Beer clearing

So I was reading here, about various clearing techniques. One of the concerns, however, is that if you clear your beer well enough, there won't be any yeast left to prime for bottling. They also added, you can add a small amount of dry yeast when bottling, but isn't that going to add back what you just cleared?

Wyrmwood said:

So I was reading here, about various clearing techniques. One of the concerns, however, is that if you clear your beer well enough, there won't be any yeast left to prime for bottling. They also added, you can add a small amount of dry yeast when bottling, but isn't that going to add back what you just cleared?

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Unless the beer is filtered there should be some remaining yeast left to carbonate.

Typically a yeast with a high flocculation is used for bottling. These yeast tend to drop clear.

Clonefarmer said:

Unless the beer is filtered there should be some remaining yeast left to carbonate.

Typically a yeast with a high flocculation is used for bottling. These yeast tend to drop clear.

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Huh.. I guess I don't get it. I would've imagined the opposite - if flocculation was high, that would mean the yeast is more likely to drop and therefore you might have to add dry yeast at bottling...

What if you use something like Irish Moss or Whirlfloc? Or you drop the temp to < 40 for a day or two? Do you then have to add back dry yeast for bottling?

Even though you have cleared the beer, there tends to plenty left for bottle carbing. Unless the beer has been aged a looooong time, there is usually enough yeast left for bottle carbing. Adding yeast back at bottling is the exception when the beer has been filtered or aged an exceptionally long time.

Wyrmwood said:

Huh.. I guess I don't get it. I would've imagined the opposite - if flocculation was high, that would mean the yeast is more likely to drop and therefore you might have to add dry yeast at bottling...

What if you use something like Irish Moss or Whirlfloc? Or you drop the temp to < 40 for a day or two? Do you then have to add back dry yeast for bottling?

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The high flocculating yeast is added at bottling. That way after it's done carbonating it tends to drop clear and form a compact sediment. This is a practice some breweries use. However they may also be putting the beer through filtration that removes the primary yeast.

You shouldn't have to add more yeast even if you use Whirfloc, Irish Moss or gelatin to clear.

The whirlfloc and irish moss are meant to get that last remnants of proteins and other break material out of suspension. Not the yeast so much from my understanding

+1 to clonefarmer.

Generally, beers that have really LOW flocculating yeast are hazy because there's a LOT of beer in solution. If you filter the yeast out of those beers, then they're clear, but there's nothing left to carbonate the bottles.

To solve the carbonation problem, some brewers add back in very HIGH flocculating yeast AFTER filtering the beer. It will carbonate the bottles, then drop out of solution, leaving a VERY thin film of yeast on the bottom of the bottle. Because there is so little sugar in each bottle, the new yeast won't change the flavor of the beer.

This is only necessary if you use filter pads to filter all the yeast out of your beer. There's plenty of yeast left to carbonate unless you do that, or let the beer sit in secondary for two or three months or longer.

Thanks all for the excellent information!