using secondary = longer to bottle carb??

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ahoym8e

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I bottled my first batch of beer that had spent time in a secondary.

The beer is VERY clear, with almost no sediment in the bottle.

However, while tremendously clear, the beer is also tremendously flat. does allowing the beer to settle in secondary delay the bottle-carbonation?

most of my beers (bottled straight out of primary) have been nearly fully carbed 5 days to a week after bottling. it's been 5 days for my beautiful APA, but it's flat as tap water...

Just curious.
 
it will be the same time whether you use a secondary or not. Bottling and the use of a secondary are not related. What matters is when you add the priming sugar to the beer and bottle it.
 
Mine take anywhere from 2-3 weeks so I think you are a tad early. Most of the time they are better at 3 weeks and that depends on the temp.
 
Also depends on your recipe and also what your primming with. If you prim with DME it will take longer to carbonate then if you use primming sugar. If you use something like molassis or honey it will take longer. Like everything, time is on your side.
 
Don't be too worried. Even the hefeweizen I recently brewed, which had lots of suspended yeast when I bottled, took 12(+) days to get to fully carbonated. I had one at 5 days and it wasn't nearly carbed enough so I waited a week and it was just fine. I primed with corn sugar. It'll get carbonated, eventually, like these guys say, but it'll just take longer with fewer yeast cells in the bottle. I clarified the cider I made with bentonite and it took over 3 weeks to get to peak carbonation (and is just starting to taste good).
 
I primed with 3/4 cup priming sugar.

Wil try another next week and report back.
 
If you had your APA in the secondary for a REALLY long time, it could have some issues. And by REALLY long, for an APA, I'd say 2 months or so. Often times guys will pitch some dry yeast a few days before bottling if they've been conditioning a batch in secondary for several months. I asked about this same thing a couple months back and that's the advice I was given. I pitched some Safale US56 into the secondary where my belgian blonde had been chillin for 2 months and then bottled 4 days later. I don't know how it would have gone if I hadn't repitched, but it carbed nicely in 4 days at ~73 degrees.
 
Monk said:
If you had your APA in the secondary for a REALLY long time, it could have some issues. And by REALLY long, for an APA, I'd say 2 months or so. Often times guys will pitch some dry yeast a few days before bottling if they've been conditioning a batch in secondary for several months. I asked about this same thing a couple months back and that's the advice I was given. I pitched some Safale US56 into the secondary where my belgian blonde had been chillin for 2 months and then bottled 4 days later. I don't know how it would have gone if I hadn't repitched, but it carbed nicely in 4 days at ~73 degrees.
Click to expand...

Monk,

When you do this, do you get a layer of yeast at the bottom just like you would in your primary? Was it easy to siphon out of the secondary into your bottling bucket or keg without picking up the yeast?

I have a christmas ale that I'm doing that states to repitch the yeast 3 days before bottling & I was wondering what happens when you do that.

TIA!
 
ahoym8e said:
most of my beers (bottled straight out of primary) have been nearly fully carbed 5 days to a week after bottling. it's been 5 days for my beautiful APA, but it's flat as tap water...
.
Click to expand...

Yes, the longer you let the yeast settle, the less yeast will be in the bottle and the longer it will take to carbonate the bottles. Another effect is the age of the yeast. Especially when the secondary is kept at 60-70F, the yeast's viability will be significantly reduced after 1 or 2 weeks. This also affects carbonation times.

As said before, 2-3 weks are a reasonable time for carbonating a beer primed with sugar or DME, that has been in the secondary.

If you are impatient, there are ways to get around that. But that means more work for you ;)

Kai
 
When I started using a secondary my beers started taking longer to bottle condition. That's not a bad thing though, as it means you only start drinking them in earnest once they're at least a month old, which means it's better beer!
 

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