Bottle conditioning with new yeast?

[xaturnascends]

Hey everyone,

I was a fairly steady homebrewer for a while but had to take a couple years off while serving on active duty in the army. I recently got out and got back into home brewing. I recently did this recipe:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f65/irish-red-1st-place-hbt-comp-141086/

The recipe calls for a new yeast pitch to clear the beer for bottle conditioning.

This style should be crystal clear in the glass and shine ruby red when held up to a light. If you bottle condition, I recommend a two week secondary followed by pitching some English yeast like a half package of S-04 in the bottling bucket so the beer finishes nice and clear in the bottle.

Here's my question, do I just pitch the new yeast and bottle, or do I also add priming sugar? If the yeast carbs from excess sugar already in the wort, I don't want to over-carb by adding sugar. But, I also don't want to risk under-carbing by not adding sugar, if this is not the case.

I've bottled plenty of brew, but I've never pitched new yeast prior to bottling. Help is greatly welcome.

 

[BigFloyd]

Did you age it for 4 months like the recipe author did? If not, simply prime as normal and bottle. If the beer had an extended secondary, lots of folks will add a small (like 1/3rd of a packet) of a dry ale yeast like US-05 or Notty. You still add priming sugar as you normally would.

Thanks for your service!

 

[xaturnascends]

It's about to finish in the primary. I'm going to rack into the secondary on friday for 14 days, then bottle. I have 10 gallons of beer so I'll pitch a half package of S-04 along with a cup of dextrose.

 

[BigFloyd]

The only reason that recipe called for more yeast at bottling was because he left it in the secondary 4 months.

In your situation with no extended aging, there's no need at all to add any yeast for bottling. You'll have plenty of yeast left to eat the priming sugar and produce CO2. Heck, I cold crash my primaries for a week at 35-36*F to get nice, clear beer. Even then I don't add any yeast and they carbonate just fine with the remaining suspended yeast.

If you add yeast when it's not needed, it's not giving you any benefit. You'll just end up making your beer more "yeasty" with extra trub in the bottom of each bottle.

Also, there's no reason to secondary just to let it sit for 14 days and it can increase the risk of oxidation. You can simply leave it in the primary for those two more weeks. If you can cold crash in the primary the last 5-7 days before bottling, even better.

 

[xaturnascends]

Sounds good. I'm still going to rack into the secondary, but I don't want to cold crash because I plan on giving out about half the beer in 750mL's as Christmas gifts and cold crashing would extend my carb time. I don't want anyone drinking flat beer. If it's not completely clear, so be it.

Thanks for the help!