Natural Carbonation

I am new to this so forgive me if this is a dumb question. Does the yeast need to still be active in order for the priming sugar to be consumed and thus carbonate?

jcooper_87 said:

I am new to this so forgive me if this is a dumb question. Does the yeast need to still be active in order for the priming sugar to be consumed and thus carbonate?

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You can have the beer sitting for months and still have enough yeast in suspension (even on crystal clear looking beer) to carbonate. You don't want the yeast to still be actively fermenting when you go to bottle, you're going to end up with unfinished beer and possible bottle bombs.

Most of us wait for 2-4 weeks (most seem to be around 3 weeks) and then check the gravity and after it's consistent and where we want it for 3 days they bottle.

Not actively bubbling. no, or as mentioned you might get exploding bottles. Wait the few weeks before bottling, then add priming sugar to the beer just prior to bottling. The yeast will get back to work and carbonate your bottled beer.

B

Thanks, I was concerned that my yeast would not be present and I'd just end up with sweet un carbonated beer.

As long as you don't use a preservative or stabilizer then your beer will carb if you add priming sugar. Sometimes it takes longer (3 months for a 1.089 og beer for me) so be patient about it.

I also leave my beers in primary for a month, and some of those go another month in secondary if I decide to oak, all of them have carbed no problem.