What's happening in secondary?

[RosssBrew]

Sorry for the double post as an engineer wanting to understand the chemistry. My assumption is that the yeast would have eaten up all the sugar and oxygen in the primary. So I thought the yeast would have died off. I'm brewing a couple Belgian style beers, and it suggested that I wait at least 4-6 months before bottling.
If I add 5oz of sugar at bottling, can I expect any yeast to still be alive to produce carbonation?

Thanks!

 

[k_mcarthur]

Short answer, yes. The yeast doesn't die after fermentation, they just go to sleep. I would split your conditioning time, three extra months in primary and three months in bottles. There is a lot of discussion about the need for secondary that you can search for here on this forum without hashing it out again here. What are you making?

 

[IL1kebeer]

Sorry for the double post as an engineer wanting to understand the chemistry. My assumption is that the yeast would have eaten up all the sugar and oxygen in the primary. So I thought the yeast would have died off. I'm brewing a couple Belgian style beers, and it suggested that I wait at least 4-6 months before bottling. If I add 5oz of sugar at bottling, can I expect any yeast to still be alive to produce carbonation? Thanks!

Nothing is happening in the secondary that wouldn't be happening in your bottles or a keg as long as you hit FG and your yeast have cleared and cleaned up. Rack it at this point and age in your bottles or a keg. Or do a side by side and have a taste test. Then you can get a definitive answer for yourself.

IMO, keep your secondary limited to wood aging, fruit, or sours.

 

[BigFloyd]

+1. You can simply ferment these styles 3 weeks in the primary, prime/bottle and the let them age 4-6 months in the bottles. No secondary needed.

 

[tennesseean_87]

Secondary (or longer primary) can allow more yeast and other particles to drop out before getting into the bottle. You'll always have a yeast sediment in a bottle-conditioned beer, but it'll be smaller.

 

[Cyclman]

IMO, the secondary vessel should be re-named the "bright tank" as the benefit it can add (outisde of lagering, wood, fruit, sours that require extensive contact and you may not want to leave your beer "on the yeast" for so long) are related to clearing the beer. But even that is debateable, plus you risk oxidizing or infecting your beer.

I don't have kegs, and bottles take up tons of room, so for really huge beers secondary is a convenience to me. Of course I lager in secondary.

I pitch dry yeast when I've aged a beer more than 3 months, just don't want to consider risking undercarbonation, even though this is probably unnecessary.