Save The Beer!!!

Ok please read with an open mind. Late for bed and no time to go in depth. I have 6 gallons of uncarbonated beer cooling in my refrigerator. I only have a 5 gallon keg to put it in. The original plan was to bottle 1 gallon with carb tabs, this was before I had to refer it to get it ready for force carbonation. I'm fully prepared to loose 1 gallon to save 5, but would prefer to save the whole batch. And figured it would be a cool experiment. After kegging the 5 gallon is there anyway I can revive the yeast to carbonate? Please help and thanks in advance.

Mike

I would have just left it in the fermenter at room temperature until I was ready to keg 5 gallons of it and bottle 1 gallon.

I'd bet it'll probably still be fine if you keg 5 gallons of it, and prime and bottle the other gallon tomorrow. I guess there's a chance too much of the yeast will have flocculated and you might not have enough to carbonate the bottles. In which case, maybe you can rehydrate and add a little more yeast to the extra 1 gallon before you prime and bottle it (after it's at 70F or 75F or so).

You can still prime and bottle the other gallon. The yeast is still there and viable, unless you filtered it out or pasteurized it. Hell you keep smack packs in the fridge, don't you? You'll still have enough in suspension to get your carbonation going.

Just bottle it as you originally planned.

Since I took up kegging I now loath bottling. My beers that I find to be excellent from the keg just don't have the same flavor from the bottle. Don't know if I have lost the technique or just have a mental block about the bottles.

My solution would be simply to keg 5 gallons and drink 1 gallon of flat beer. Most of my beers are so hoppy & alcohol laced that I have no problem with lack of bubbles. I really enjoy finishing off the hydrometer samples.

weirdboy said:

You can still prime and bottle the other gallon. The yeast is still there and viable, unless you filtered it out or pasteurized it. Hell you keep smack packs in the fridge, don't you? You'll still have enough in suspension to get your carbonation going.

Just bottle it as you originally planned.

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Never thought of it like. I'm gonna see how it works out. Worst comes to worst I waste my time bottle 10 or so beers. Hey one more question. Is there a time limit to aging before there is no longer enough yeast in suspension? This brew's been hanging out for over a month now. Am I wasting my time to begin with bottling?

Seeves1982 said:

Never thought of it like. I'm gonna see how it works out. Worst comes to worst I waste my time bottle 10 or so beers. Hey one more question. Is there a time limit to aging before there is no longer enough yeast in suspension? This brew's been hanging out for over a month now. Am I wasting my time to begin with bottling?

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I've lagered for as long as 8 weeks without re-yeasting, and it's turned out fine.

My 5 gallon kegs actually hold more than 5 gallons, so I usually keg about 5.25 gallons. As long as the beer is below the gas diptube, you're fine,

It might be easier to use a bottling bucket for this job. Siphon the beer into the bottling bucket, and fill the keg with some long tubing. When the keg is full, switch over to the bottling wand and fill the bottles. That's what I do. I've also primed the whole batch, and then just filled bottles at the end, so I didn't have to use carb tabs.

throw it in some 2 litre bottles with some homeade carbonator caps (valve stem) you can force carb the remaining gallon, in soda bottles and sample (drink) it as the keg conditions

YooperBrew said:

My 5 gallon kegs actually hold more than 5
gallons, so I usually keg about 5.25 gallons. As long as the beer is below the gas diptube, you're fine,

It might be easier to use a bottling bucket for this job. Siphon the beer into the bottling bucket, and fill the keg with some long tubing. When the keg is full, switch over to the bottling wand and fill the bottles. That's what I do. I've also primed the whole batch, and then just filled bottles at the end, so I didn't have to use carb tabs.

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When you say below the dip tube what do you mean I'm not very in tune to kegging yet.

Thanks,
Mike

Seeves1982 said:

When you say below the dip tube what do you mean I'm not very in tune to kegging yet.

Thanks,
Mike

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If you look in the keg, you have the long diptube for the beer to come out, and a very short diptube for the gas to enter in. You want the level of the beer to be below that gas (short) diptube.