Bottle Carbing Question

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cooper

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Quick question. The last brew I did I left in the primary for 4 weeks and then bottled; on bottling day I used corn sugar to prime and I put about a table spoon of rehydrated yeast in with it because I figured the leftover yeast would not be up to carbing the batch. The beer carbed up great.

THIS time I bottled after 4 weeks with carb tabs and I didnt add any extra yeast... It's been five days and no carb yet. Does anyone have any experience with this and did I make a mistake?
 
THIS time I bottled after 4 weeks with carb tabs and I didnt add any extra yeast... It's been five days and no carb yet.

Give it time! None of my brews have been carbed in 5 days. Leave them between 68-72 degrees for two full weeks, pop one in the fridge and try it out, should be fully carbed. If not, let sit another week. :mug:
 
That makes me feel a lot better. I guess my main fear was that there wouldn't be enough yeast left to carb it since before I've always added a little in the past just to be sure.

So you never add additional yeast at bottling time even when you let it sit for a month in the primary? It was very clear going into the bottling bucket btw.
 
You don't need to add any yeast at bottling time, unless, 1)you've been bulk aging for 6 months or more in secondary. 2) You have made an extremely high gravity beer and your yeast may have tuckered out.

But at 4 weeks, 8 weeks, yadda yadda yadda, you don't need to add any.

If a beer isn't carbed and conditioned at 3 weeks, it's just not ready yet. The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

And even carbonation doesn't mean that they will not still be green and need more time to condition.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience." ;)
 
Of Revvy's 20K posts, at least 5K must be addressing this very question.

I don't know why anyone would expect to see carbonation after 5 days.
 
I didnt expect to see carbination after five days, I was just worried that there might not have been enough yeast left in suspension for carbination. I guess I could have said that a little better in my original post.

Thanks for all the great advice though. It helps me as I'm still learning what to expect and what will turn out and what wont.
 
I didnt expect to see carbination after five days, I was just worried that there might not have been enough yeast left in suspension for carbination. I guess I could have said that a little better in my original post.

Thanks for all the great advice though. It helps me as I'm still learning what to expect and what will turn out and what wont.

There's really plenty of yeast to carb our beers under normal curcumstances no matter how long you primary secondary your beers, really until you get into the nearly a year or more mark.....
 
That's excellent news for me Revvy. I really appreciate all the info. And now I can cross off another "worry" and focus on the next thing.:mug:
 
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