To re-pitch, or not to re-pitch...

[Anachronist]

Brewed up a Porter yesterday, OG was 1.074. Well higher than I'd planned, so I'd only purchased one tube of White Labs WLP013 London Ale. I was considering purchasing another and re-pitching due to the high OG. Currently the porter is fermenting VERY vigorously, just short of a blow off.

Lately I've had carbonation problems, and after reading an article in BYO, I do believe I tend to under-pitch. So, should I pitch another vial, and if so when? I want to make sure I don't have a short but vigorous fermentation, with a lack of viable yeast rendering it unable to carb, like the pale (read: fiasco) I did recently.

 

[aiptasia]

There's a thread here that also explains that overpitching can achieve poor attenuation, too. If it were me, i'd probably just whirl it after primary fermentation and then let it sit for a full three week ferment on the yeast cake. There should be plenty of viable yeast (unless it gets too cold) in your beer come bottling/kegging time and it may benefit from longer bottle conditioning.

I just purchased a tap a draft system from Williams brewing, and I plan to test it out on my English Specialty Ale. I plan to force carb the first bottle with CO2 and naturally carb the other bottles.

 

[Anachronist]

Hmm...I hadn't researched mini-kegs much but I think I should have. I have a few Party Pigs but haven't gotten good results yet. If I could force carb, I'd be happy. I'll search for that thread, thanks.

 

[owyheeguy]

Force carbing is nice its much less muss and fuss, But it takes about the same amount of time to get the co2 to absorb into solution as it does to naturally carbonate.

 

[Anachronist]

Really? Is that in general or just with the mini-keg system? I was under the impression it was faster. I guess it might be with a full keg set up.

 

[BryanJ]

A single vial of yeast is enough for a 5 gallon batch at around 1.025 depending on viability of the yeast, so you way underpitched your beer. Get into the habit of using a pitching calculator.

What are your fermenation temps? Ive never heard of pitch rate effecting carbonation.

 

[AmandaK]

Force carbing is nice its much less muss and fuss, But it takes about the same amount of time to get the co2 to absorb into solution as it does to naturally carbonate.

This is untrue. Force carbing can take a week if using the "set it and forget it" approach. That is MUCH faster than the recommended 3 week bottle conditioning time. Furthermore, if you set up a system that involves an aeration stone as a means of carbonating in your keg, you can fully carbonate in hours.