Add Yeast to Secondary Fermenter?

[sattle16]

Hello all,

Thanks in advance for your help. I have followed the recipe very closely for a Maple Wheat Ale from the Clone Brews book, and I am confused by the wording. The Clone Brews book recipe for maple wheat ale reads as follows:

Three days before bottling, prime the beer in the 2nd stage with another dose of the same strain of fresh yeast. Bottle when fermentation is complete with: 1/2 cup corn sugar and 1/3 cup maple syrup boiled in 2 cups of water.

What exactly do they mean by priming with more yeast? Do you think this is something I would need to do even if I am kegging instead of bottling?

I did wash my yeast for this purpose, but I am not sure if i did that right as it was my first time doing it. I am confident there is no contamination, but I am not sure if the yeast can just lay dormant in my fridge in mason jars for weeks either. I talked to someone who used to work at a homebrew store and he told me that I need to put an airlock on each mason jar and did not do it correctly, however my original source for the information says otherwise: http://billybrew.com/yeast-washing

Any help on this topic would be greatly appreciated, as I would like to keg my beer in time for a new years party at my place. Tasted awesome when i taste tested it between the primary and secondary :fro:

 

[cjgenever]

Unless it had conditioned in the secondary for an extended period under stress, there should be more than enough yeast to carbonate your bottles. I wouldn't add another step unless needed. It shouldn't hurt anything, but it is a chance to introduce infection. What are you cloning? I'll look@ the recipe.

 

[Stauffbier]

If you're force carbonating in the keg you don't even need the yeast at this point. If you're priming in the keg, then you likely have enough yeast already.

 

[cjgenever]

Never Mind. It is actually "maple wheat ale" in the book.haha. the recipes I've used have all been more manufacturer specific. I.e. dogfish head 60 min ipa.

 

[billl]

Not sure why some people want to make brewing so hard......


If it tastes great - fantastic! Since you are kegging, not need to worry about adding extra yeast or sugar. Just keg it and hit with some CO2 and its ready to go.

 

[cjgenever]

Just to be sure, you could check the yeast manufacturers suggestions. I would ignore it and bottle. That said, I have no experience with the strains specified and do not want to give any bad advice.

Btw please use a calculator to figure your priming sugars. Co2 levels after ferment vary with fermentation temperatures. You don't want to over carbonate.

 

[J-Drew]

I also find the wording confusing. With that said, I don't have any idea in what it means by "2nd stage," so I don't know why it recommends adding more yeast. To me, it seems like an unnecessary step even if you were bottle conditioning.

If it were me and I thought it tasted awesome already, I'd just keg when you think it's ready between now and Christmas Eve, carb it up, and wait for New Years.

As for yeast washing, yeast will keep well past several weeks, especially if you use starters and bump it up. I just used some yeast that I have had stored for at least five months. And as far as storing washed yeast in a mason jar with an airlock, I think it's totally unnecessary.

 

[sattle16]

Thanks for the help everyone. I decided to just sanitize the keg and then keg the beer as-is. Again I appreciate everyone's input.

 

[dlester]

Good Luck...