Bottle Fermentation

[BrewALot]

I am pretty new to homebrewing and am planning to brew a Karmeliet Tripel clone. I was wondering how to go about with bottle fermentation ?

Should I clarify the beer first and add sugar and more yeast before bottling, or should I just add more sugar and bottle without any additional yeast ?

I am also getting a bit confused about clarifying and fining, are they one and the same ? My guess is that clarification is to remove yeast and fining is to remove protein.

 

[Pappers_]

Finings help you clarify your beer. You can also clarify your beer without finings, by cold crashing, for example. I think both clarifying and finings can be helpful with yeast, protein and other particulates in your beer (like hop particales for example).

Here's what I do:

1) brew the beer and use a fining called Irish Moss which is added with about 10 minutes left in the boil
2) ferment the beer
3) after primary fermentation is done, if its a big beer like a Tripel, I'll usually either let it sit in primary for a few weeks or rack to secondary and let it sit for a few weeks.
4) after three or four weeks, cold crash in a 40F fridge for a week or two
5) if it still needs help with clarifying, use a post-fermentation fining like gelatin, although gelatin can strip hop flavor and aroma, so I don't use it on many beers.

Does this help? Anything unclear?

 

[BrewALot]

Thanks, that clarifies a lot of things. One more questions though. Do you recommend that I add fresh yeast before bottling to aid the carbonation or would the existing yeast suffice ?

 

[Mainer]

What @Pappers said.

As to the sugar and yeast, unless you're doing an unusually long secondary fermentation (as in more than six months), you shouldn't have to add any additional yeast. Even in a very clear beer, there is usually enough yeast in suspension to carbonate your beer.

You will, however, have to add sugar. There's a really easy-to-use calculator for that at http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator. It will tell you exactly how much to add.

Good luck!

 

[BrewALot]

Thanks a lot, very informative.

 

[Mainer]

Oh, and also, when you add the sugar, you'll want to boil it in a little water to dissolve it before you add it to the beer. This will help make sure it gets evenly distributed through your batch. Otherwise, all the sugar will end up in the bottom of your bottling bucket, meaning some bottles won't carbonate, and others will overcarbonate.

 

[BrewALot]

, thanks for the tip.

 

[khannon]

Depending on what yeast you used to ferment and what the ABV, you might want to consider some fresh yeast.. I did a tripel, ~9%, and bottled it with the right amount of sugar but without fresh yeast, I bottled it on the 2nd of January of this year, and just now(June) it seems to be getting up to decent carbonation, so a good five months, and I was at the point of getting ready to either dump or spend a long night with an eyedropper adding yeast to every bottle.

I did no finings or secondary though, and after cold crash in the bottle, I am seeing good clear beer.

 

[dannygreen]

Hi everyone!

Im new here as well and Im learning a lot from you! Thanks for sharing

 

[BrewALot]

I am thinking of using either a Safbrew T-58 or Wyeast Belgian Ardennes 3522 (as recommended by homebrewtalk), both have high alcohol tolerance upto 11%, my brew should not go beyond 9% (I hope).

 

[IchLiebeBier]

I was going to post almost exactly what khannon did, although I did do the eyedropper thing after months of no carbing up.

The higher ABV beers tend to stress the original yeast out enough that they won't be able to eat the corn sugar.

Let it sit a bit longer in secondary to clarify, then plan on adding some fresh yeast. The CBC-1 yeast does really well for that.

 

[IchLiebeBier]

I am thinking of using either a Safbrew T-58 or Wyeast Belgian Ardennes 3522 (as recommended by homebrewtalk), both have high alcohol tolerance upto 11%, my brew should not go beyond 9% (I hope).

I like T-58 for tripels. I'm not sure it would match Karmeliet, though. But I haven't tasted that beer it in a while, so I can't say for certain.

 

[Kharnynb]

High abv beer takes time to carb.tripels should anyway cellar for a fewer months