Transfer flat bottled beer into a keg

Question

Quick rundown. I was in a rush to bottle an IPA and I forgot to add my priming sugar. I remembered after already bottling about three beers and went ahead and got my priming solution going and added it to the bottling bucket, stirred it to get it mixed, and then finished bottling the remaining beer.

Well it has been about a month now and all the beers appear to be as flat as can be. I've got a keg that is now empty (just finished off a good stout) and I was wondering if I could transfer my bottled beers into the keg and force carb it? Has anyone had any luck with something like this.

Thanks.

Answer 1

If you can siphon off rather than pour, then you should be fine with this, assuming it's a beer you plan to drink over the coming weeks rather than leaving it to age for many months.

As with any transfer, there's a chance of contamination and oxidization. You can mitigate the first by sanitizing thoroughly, and the second, by avoiding splashing during the transfer and by storing the beer cold (2-7C/35-45F), since oxidization rate increases 3-fold for each 10C/18F increase in temperature.

However, storing the beer cold removes any chance that the priming sugar will be consumed. With that in mind, you may want to store the beer at room temperature for a week before storing cold, to end up with the beer as intended rather than with the additional sweetness from the priming sugar.

Answer 2

You might want to continue to wait or gently rouse the yeast into suspension. I made an Irish Red a couple of months ago that had the same problem. I gently rolled each bottle on its side and placed them back into the box. I checked them again in 3 weeks and they were starting to show signs of carbonation and by the next week after that they were fine. As long as the yeast are present and still alive they should eventually consume the priming sugar and carbonate the beer it just might take a while especially if the beer has a relatively high abv.