Bottling a Flanders Red

I brewed up 2 batches of flanders red last May and will be bottling them in the next couple of months.

My question is if I want to bottle condition them, should I add in some more yeast since they've been sitting for a year? Or if not, how long should I expect it to take to carbonate? Will it generally be slower than normal?

They need to be ready by the end of may for a wedding gift and I just want to make sure they're tip-top by then.

Thanks!

if you don't add yeast it could take 2 + months to fully carb i had a batch of beer i bulk aged for 7 months and it still carbed i check the bottles every 2 weeks and it took 2 months. that was 7.5 % so i would guess the same.


new yeast would speed it up.

I've had a batch that didn't carb in the bottle at all. Should've added new yeast...

Any old dry yeast works, since the flavor profile of the beer is pretty well set, and its only a little bit that it needs to ferment. I often use champange yeast or nottingham dry ale yeast. Just make sure it is well mixed into the brew before bottling. I generally rack the beer onto the yeast in the bottling bucket or jug.

What about the bugs in the beer? What happens to the bacteria you put in the flanders to sour it (i.e. the Brett strains)? Do they die after the beer has aged long enough?

cmdrico7812 said:

What about the bugs in the beer? What happens to the bacteria you put in the flanders to sour it (i.e. the Brett strains)? Do they die after the beer has aged long enough?

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If you are adding any additional sugars or malt at bottling to carbonate the beer, then you should add fresh yeast to ensure that is what that sugar does. Once the beer is carbed, those yeast will go dormant, and any lactic or brett bugs can keep on slowly doing what they have been for the last 9 or so months.

Since brett and lactic cultures are still working on the dextrins in the beer, they will still probably be there. But even if they digest things in the beer, they might not produce gas.

If you have lactic bugs, some varieties do not produce any Co2 at all, including most dairy strains, although they will quickly consume the sugars and sour the beer further.

Even if the lactic bugs are gas producers, simple sugars are much easier for lactics to consume than the dextrins they have slowly been working on for months. The lactics will probably get to the sugar before any small amount of dormant live yeast that may present. So your beer will carbonate fairly quickly, but it will be noticeably more sour than before you bottled it.

I can't say about Brett, I don't know if it will create Co2 or not, it might depend on what type of carbohydrate they are digesting. If it is sugar, it will most likely produce gas. But again, if there are lactic bugs present, the brett will be competing with them for the sugars.

You really should be adding yeast if you are adding sugar. However, if you aren't adding sugar, the beer may still carbonate if the strains present are gas producers, as they slowly work on the dextrins, but it will take time.

This may a question better suited for the bottling forum, but I'll ask anyway. I also have a Flanders Red to bottle (mine won't be for another several months), I want to bottle it in a way to promote a long shelf life.

I know that oxidation is a killer for a finished beer, and I also believe that the yeast activity to carbonate a bottle is likely not enough to consume the air in the bottle.

Most beers I bottle are gone within 3 months, so shelf life is not my primary concern, but it may not be the case for this one. After aging this beer in a carboy for a year, I may want to keep some bottles for another 1-2 years.

Does anyone have any tried and true methods to reduce O2 levels in bottled beer? Perhaps squirting some of that wine saver gas into each bottle before capping?

Wine saver gas is just CO2 in a little jet pack. While that will certainly work just fine, I've had beers, wine and cider bottled a year and never had any problems with oxidation.

Thanks for the advice, looks like I should add some yeast. I was thinking that would probably be the case.


@Sixbillionethans - You can get o2 absorbing caps that should suck up any that's left in the headspace if you're really concerned. Just be sure to soak them in warm water/sanitizer to activate them.

I could be wrong, but I don't think that a little bit of oxygen is the head space of your bottle will be a problem. Splashing and aerating it while you are bottling is more likely to cause oxidative damage, at least that is what I have experienced with red wine.

Good advice all around. Thanks for the comments on bottling.

As I said, I haven't really had problems, but I'm looking for an insurance policy for some of my beer batches that I intend to age.

One thing I'll point out is the lengths that some commercial breweries are going to now with their bottling. O2 absorbing caps for most. And I've heard that some are purging with CO2 either before or after filling.