bottling starter?

[mrchicken]

Ok so two batches in a row, carbonation has taken 2-3 weeks and was still weak.
Used the midwest brewing priming calculator and used close to a cup of corn sugar to prime both 5 gallon batches of hefe.

It was suggested that I didn't have enough active yeast after racking to secondary to have a "normal" carbonation activity. (beer sat in primary a couple weeks and I was super careful not to suck up any sludge in transfer)

So here is my idea.... Rack to the bottling bucket as usual. Then carefully skim about a tablespoon of yeast/trub from the primary and make a starter.
Starter..... Make primer as usual....beer sugar dissolved in boiling water, then allow to cool to 80 degrees. Add tablespoon of yeast/trub. Stir and give it an hour or so to get started.

Good idea or bad? Will a tablespoon be enough? let starter go longer? Will the 1 cup of water mixed with a cup of sugar be a good starter or will it be inhospitable for the yeast? Other suggestions?

 

[treacheroustexan]

What temperature did your bottles sit to carb at? Make sure they're in a warm area. What you have in mind seems like a lot of extra, unnecessary work. If it is carbing even a little bit you still have active yeast and should just use more sugar or give it a little more time at a warmer temperature.

 

[Jim311]

2 to 3 weeks really isn't terribly unusual to bottle carbonate, especially if it's cool in your house and you're bottling higher gravity beers. Are you adding your sugar into your bottling bucket first so that the sugar gets mixed in nicely with the beer?

 

[botigol]

A quick calculation gave me an SG of 1.327 for 1 cup of sugar in 1 cup of water, so you would be more likely to kill the extra yeast than anything.

Treacheroustexan covered it pretty well, more sugar or more time. Given that you already used 'almost a cup of sugar', I would lean towards more time.

 

[morbster]

I agree that adding a yeast starter in these cases is not the right answer. It's probably something much simpler like time or temp.

 

[SilverZero]

Unless you cold-crashed for many weeks AND used some serious fining agents, there are plenty of yeast in suspension to bottle with after primary. You don't really have to suck up any amount of trub, but you also don't have to be super careful about NOT doing that.

Are you using a bottling calculator? Just do a Google search for "priming calculator" and put in the right values. You'll need to know the volume that you're bottling (try to be within 0.25 gallons or better), the temperature at bottling (I'd let it come up to room temperature and measure it), and the volumes of CO2 you want (2.5 is probably a good starting point for a hefe, but go by style of your current batch). You'll also need to be able to measure the sugar, and I suggest weight for that.

Dissolve your sugar in a cup of water and boil for a few minutes. Make sure it gets mixed well with your bottling volume (I'd put the sugar solution in your bottling bucket and then rack the beer onto that so it swirls together, or at least give a gentle stir with a sanitized spoon and let it mix for 10 minutes).

 

[mrchicken]

I used the Midwest priming calculator it said .88cup corn sugar for 3.2vol. Boiled water and added sugar. Turned off heat after 2 minutes at a vigorous boil and let cool while I got all the bottles ready.

Put sugar in bottom of bottling bucket and racked beer into it with a circular flow around the bucket.
Bottled and crimped the caps 2x to make sure I had a good seal. Bottles were kept in dark plastic totes at room temp 68-74 degrees to carb.

I can't figure out where I am going wrong.