bottling after a cold condition

[Joe028]

After about a month of cold conditioning in the upper 30's I would like to bottle my altbier. I believe I remember reading here that I should have no problem with the small amount of yeast in suspension carbing the bottles. Several questions:

Should I let beer come to room temp before bottling? or just go ahead and add corn sugar while beer is cold and then bottle cold?

Will this take longer to carbonate because of the cold conditioning period reducing the amount of yeast?

Do I then bottle condition at temps in the upper 60's? It is an ale yeast.

Thanks, never cold conditioned....didn't know if there were any different procedures.

 

[malkore]

I'll preface by saying I've never cold conditioned either.
However, I can't see a reason why beer temp at bottling would matter. whatever's convenient for you.

and I'd say you'd wanna bottle condition at 'normal' temps, mid to upper 60's/room temperature. and I wouldn't think it'd take the yeast too much longer t han normal to carb...I'd give it 2 weeks before cracking open a sample.

like you, I'm wary of the yeast that's in suspension. What kind of yeast was used? if its highly flocculent, you may not have any in suspension...at least that's my fear.

hopefully my bump will get that last bit answered for you

 

[IowaStateFan]

After one month you should have plenty of yeast still in suspension available for carbonating your brew. It probably will take a bit longer to fully carbonate. I'd give it a full month in the bottles before even testing it. You can let it warm up before you bottle it. That might be better because a colder beer will have more residual carbonation from the fermentation and you may risk overcarbonating. Besides, you'll want to warm it up to room temp in the bottles anyway for the final bottle conditioning/carbonation.

 

[INeedANewHobby]

What many of us who lager our beers do is add a 1/2 packet of dry yeast to your bottling bucket before filling the bottles. The half packet has plenty of cell count to carbonate your beer without imparting any off flavors in it (so it doesn't matter which "flavor" of dry yeast you use). The best carb'd beers I've made were done using this method, and I cold condition all of them!

I always rack to my bottling bucket, then boil my DME or corn sugar, etc....while I'm doing that (with the sanitized lid on the bucket of course), the beer is warming up just a bit already. Then I pour in the hot priming solution (not 200+ degrees, but probably around 150 or so). This also will bring up the temp in the batch a bit. THEN pitch your yeast into the bottling bucket, stir if needed to get it mixed in good. Then finally, fill the bottles.

 

[DasCojenze]

How much water should i boil the priming sugar with? also, should i add the yeast dry, or mix it with the water and let it start up first?

 

[TTB-J]

I boil my priming sugar in 2 cups of water, I think that's a pretty standard amount. You can either put the dry yeast in some water to make sure it's still active or just drop it right in, either way works.

 

[cormano]

Hey guys, I'm in a similar situation. By the time I get to bottling in a few weeks, my Kolsch will have been cold conditioning for about 3 months, though. Sounds like adding more yeast is necessary? Will champagne yeast be good? It is a quarter the price of beer yeast and I've been told it doesn't affect flavor.

What is the purpose of boiling the priming sugar? I've never done that before, is it just to warm up the beer? If you go the extra step of adding more yeast do you still need to wait longer in the bottle?

Thanks for any help.

 

[ValleyBrew]

Hey guys, I'm in a similar situation. By the time I get to bottling in a few weeks, my Kolsch will have been cold conditioning for about 3 months, though. Sounds like adding more yeast is necessary? Will champagne yeast be good? It is a quarter the price of beer yeast and I've been told it doesn't affect flavor.

What is the purpose of boiling the priming sugar? I've never done that before, is it just to warm up the beer? If you go the extra step of adding more yeast do you still need to wait longer in the bottle?

Thanks for any help.

I can't answer your question about champagne yeast.... but I boil the priming sugar because it is easier to get it mixed into the beer when it has melted and I want to sanitize my sugar and water before I add it to my beer so boiling sanitazes and facilitates melting the sugar. If you add extra yeast, I would imagine it would restore your conditioning times to normal, but in the end, it is what it is and it could still take a month to properly condition.

 

[cormano]

I can't answer your question about champagne yeast.... but I boil the priming sugar because it is easier to get it mixed into the beer when it has melted and I want to sanitize my sugar and water before I add it to my beer so boiling sanitazes and facilitates melting the sugar. If you add extra yeast, I would imagine it would restore your conditioning times to normal, but in the end, it is what it is and it could still take a month to properly condition.

Thanks. Helping dissolve the sugar makes sense. I just normally add the sugar by itself, without any additional water.

 

[Raudhbjorn]

Sugar is hydroscopic and thus if dry is a fairly sterile substance. Honey even more so. I've never had an issue with my priming honey infecting my beer with anything.

 

[Helly]

Is there any rule of thumb for time to carb when bottled after cold crashing versus a non-cold crashed beer? I cold crashed both an IPA and a pale ale for about 24-36 hrs to get yeast and dry hops to settle out. Normally my beers ferment around 60-65, then bottle condition a little warmer around 65-70 degrees for a week, and are pretty well carbed and go in the basement or in the fridge at that point. With the beers I cold crashed, they are still pretty flat after 6 days. I realize I need to be patient but I'm also in uncharted territory here so I'm trying to understand it better. Thanks.

 

[Helly]

Well in my case it was just a shade under two weeks and these carbed up nicely. I'm sure there are a lot of variables that could affect that but I tried both batches tonight and they are well carbed so I put them in the garage to chill.