Should I pitch a second helping of yeast in the keg?

Hey Friends,

Here's the deal, I made a double IPA with a 1.067 OG and then I was so confident that it was done after 3 weeks, I kegged it. I took the final gravity and was still at 1.025. Not low enough to be happy with it.

Here is my question, I have 30 lbs of co2 pressure on it right now, still the first night. Can I bleed off the pressure pitch more yeast in the keg and let it sit for another 10 days? It's been at a chilled temp for 7 days now. Should I bring it back up to 68 degrees or would that just ruin it?

Thanks for the help.

I'm not so sure adding more yeast will get you anything. In theory there should be plenty of yeast to eat whatever fermentables are left in there.

Was this an extract or all grain batch?
Fermentation schedule and temps? Somebody else will ask if I didn't.
Yeast starter? Proper pitching rate?
If extract I'd say it could be unfermentables from the malt extraction process but 1.025 is high FG even for an extract batch.


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Thank you for the reply! This is an all grain batch. It had 8 days in primary at 70 degrees. The airlock slowed to a burb every two to three minutes. I used a yeast starter with a Wyeast Smack Pack. Then in my cooler at 35 degrees for another 10 days for conditioning.

You could try warming it back up and rousing the yeast back into suspension. 8 days seems a bit short for fermentation. I know most activity will be done in the first few days but I usually go 2 weeks before I start checking gravity samples then a few more days later to confirm I've hit terminal gravity. Just because primary fermentation ends in a few days doesn't mean the yeast have finished doing their thing. Cooling it down to 35 if the yeast weren't finished could be a good reason why your at 1.025 FG. I would try warming it back up to 65-70 and see if that doesn't kick the yeast back into working for you.


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What temp did you mash at? Is your mash thermometer KNOWN to be accurate? How do you KNOW?

Gil - I'm trying that now. The keg has been out of the cooler since Friday. I lift the blow valve once each evening and so far its putting out gas so I suppose the yeast is back at work. Had to buy a 12 pack to make through the week though. Thanks for the tip, I'll update with the the new gravity reading on Saturday to see how we did.

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Blues4Brews said:

. Had to buy a 12 pack to make through the week though.

Click to expand...

Consider it research and development for your next batch



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Are you saying that you took it off the yeast or dropped the temp to 35*F after 8 days? If so, why?

Oh, if you add more yeast now, what you'll very likely end up with is yeasty beer at the same gravity.

BigFloyd - I kept it in the primary when I dropped temp. This is a practice I see many commercial brewers doing, in fact I attempted to mimic the Anderson Walker time schedule with this batch.
Also, I did not repitch yeast.

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I wouldn't try to mimic any commercial breweries' schedule for anything. At the volume they are brewing, processes and reactions are very different than for us doing 5 gallons at home. In fact, more than one head brewer at a micro has told me that it's a real challenge for them to scale up recipes and processes when they go from small experimental batches to larger runs.

For us, it's better to simply leave that beer on the yeast until we know it has reached stable FG plus 3-4 days for yeast to clear up their byproducts. I normally do my first gravity check at 12-14 days for an ale. If it happens to stall a bit short, you have a nice bunch of yeast just sitting there so you can warm it up some and rouse it back to work.

Hey Friends, appreciate all the advice. I ended up at a .018 final gravity with a really huge body. No extra yeast pitched, I just took the keg out from the cooler and left it for 8 days. Yeast woke back up and finished the job. Not as low FG as I would have liked but definitely better than what I had. Looks like this was a lesson in patience.

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I'm with sdxj and gsbb on this. Times and temps. If you mash at lower temps (148°-152°), you will get more fermentables. If you mash above 158°F, you will have nothing but non-fermentable sugars that will leave you with a ridiculously high FG. So, it may not have been a yeast issue in the first place. Depending on style, land between 148° and 158°. Or, mash low with most of your water and sparge high (170°) with a gallon or two.


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My next recipe will be identicle ingredients with that strategy added. Thanks you. My beer is missing the alcohol, whats the point

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