Pitching in a secondary?

[rickprice407]

I was looking for a good champagne yeast to use in some cider my wife is making and a notation on one caught my eye. It was 'great to use in secondary fermentations'.

My understanding (possibly faulty) was that we pitched, fermented and racked onto a secondary in a few weeks to get the beer off the trub in the bottom of the primary. That the yeast that was still in there would continue to do its thing during aging and then carbonate the beer in the bottle off of the priming sugar or conditioning tablets.

Are there situations where we would be pitching again and if so, are we adding more sugars???

Confused and hoping someone can shed some light on this.

Rick near Atlanta

 

[smagee]

Champagne yeast is often used to help with stuck fermentations or with large beers that stop somewhere higher than intended (e.g., above 1.035ish or so). Repitching a more robust yeast like that of champagne can help bring it that extra few gravity points down, as well as provide additional yeast for natural carbonation (if planned). Since such large beers are often primaried/secondaried for extended periods of time, these batches will often need additional cells to be re-introduced into suspension to ensure that there's enough yeast present for carbonation.

 

[rickprice407]

At what point would the yeast be pitched then? When racking to the secondary or at a later point? I have a Stout that is supposed to do 2 weeks on the primary, a month on a secondary and then 2 weeks in the bottles.

 

[smagee]

This sorry of thing typically isn't needed unless your fermentation is stuck (e.g., your fg isn't low enough and fermentation has stopped) our your beer has been in the bucket for upwards of six months. It doesn't sound like yours should need it.

If a beer requires repitching, you can usually just toss it in whenever. If you want it just for carbonation, toss it into the bucket when you bottle. Note that if you're pitching champagne yeast for bottling, though, that you'd better be damn sure fermentation is totally done. Otherwise you could end up with bombs.

 

[rickprice407]

Thx - I appreciate the help.