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Author Topic: Bottling after extended secondary fermentation  (Read 12725 times)

Offline jasonbutler42

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Bottling after extended secondary fermentation
« on: November 06, 2009, 06:31:03 am »
I have a five gallon batch that has been in secondary fermentation for about three weeks now. I was hoping to keg but was unable to get an appropriate setup in a timely fashion. I need to get the beer into bottles but I'm not sure if the yeast is still viable for carbonation.

Would I need to pitch additional yeast or is there still enough life left in the yeast that's in suspension? If I did pitched additional yeast, would that be catastrophic?

Offline bonjour

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Re: Bottling after extended secondary fermentation
« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2009, 06:37:14 am »
3 weeks,  should be no problem.

Fred
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Offline Crispy275

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Re: Bottling after extended secondary fermentation
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2009, 07:53:03 am »
I agree with Fred. I recently bottled some Imp. Stout after letting it age on some vanilla beans and Bourboun soaked oak chips for 7 weeks (10 gallons). After bottling 100 bottles, I realized that I forgot to add a little fresh yeast in my bottling bucket. I usually do these for extended aged larger beers, as I am concerned that the yeast could be popped out.

Well, I am happy to report that three weeks in the bottle, they are now correctly carbonated. Still, for insurance sake, I would typically add a little fresh yeast into the bottling bucket for aged beers with graviities exceeding 1.065 - 1.075. I usually add 1056 (tablespoon) to each 5 gallon batch that I am bottling and swirl it together with the priming sugars. However, you can use virtually any yeast, as the wort is effectively fully fermented. The only caveat I have to that is that I would avoid adding a significantly higher attenuating yeast to a bottling bucket full of a brew that had a lower attenuating yeast, for obvious reasons
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« Last Edit: November 09, 2009, 10:59:41 am by Crispy275 »
Chris P. Frey, aka "Crispy"
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