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Author Topic: Bottle conditioned lager  (Read 5099 times)

Offline sbruening

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Re: Bottle conditioned lager
« Reply #15 on: July 21, 2014, 02:08:30 pm »
did it taste as all sweet? if the yeast were unable to deal with the sugar then the sugar would still be there and it's just about enough to taste. it's possible you got bad seals, although that seems unlikely on an entire batch. That time line does not seem long enough to have caused any problems with the yeast unless you cold conditioned in secondary and dropped all the yeast out which is unlikely. How much priming sugar did you use?

There is a sweet taste in the beer,  I also noticed that there was absolutely no sediment at the bottom of any of the bottles.  As far as how much sugar, I don't know.  It was from a Brewer's Best Irish Stout kit.

I think 3 weeks is still pretty soon for a beer that lagered for 6 weeks. It may take longer to carbonate. But 6 weeks is pushing it, I think. To be safe, I wouldn't lager for more than 4 weeks at 35F without adding more yeast at bottling. You probably don't need to even lager that long. You need to drop some of the yeast out, then you can carbonate and lager in the bottles more. So 2 weeks would likely be adequate.

Was there a hiss at all when you opened the bottle? If so, it could mean that it's working, but just taking longer than normal.

There was an extremely small carbonation sound.

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Bottle conditioned lager
« Reply #16 on: July 21, 2014, 02:28:44 pm »
did it taste as all sweet? if the yeast were unable to deal with the sugar then the sugar would still be there and it's just about enough to taste. it's possible you got bad seals, although that seems unlikely on an entire batch. That time line does not seem long enough to have caused any problems with the yeast unless you cold conditioned in secondary and dropped all the yeast out which is unlikely. How much priming sugar did you use?

There is a sweet taste in the beer,  I also noticed that there was absolutely no sediment at the bottom of any of the bottles.  As far as how much sugar, I don't know.  It was from a Brewer's Best Irish Stout kit.

I think 3 weeks is still pretty soon for a beer that lagered for 6 weeks. It may take longer to carbonate. But 6 weeks is pushing it, I think. To be safe, I wouldn't lager for more than 4 weeks at 35F without adding more yeast at bottling. You probably don't need to even lager that long. You need to drop some of the yeast out, then you can carbonate and lager in the bottles more. So 2 weeks would likely be adequate.

Was there a hiss at all when you opened the bottle? If so, it could mean that it's working, but just taking longer than normal.

There was an extremely small carbonation sound.

some confusion here. beersk was responding to the OP. Generally it's a good idea to start a new thread with a  new question. threads are free and we don't mind.

That said...

Given the sweet taste and the very slight hiss I suspect you had very little viable yeast in the bottles. next time be a little less careful about avoiding trub carryover into the bottling bucket or add a little new yeast. there doesn't have to be much sediment at the bottom. Take a look at a bottle of sierra nevada pale ale. that's bottle conditioned with the absolute bare minimum number of yeast cells and many people don't even realize it's bottle conditioned there is so little sediment.
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Offline sbruening

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Re: Bottle conditioned lager
« Reply #17 on: July 21, 2014, 02:39:02 pm »
did it taste as all sweet? if the yeast were unable to deal with the sugar then the sugar would still be there and it's just about enough to taste. it's possible you got bad seals, although that seems unlikely on an entire batch. That time line does not seem long enough to have caused any problems with the yeast unless you cold conditioned in secondary and dropped all the yeast out which is unlikely. How much priming sugar did you use?

There is a sweet taste in the beer,  I also noticed that there was absolutely no sediment at the bottom of any of the bottles.  As far as how much sugar, I don't know.  It was from a Brewer's Best Irish Stout kit.

I think 3 weeks is still pretty soon for a beer that lagered for 6 weeks. It may take longer to carbonate. But 6 weeks is pushing it, I think. To be safe, I wouldn't lager for more than 4 weeks at 35F without adding more yeast at bottling. You probably don't need to even lager that long. You need to drop some of the yeast out, then you can carbonate and lager in the bottles more. So 2 weeks would likely be adequate.

Was there a hiss at all when you opened the bottle? If so, it could mean that it's working, but just taking longer than normal.

There was an extremely small carbonation sound.

some confusion here. beersk was responding to the OP. Generally it's a good idea to start a new thread with a  new question. threads are free and we don't mind.

That said...

Given the sweet taste and the very slight hiss I suspect you had very little viable yeast in the bottles. next time be a little less careful about avoiding trub carryover into the bottling bucket or add a little new yeast. there doesn't have to be much sediment at the bottom. Take a look at a bottle of sierra nevada pale ale. that's bottle conditioned with the absolute bare minimum number of yeast cells and many people don't even realize it's bottle conditioned there is so little sediment.

I've heard that about Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.  Well, actually, I've heard that they filter there beer and then they add yeast back in. 

I'm wondering if not transferring to a secondary will help me with keeping some yeast in the beer.  I've got two batches of the exact same beers in fermenters right now.  I'm attempting to make an American Pale Ale, so I was thinking of just leaving them in the primaries for 3 weeks and then bottle.

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Bottle conditioned lager
« Reply #18 on: July 21, 2014, 02:57:12 pm »
that is an excellent idea.
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Offline beersk

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Re: Bottle conditioned lager
« Reply #19 on: July 21, 2014, 03:09:13 pm »
You can do that, or you can lager on the yeast cake for 3 or 4 weeks and be fine to bottle. And like Jonathan said, be slightly less careful racking to the bottling bucket. If you want to minimize the sediment, cold crash for a week then bottle. But as to your current lager, it might just need more time. If there was a hiss, it means it was working, just taking longer than normal since there was less yeast in suspension. Give it time if you can.
Jesse