Prime Dose capsules

I have bottled a batch of NB’s Megalodon and carbonation as of yet has failed. It’s been bottled for about four weeks now. So, I’m thinking about ordering some Prime Dose capsules and adding them to my bottles of flat Megalodon. Has anybody used Prime Dose capsules and what do you think of them? I really have nothing to lose at this point, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

Are you sure you used enough priming sugar and it was evenly mixed? What temp were you keeping the bottles at and were you rousing it regularly? Megalodon is a beast of a beer and higher gravity beers take longer to carb. My concern with using the prime dose is if the original amount of priming sugar hasnt fermented out for some reason and you add more, you could end up with gushers or bottle bombs.

What I would do in this scenario to make sure this wouldn’t occur would be take about 6 of them and buy a packet of US-05. Crack them open and add a few pellets of us-05 to each bottle just to make sure its not a lack of yeast that’s causing the carb issues. Let them sit another 2-3 weeks at around 75* rousing gently every day. If that doesn’t solve the problem then you might want to try the prime dose tabs to try to save the beer.

Yeah, I’m a little concerned about gushers or bombs too. Thanks for the advice. I’ll get some more yeast and see if that does the trick first on a few bottles. I guess I have nothing to lose and time isn’t really working against me at this point. So if the yeast trick doesn’t work then I’ll go to the Prime Dose capsules.

Just out of curiosity, would one use the Prime Dose capsules in lieu of priming sugar solution to carb their beer? Is that the purpose of those?

[quote=“WYCowboy”]Yeah, I’m a little concerned about gushers or bombs too. Thanks for the advice. I’ll get some more yeast and see if that does the trick first on a few bottles. I guess I have nothing to lose and time isn’t really working against me at this point. So if the yeast trick doesn’t work then I’ll go to the Prime Dose capsules.

Just out of curiosity, would one use the Prime Dose capsules in lieu of priming sugar solution to carb their beer? Is that the purpose of those?[/quote]

Yes that is the purpose of them. They contain a fixed amount of sugar to carb a fixed amount of beer. I have never used them and always priming sugar because I like to control the level of my carbonation based on the style and mouthfeel I’m trying to achieve.

That’s a pretty big beer - it might just take longer than normal for them to carb. I’ve had a 12% DIPA that showed barely any sign of carbonation at 6 weeks, and then at 8 weeks it is perfect.

Is there ANY sign of pressure in the bottles when you open them, even a slight hiss when the cap comes off? High ABV beers generally do take a long time to carbonate, but if you give it time they will get there. If there’s any evidence at all of carbonation, you might want to just warm them up a little and let them go longer. Once it starts, it seems to happen pretty fast, but waiting can definitely be frustrating.

They also contain yeast.

Pour one out let it go flat and take a reading if the if it is higher than the FG I would suspect you need yeast. I didn’t know prime dose tabs had yeast though. So in that case maybe your caps aren’t sealed. Did you cap on screw type bottles?

Theoretical question… Let’s say someone decided they weren’t getting proper carbonation after a month. They decide to open the bottles, add sugar, then recap. If there’s a slight hiss, suggesting there was some amount of fermentation that happened, how much sugar would they add? Some of the original priming sugar was fermented out, so there’s some carbonation, so obviously less. But then the act of opening the bottles, adding sugar, and recapping would release pressure, so maybe not that much less. Glass I never faced this problem (more accurately, I always just wait it out).

Unless you forgot to add priming sugar, there is no need for more. It’s possible that it wasn’t mixed in well, then some bottles could be overcarbed.

In the past I have opened bottles and added more yeast.

Generally, patience and warm conditioning is whats needed.