My Pilsner Tastes Yeasty

[johnnybob]

I bottled a 5 gallon batch of Bo Pils last week. After lagering for 6 weeks, I re-yeasted with 1/2 pkg of S-04 ale yeast before bottling. I tried one today to see how the carbonation was coming along (only 5 days in the bottle). It was unspeakably bad. Very yeasty tasting. I couldn't drink it. Before I added the extra yeast, after lagering, it was very crisp and clean. Although the bottled sample I tried today was very clear it tasted totally funky. Will the yeasty flavor dissapate with time in the bottle (I hope) or is this one a dumper? I prefer to bottle my beer so kegging is not an option. Thanks for your input.

 

[Indyking]

Let it age, it may fade away a little bit with time but I doubt it would ever go away completely. If you don't need the bottles for other batches, I say it's worth a try to find out.

It will likely give you a heck of an intestinal discomfort.

Now, I got ask: Why in the world have you pitched before bottling, especially an ale yeast in a lager? What were you thinking?

 

[johnnybob]

The strain of bottling yeast doesn't matter as far as the flavor profile goes. It's only there to ferment the priming sugar. After 6 weeks of lagering the remaining lager yeast may have gone dormant and may or may not carbonate the beer. Adding yeast at bottling is cheap insurance. As soon as the priming sugar is consumed the bottling yeast it will flocculate and go dormant. I've done this before with no problems. This time I not sure what to think.

 

[Indyking]

The strain of bottling yeast doesn't matter as far as the flavor profile goes. It's only there to ferment the priming sugar. After 6 weeks of lagering the remaining lager yeast may have gone dormant and may or may not carbonate the beer. Adding yeast at bottling is cheap insurance. As soon as the priming sugar is consumed the bottling yeast it will flocculate and go dormant. I've done this before with no problems. This time I not sure what to think.

Really? That's news for me. I have lagered for 2 months before and never had problems with carbonation after bottling.

So if you have done it before with no problems, what do you think happened this time?

 

[johnnybob]

I'm not sure. I may be freaking out for no reason. Maybe I guess I should wait for a couple of weeks and RDWHAHB. You're probably right, I just read another thread that claimed re-yeasting was not necessary for lagers. This may be my last time I use this process.

 

[Malticulous]

I think adding new yeast was a good idea--or it may take a unusually long time to carb (like three weeks.) I use t-58 all the time.

I doesn't take much. One gram of dry yeast is enough to condition five gallons. You may have used too much.