I re-racked a 5L batch of Peanut Butter Porter into a secondary after 1 week in primary. Now it has been 5 days and I'm getting ready to bottle. My concern is I may not have enough active yeast to sufficiently carbonate my beer. Should I pitch more yeast and if so, how much? The yeast I originally pitched with was White Labs WLP005 (British Ale).
To pitch or not to pitch
- Thread starter Mystikty
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RPh_Guy
Bringing Sour Back
Nope. Beer has plenty of yeast at 12 days.
deadwolfbones
Well-Known Member
Yeah, don't worry about it.
Probably this. It's also possible that your priming sugar wasn't mixed into the beer very well (if you bulk primed) or that you chilled or drank the beers before they were fully primed or the CO2 had been able to go into solution in the beer. The latter problem is often characterized by a satisfying hiss when you pop the cap and an undercarbed beer when you pour.
When I bottle, the last bit in the bottling bucket is always sugary sweet because even when I do my best to keep the priming sugar mixed well through the bottling session, some of the sugar always manages to hang out on the bottom because of density and stuff. Most of the time it's not a big deal, but I had some earlier batches where a significant portion of the sugar failed to make it into bottles (or crowded into the last couple bottles, causing gushers and even a couple bottle bombs). Boiling my priming solution long enough to insure it's evenly-mixed and giving the bottling bucket a very gentle stir every few bottles helps quite a bit, though it's normal to have a bit of variation across the batch anyway.
I do bulk-prime my beer before bottling, so I'll to do a better job at mixing. Also, I should try to be more patient and allow my bottles to condition longer. Thank you for sharing your insight, FatDragon. Wish me luck!
