kick start the yeast question

[iceman1407]

So I've got a bourbon barrel stout that I have now racked in my secondary for little over a week on oak chips and bourbon. I was thinking about jumpstarting the yeast with a simple syrup, give it another week or so to lower the FB and then prime and bottle. I was thinking maybe 1.5 cup of each and then pitch it, aerate/ shake it up and let it go for a bit.

Thoughts...???

iceman1407

 

[jiggs_casey]

Why are you trying to jumpstart your yeast in a secondary?

 

[iceman1407]

Give it that last little umph and reup the yeast before I bottle. Bad idea? Should I just wait until I use the priming sugars, and then bottle and let it happen there? I'm at the gravity I was looking for, just thought I try and get a little more out of it

iceman1407

 

[nanop]

If you aerate at this point, even if you add some sugar, you're likely to end up w/ oxidized (cardboard-flavored) beer. If you're at the final gravity you were expecting, then leave it at that. Now's not the time to mess with the recipe - you're not going to improve it.

Also, when priming, don't add more sugar than you're supposed to. You'll get over-carbed bottle bombs.

 

[iceman1407]

If you aerate at this point, even if you add some sugar, you're likely to end up w/ oxidized (cardboard-flavored) beer. If you're at the final gravity you were expecting, then leave it at that. Now's not the time to mess with the recipe - you're not going to improve it.

Also, when priming, don't add more sugar than you're supposed to. You'll get over-carbed bottle bombs.

Noted and documented. Thank you for the insight. Like I said, just a thought. Besides if I start making bottle bombs at this point the wife might start trying to impede on my hobby and things may go south.

iceman1407

 

[iceman1407]

Sooooo..... Bad idea to try and kick up the yeast alittle before finishing with secondary

iceman1407

 

[gstrawn]

Why????

 

[Clementine]

Sooooo..... Bad idea to try and kick up the yeast alittle before finishing with secondary

iceman1407

Yes, I would think a bad idea. if you do use secondaries the purpose is to clear the beer of yeast and proteins, trub etc. The tiny amount of yeast left in solution is more than enough to carb the bottles. People do add more yeast at time of bottling but this is for barley wines or lagers that are sluggish and other such beers that aged for an extremely long time, ie a period of months. This process is called Krausening if you google that word it will describe the process I have not done it yet so my explanation would be poor, but it is only the list of things too try.

Clem

 

[gstrawn]

I was just wondering what the specific reason was for it being a bad idea. Looking for a good story

 

[Calder]

I was just wondering what the specific reason was for it being a bad idea. Looking for a good story

He did not supply details. The assumption is that the beer is not overly high gravity, and the yeast has done it's job. Adding more of the same yeast will not further fermentation of the sugars in the beer at this stage.

Now ........ If he screwed up and he crashed it before it ended and transferred and ended up with a high gravity, that's another matter. If he had a low attenuating yeast and wants to get more from a higher attenuating yeast ...... There are reasons that he might want/need to do something, but based on what he gave us; ....... he brewed ....... yeast did it's work ........ That's it!

Whenever you try to change a beer after it's done, you run the risk of making it worse. Unless there is something wrong with it, you should not mess with it or you could ruin it. If it's just not perfect, take notes and make improvements for the next one.

 

[Clementine]

Whenever you try to change a beer after it's done, you run the risk of making it worse. Unless there is something wrong with it, you should not mess with it or you could ruin it. If it's just not perfect, take notes and make improvements for the next one.

Thanks Calder, you said exactly what I meant if it anit broke don't F%^& with it! If the beer is not what the OP wants then address that in question but if he is just trying to make sure it carbs up OK then he is A) wasting his time, B) just introducing something else that can go wrong (low chance but it is another opportunity for infection/oxidation)

Clem