Bottling Sour

[wbuffness]

I have 4 gallons of sour beer that finished at 1.004. It's now at 68F. If I add some safale dry yeast and 2.5oz corn sugar, what can I expect when bottling?

Will I have a risk of bottle bombs if I don't cold crash my beer?

Tips or advice for bottling? This beer is almost a year old and I don't want to screw it up.

Thanks in advance!

 

[signpost]

I've been pondering the same question. My first sour beer is about 13 months along and I'm trying to figure out how to go about being sure there is enough yeast to carbonate and still be careful about not over-carbing.

So, I can't answer your question, but I eagerly await further responses.

 

[sweetcell]

I have 4 gallons of sour beer that finished at 1.004. It's now at 68F. If I add some safale dry yeast and 2.5oz corn sugar, what can I expect when bottling?

not sure what you're looking for as an answer... you should expect bottling to proceed as normal. could take a while to carbonate, depending on the pH of your beer. that's a rough enviro for the freshly added yeast. if you have the option, you might want to try champagne yeast instead. no biggie if you can't tho.

Will I have a risk of bottle bombs if I don't cold crash my beer?

there is no relationship between cold crashing and bottle bombs that i'm aware of. assuming your sour has been aging for a few months, most stuff in the beer should have settled out. cold crashing certainly won't hurt, but you're not at risk if you don't.

My first sour beer is about 13 months along and I'm trying to figure out how to go about being sure there is enough yeast to carbonate and still be careful about not over-carbing.

before bottling, make sure your gravity is stable. check it over several months.

after a year, you'll have little to no viable sacch in there. so if you don't add yeast you'll be depending on the brett to carbonate (and hoping that the other bugs don't get to the sugars before the brett does). a safer and more predictable option is to add a little yeast at bottling. you don't need much, a quarter of a 11 gr pack is plenty. personally, i prefer champagne yeast - it's cheap and it's never failed me. then again plenty of people have done just fine with regular beer yeast so use that if that's what you have on hand.

 

[NTexBrewer]

This is not a definitive answer for you but this is what I'm planning to do this weekend. This is my first sour beer and after much googling this will be my plan of action based on reading different blogs and beer forum posts.

I brewed my beer in December so it has been sitting for a long time. I found somewhere that if a beer sits in secondary for a long time you just assume that there is 0.4 volumes of CO2 in the beer. I don't know what length is considered a long time and did not pay attention to that part since my beer was going to be sitting for 9 months.

On another post I found that 4grams/liter of cane sugar gives 1 volume of CO2/ liter of beer.

I want to carbonate my beer to 3 volumes so since I have 0.4 in the beer, I need to add 2.6 volumes. I have 5.5 gallons or 20.8 liters of beer so the equation would be 2.6x4x20.8=216 grams or 7.6 oz of cane sugar.

I have also read to use either Redstar Yellow or EC-1118 Champagne yeast. The amount I have seen vary's from 10% of the yeast pack to 2grams per 5 gallons.

My plan is to rehydrate the yeast and stir it in when I stir in the priming sugar.

You do not say how long your beer has been sitting since fermentation has completed so that will be the big thing for you to figure out how much CO2 is still in the beer.

 

[signpost]

So, do most people add the extra yeast at the same time as adding the priming sugar? Does the yeast get evenly distributed doing it that way?

I've also heard about people adding yeast and some sugar a week or so before bottling. And then being able to calculate priming sugar and bottling as normal, because the residual carbonation is back up to what would be expected.

The main thing I'm trying to decide is whether to add fresh yeast at the same time as priming/bottling or adding it a few days ahead of time.

 

[NTexBrewer]

I have added new yeast for a Tripel, Dubbel and my Barley Wine at bottling. For all, I just added the yeast at the same time I add the priming sugar. Stir gently to mix well.

 

[sweetcell]

So, do most people add the extra yeast at the same time as adding the priming sugar? Does the yeast get evenly distributed doing it that way?

yes, if you swirl the beer as is enters the bottling bucket (by placing the end of your racking hose in such a way as to have the beer come out parallel to the bucket's wall), everything will be mixed nicely.

i add the yeast shortly after i've started racking the beer into the bucket. your boiled priming sugar sludge isn't a healthy environment for yeast, that's too much sugar for them. i wait for the sugar to be diluted a bit (like a quarter or half gallon) before throwing in the yeast. by then i have a good swirl going and the yeast is quickly mixed around.

I've also heard about people adding yeast and some sugar a week or so before bottling. And then being able to calculate priming sugar and bottling as normal, because the residual carbonation is back up to what would be expected.

yup, that should work.

The main thing I'm trying to decide is whether to add fresh yeast at the same time as priming/bottling or adding it a few days ahead of time.

if you think you have any residual sugar in your beer due to incomplete fermentation, you should add the yeast beforehand. otherwise the bottling yeast will have both the priming sugar and the residual sugar to ferment and you might end up with over-carbed beer. this is mostly a concern if you had a bad fermentation and a high finishing gravity.

this isn't a concern with a sour beer (i.e. with bugs) that has been aging for months.

 

[signpost]

Awesome. Thanks for the explanation of your process.

I don't think I've been this paranoid about screwing up a beer since my first batch.

 

[Calder]

If it has been souring for a while and is basically finished, just prime the same way you would a regular beer, and use the same amount of priming sugar.

It should prime without added yeast, but may take a long time. Adding fresh yeast will quicken priming. The fresh yeast will only work on the priming sugar.