Priming Sugar and Yeast

A few general questions about force carbing and bottle priming to help me understand the dynamics of yeast and bottling.

Part 1:
So the premise of using priming sugar is to take advantage of the yeast still in suspension in the beer. So when those remaining yeast chow down on my priming sugar, they fall out of the beer and create sediment in the bottom of the bottle.

When you force carb with CO2, does the yeast that is still in suspension then stay in suspension? Or does yeast eventually drop out of beer regardless? Or does force carbing push the yeast out?

If the yeast stays in suspension, does this mean force carbed beer tastes different than bottle carb beer?

Part 2:
Since I started brewing I've been paying more attention to commercial beers and so far I have never seen sediment in the bottom of any commercial bottle. I assume most commercial craft breweries force carb and then bottle from a large keg essentially. Even the ones that say 'unfiltered' never seem to have any sediment. What are they doing to get rid of suspended yeast? (If they even need to, maybe the yeast falls out during carbing process?)

Part 3:
If there is still yeast in suspension in commercial beers (assuming force carbing does not push yeast out of suspension) does this mean that theoretically if I got a growler from a brewer, let it go flat, added priming sugar, sealed it, it would then carb up again (let's pretend that no other factors like oxidation, staling, etc. are in play here).

 

There will be yeast in any beer unless they were mechanically removed (filters etc). You only need a tiny amount of yeast to carb a bottle though. If you are getting a ton of sediment in your bottles, then you probably should leave the beer in the fermenter a bit longer to clear - or cold crash the fermenter to drop most of the yeast prior to bottling.

Force carbonating the beer doesn't make yeast stay in suspension. Whatever yeast are in the bottle when you cap it will eventually sink to the bottom.

Depending on whether the brewery filters their beer, yes, you could carb a growler of flat beer. However, most growlers are not designed to hold much pressure. A brand new one would probably be fine, but if it's been used, you really don't know the condition of the glass.

 

"or cold crash the fermenter to drop most of the yeast prior to bottling."

Ah. That makes sense. Thanks.

 

That might be right, but because of the safety issue I wouldn't risk carbing in a growler. JMO

 

Yes. Of course. I wasn't asking for any real world application but just so I could better understand how it all works.

 

Are you supposed to prime a force carbonation keg? I would think it would be come over carbonated in time.

 

No. Typically, you would do one or the other. If the keg will not be tapped for a while, some folks will prime it to save on CO2. However, doing both (naturally carbonate, then force carbonate) wouldn't necessarily overcarbonate it, but sure it's definitely possible. If I were going to prime a keg, I'd shoot for the low side of carbonation, then once on tap let the CO2 force carbonate as needed to bring it up the desired carb level.