P-Dogg's Zymurgy Tip of the day..

Just in case you've ever wanted to make a high gravity beer, here's a tip for you. Get a reaaaal strong yeast or one that you can add to the bottle after primary fermentation. My batch #7 is a Belgian Style Abbey Ale with about a 10% Alcohol content. It has been almost three months since I bottled it, and I have no carbonation whatsoever. I asked the friendly neighborhood beer maker store owner guy about it and he told me that the amount of alcohol in the beer ends up slowing the yeast activity and therefore the remaining yeast in the bottles are having a hard time creating the carbon dioxide needed for proper carbonation. He recommended adding a few granules of dry yeast to each bottle and then re-capping them.

I did that Saturday evening, and I sure hope I didn't put too much in each bottle and they become bottle bombs.

Moral of the story: I'm probably not going to make another high gravity beer anytime soon. They're expensive, take too long to make, and you have to wait forever for them to carbonate and be drinkable. I'll stick with the regular gravity beers, thank you very much. I can buy myself a finely crafted Belgian Ale at the liquor store when the need hits me.