volumes, it helps with the flavour to me.

I have had good success using a bottling bucket, sugar and some rehydrated Ferments F2. That's what I would recommend for them.

Another thought is to pressurize your keg and then bottle with no secondary fermentation.

 

[dad_of_jon]

m29 has always carbonated for me well up to 12.86% at least.

brew 22 -king kong Black top 10/09/2016
2kg extra dark dme
1 kg medium
1 kg ex light
500g dwe
500g candi dark
450g golden syrup
500g aromatic malt
500g dark crystal
250g roasted barley.
250g caramunich iii
20.5 litres - OG 1.108
01/10/2016
1.010 - fg
12.86%