Bottling/carbonation

[WarBully]

Our beer has been sitting in the secondary (don't know if that's bad to let it sit for 2 weeks or so with no action). We've been dry hopping it this whole time. The reason it's been sitting is we're still waiting for our bottles and caps to arrive.

Question: How do I know if there is enough yeast in there to create good, solid carbonation? Should we be okay?

 

[ncbrewer]

Assuming it was in primary for something like 1 - 2 weeks, it should be fine. Even when the beer clears, there's lots of yeast that you can't see.

 

[JBIII]

+1 to what ncbrewer said...


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[WarBully]

Okay. I was also told by the fellow who owns a homebrew shop here that it would be okay to add half a packet of yeast in the batch before bottling. Should I not do that?

 

[JBIII]

Sure, you could...Unless the temperature of your beer has dropped significantly after fermentation was complete, you'll have plenty of yeast in suspension to get the job done. I bottled for a few years and never added yeast post fermentation.

Just remember to keep your bottles somewhere around 70 degrees while bottle conditioning and you'll be fine. If you're looking for a higher CO2 content, that would be achieved by adding additional sugars...


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[botigol]

I wouldn't waste the yeast. It would serve as a guarantee, but there's really no reason. I had a 9% Belgian Dark Strong and a couple of lagers carb fine after sitting for more than two months a piece; 2 weeks really isn't enough time to create concern.

 

[WarBully]

Honestly, it's probably been sitting for about three weeks.

 

[WarBully]

Thanks for all the help guys!