After 2 weeks in primary - add bottling yeast or not ?

[bobtheUKbrewer2]

Hi all and happy Thanksgiving to you lot over the pond from me. I bottle in 4 to 7 days, heaped teaspoon of brewing sugar to a 2 litre PET bottle, and carbonation is on the low side after 3 weeks in bottle. So if I were to transfer 4.5 litres to a demijohn instead of bottling, and left it for a further 2 weeks, would I have to add some additional yeast when I bottled ?

 

[Falstaff]

Confused on what you did in the PET bottle. Did you already bottle part of the batch? Otherwise, Negative. There is always enough yeast left to carbonate. I wouldn't add more.

 

[bobtheUKbrewer2]

Hi Falstaff - I bottle in different sized bottles, for 2 litre bottles I prime with a heaped teaspoon of brewing sugar. My point is, bottling after 4 to 6 days and adding priming sugar, my cabonisation is on the low side, so if I fermented for a further 15 days, I doubt I would get any cabonisation. Thanks.

 

[Miraculix]

If you add sugar to a carbonated beer, you would create a little beer volcano. Dissolve the sugar first in beer or water and then add it.

Filling it into another vessel will introduce oxygen and very likely ruin the beer. I would wait two more weeks and drink as it is.

 

[bobtheUKbrewer2]

Miraculix - Adding priming sugar at the bottling stage is "best practice". All I am asking is - if beer is left in primary for 21 days, is there enough yeast to allow the bottles to carbonate. And in my specific case, I am saying that bottling after just 4 to 6 days, I am getting insufficient carbonisation. If we were in a room talking face to face, these misinterpretations would not happen. Nobody's fault - ----

 

[Miraculix]

Yes, of course there's sufficient yeast and yes of course there's insufficient carbonation after not even a full week in the bottle! It's far from being done!

 

[dmtaylor]

It looks like a miscalculation in priming sugar. Why are you using only a heaping teaspoon of sugar in 2 litres? That is not nearly enough priming sugar for that volume, unless you meant to say heaping "tablespoon" and not "teaspoon". You need 2 tablespoons per US gallon which equates to approximately 1 tablespoon per 2 litres. If you used less than half the appropriate amount of sugar, then this is why your carbonation is so low.

There are billions of yeast cells hanging around for several months. You don't need to add more yeast. But you do need to reconsider how much priming sugar to add.

 

[Gilbert Spinning Horse]

Bob, you need to measure your priming sugar mate. 140g in 20 litres is about right. Prior to bottling run your beer off into another bucket pouring the sugar (dissolved in 0.5 litres of water and boiled for a couple of mins) in as you go. Once done you're ready to bottle in whatever size bottles you want.
There is always going to be enough yeast in solution to eat the priming sugar and carbonate your beer.
ETA. Be very careful not to splash the beer during transfer. Oxygen is not your friend!

 

[davidabcd]

if beer is left in primary for 21 days, is there enough yeast to allow the bottles to carbonate.

That's totally fine. I bottle after three weeks with some very high ABV beers and it always carbs. Stouts do take a good while to carbonate (weeks to months) but they always do.