Not enough sugar?

[BrianHitsCar]

I had a belgian ale that sat in the secondary for an extended period. Clearest beer I've brewed yet. Anyway, at bottling time I boiled my standard 3/4 cup sugar in water and poured that at the bottom of the priming tank and siphoned my beer on top of it (as I always do).

5 days after bottling, the bottles had no yeast sediment at all on the bottoms. It wasn't until a week and a half that I began seeing yeast on the bottoms. Now, it's been 3 weeks since I saw yeast sediment and the beer is almost completely flat.

My question is this, will it just require more time for carbonation or does more sugar need to be added? I am a little confused because for 2.5 years this was always my method of bottling, but I'm not sure if some sugar is used in the reproduction process of yeast.

 

[TopherM]

The yeast you are seeing is a good sign that there is carbonation taking place. That means the XXX number of yeast that were in each bottle when you bottled had sugars to eat, multiplied, and created CO2 to carbonate the beer. Yeast multiply when they are well fed. This is normal.

Carbonation time depends on a few things:

#1: A typical ABV beer around 4-5% takes about 3 weeks to fully carb on average, but could take a bit longer or a bit shorter. Higher ABV beers can take 4 weeks up to even 4-6 months to carb up.

#2: When you carb at the ideal 70 degrees F, most of the carbonation remains in the headspace of the bottle. It take 3-4 days in the fridge for that CO2 in the headspace to dissolve into the beer. If you put a beer that has been carbing for 3 weeks in the fridge for 1-2 days, it isn't going to be fully dissolved, and you'll get a gusher from the undissolved CO2 in the headspace interacting with the CO2 that is dissolved into the beer.

 

[BrianHitsCar]

That's really helpful!
It also explains to me why my pumpkin ale and my brother-in-law's recent IPA sometimes explode on us. I bet the ones that have been pouring fine have been in the fridge a few days longer than the ones that are exploding.

So, since this belgian is in the 7% range, I should give it up to a few months to fully carb?

Thanks a lot!

 

[spenghali]

is it possible for a batch to sit in a secondary for so long that there is not enough yeast left when you rack to a bottling bucket to carb the beer?

 

[TopherM]

At 7%, it shouldn't take a few months, but it will likely take longer than the typical 3 weeks for a typical 4-5% brew. Probably going to take something like 4-6 weeks total.

Just be patient, throw one in the fridge every Tuesday, open it on Friday, and when the sample bottle has the level of carbination you want, start throwing them in the fridge in bulk!

 

[BrianHitsCar]

Alrighty, so bottom line is that no matter how much the yeast needed to reproduce (how few yeast began in the bottles), you use the same amount of sugar for priming then? Just double checking.

 

[unionrdr]

I've found that I like priming to style. Some take more sugar,some less depending on the style; TastyBrew.com | Homebrewing Calculators | Botting Priming Calculator

 

[SPR-GRN]

Alrighty, so bottom line is that no matter how much the yeast needed to reproduce (how few yeast began in the bottles), you use the same amount of sugar for priming then? Just double checking.

This is an accurate statement - the fewer yeast that make it to the bottle the longer it will take to achieve carbonation. As yeast do their thing, they are changing fermentabled into Co2 and alcohol; while they are doing this they are also reproducing; thus increasing the amount of yeast in an environment (bottle).
However; unless you crash cooled your beer (eg. Stuffed it in the fridge for two weeks) you 'should' have enough viable yeast for carbonation. There are too many factors,however, to make an appropriate statement; eg. Your yeast, although in suspension, could be 'tired' meaning they have worked themselves to the point of a forced hybernation period, or 'stuck' fermentation period.

Sorry that was a non commital way of saying "relax have a homebrew". Patience my friend, patience.

 

[BrianHitsCar]

Sorry that was a non commital way of saying "relax have a homebrew". Patience my friend, patience.

Never apologize for answering a concern with that, haha. I can't believe I had nearly forgotten this crucial rule.