Yeast suspension-- or not

This may be a dumb question but I am curious........ Racked a beligain wit to the secondary after about 11 days. Gravity went from 1.038 down to 1.006. Had airlock activity for a few minutes in the secondary, now nothing.... I plan to leave the brew in the secondary until the 21st. Temp is 70 deg.

So my question is---- With all the excessive sediment and yeast falling out in the promary and even more in the secondary, how is the enough yeast to carbonate the beer in the bottles. I am sure many of you are thnking-- what an idiot, but remember your first batch and the questions you had!!

I appreciate all the good advice and info I have goten from other posts. Thanks ALL!!!

That is a very low FG, good work. As for the yeast you should be ok. Just when you prime and bottle (I am assuming bottling?) then keep them fairly warm (high 60's to low 70's) for at least 2 weeks and then cellar. The only time you really should worry is when you go excessively long (like in the case of lagering), then you'll want to add a sprinkling of yeast. You really don't need much to prime with.

I suppose I should add, that it is ineviteable when you rack before bottling that it will resuspend some of the yeast.

No, not an idiotic question at all. A very good question, in fact. Allow me to offer my thoughts...

First off, if you age your beer in carboy for the recommended 2-3 weeks (for most ales), there will still be plenty of yeast cells left in suspension. Notice I said "cells". Yeast is a single-celled organism, so even if it looks like it's pretty clear, you can rest assured that there are plenty of cells in there that are floating around, too small for you to see.

Secondly, and just as important, eventually most of the yeast cells will indeed fall out of suspension. This process is accelerated by colder aging temps, especially lagering. I made a wheat doppelbock last year that I aged in carboy for about 8 weeks after primary. I primed as usual and bottled. It never carbonated. I tried swirling the bottles and leaving them in a warm room, but no dice. So now, my standard operating procedure is this: whenever I age my beers for longer than 4 weeks, I will add yeast at bottling time. Before I boil up the priming solution, I boil a little bit of water, cool it, put it in a sanitized jar, then sprinkle a few shakes of dry yeast (if it's a lager beer, make sure it's dry LAGER yeast) into the water. I shake gently and keep swirling it every few minutes until the yeast is rehydrated. Then I boil my priming solution as usual, cool it down, and mix in the rehydrated yeast-water, and use that sugar-yeast solution to prime the batch.

Also, if it's wintertime and really cold in my basement, I'll put the bottles (if it's ale) into my guest bedroom and turn a space-heater on low with the door closed for about a week, just to ensure bottle fermentation.

Since then, I've never had an uncarb'd batch. Hope this helps!

Evan! said:

Also, if it's wintertime and really cold in my basement, I'll put the bottles (if it's ale) into my guest bedroom and turn a space-heater on low with the door closed for about a week, just to ensure bottle fermentation.

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This made me think of something. I have found that in general, yeasts can work far below their advertised range. It just goes ever-so-slowly and is no good for bulk fermentation, but can be sufficient for carbonating, in time. So I kind of do the same thing in that I keep the cases somewhere warm, a week usually does it. Two if I am concerned.

zoebisch01 said:

This made me think of something. I have found that in general, yeasts can work far below their advertised range. It just goes ever-so-slowly and is no good for bulk fermentation, but can be sufficient for carbonating, in time. So I kind of do the same thing in that I keep the cases somewhere warm, a week usually does it. Two if I am concerned.

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Yeah, plus, it's not like it hurts to pop a bottle and sample it. I'm usually that impatient anyway...:cross:

thanks for the advice guys. I have about 4 more weeks until my first brew will be ready to go..... Cannot wait. I will probably be impatient when they brew is in the bottle too!!