Proper racking procedure?

Ever since my first batch, it seems my beers (all ales) have been taking longer and longer to carbonate in the bottle. After coming across Rockout's thread here:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=29401
I'm starting to wonder if I'm racking a little *too* efficiently. Could I be siphoning out most of the active yeast in my pursuit of leaving every possible suspended particle behind? I have gone so far as to pinch the siphon hose when it starts pulling anything that doesn't look like good beer (floaties, trub-coloring, etc), so it doesn't get into the secondary. Are there any particles I should let in, i.e. siphon all the way down to the trub and only leave behind the semi-solid stuff? What about racking while there is still krausen left? Take that too, or leave it considering ale yeast flocculates to the top?

Or am I barking up the wrong tree for my symptoms? Here's what happened most recently: I boiled up an IPA, standard 1 week primary 2 week secondary. Bottled, let sit for two weeks, popped one and zero carbonation. Good hoppy aroma, tastes great except flat and sweet due to the priming sugar. Figuring my above theory was what happened, I picked up a packet of dry yeast, carefully popped the cap off each bottle one at a time, dropped in a few flakes of yeast and capped it right away. It has now been two more weeks since then, and when I gently shake a bottle there is still very little to no carbonation.

I am completely willing to wait it out if I know it will eventually carbonate properly, but is there something I could have done that would kill off the yeast or otherwise keep it from carbonating? Is there another way to wake it up? Should I not have repitched more yeast after bottling? Is this batch destined for the experience chalkboard?

 

What's the temp in the area you're carbing in? Too cool is not good, in the 70s is fine, no untoward flavors will appear, and it should carb in about a week. Doubt you didn't get enough yeast, even clear beer from the secondary has plenty.

 

Low 70's, room temp in a corner of the living room.

 

No expert, but have noticed that I can have almost no carbonation after two weeks, then after three it is perfect, maybe it just needs time. Also if you opened them after two weeks you let out all the carbonation that was there (however little that may be) and have now started over.

 

Thalon, how much priming sugar do you use?
I had a similar problem with my 3rd and 4th batches using 3/4 cup corn sugar. upped it to just at or under 1 cup and it has been carbed within 5 - 7 days. also recently tried a few of those earlier brews after a couple of months and they finally carbed just fine.

 

Thalon, how much priming sugar do you use?
I had a similar problem with my 3rd and 4th batches using 3/4 cup corn sugar. upped it to just at or under 1 cup and it has been carbed within 5 - 7 days. also recently tried a few of those earlier brews after a couple of months and they finally carbed just fine.

 

Here's the exact kit I used (of course I upgraded to WYeast Activator). I just used however much priming sugar they include with the kit. I have a spare priming sugar packet in front of me, it says 5oz/141.75g but no measure of volume.

That's interesting, that maybe the prepackaged kit didn't include enough priming sugar. I'll make sure to err just a bit on the heavy side next time I bottle a batch (have since acquired a rudimentary keg setup :rockin.


I'm still curious as to the ideal racking procedure, though.. treat it as filtration, or just get the beer off the yeast cake?

 

Everything I read indicates that there are enough yeast in suspension to carbonate homebrews.

5 oz. should be enough to carbonate your brew. It is the equivalent to 3/4 cup. I would turn them upside down and let the yeast get back into suspension as that should help. Sometimes the yeast packs down hard on the bottom of the bottles.

 

You really shouldn't expect your beer to carbonate fully in one week. 3 - 4 weeks is a better expectation. Yes, sometimes it will take less time, but it can be a variable thing.

If after three weeks your beer isn't fully carbonated, then it is usually a temperature problem. Try rolling your bottles across a table to resuspend the yeast, then move to about 80 degrees for a week.

Unless you have your beer in the secondary for a really long time at cool temperatures, it is unlikely that you had too little yeast in the bottles to carbonate them. It might just take a bit longer. But if you are really worried, you can always add a bit of dried yeast to your bottling bucket when you prime your beer.

 

I think I've identified a deeper problem with my brewing that ties in with this. I bought a 7.5gal stockpot after my second batch because I realized it just wasn't going to work out on my stove. However, I either wasn't told about or didn't take seriously the advice to oxygenate my wort after boiling the full 5 gallons at once. I watched some of Bobby_M's excellent brewing videos including the oxygenation ones. That's probably what I'm doing wrong. I have simply been stirring the wort for about 30 seconds after cooling. I now see that is entirely inadequate. If the aerobic fermentation is the reproductive phase of yeast's life cycle, I'm starving it with not enough oxygen. It then turns to anaerobic fermentation with about the same amount of yeast as I pitched with, rather than a healthy amount produced by aerobic fermentation. Probably the only reason I didn't discover this on my first batch after buying the stockpot was that I've been exclusively using WYeast liquid yeast, since they guarantee 100 billion yeast cells per package. I'm definitely going to get a stainless airstone with an aquarium air pump (can't afford an O2 tank yet) and add the oxygenation step to my brewing.

SWMBO pulling me off computer now.. am I on the right track?