Will my freakishly clear beer carbonate?

[JesseL]

I just bottled an IPA that spent about four weeks in the secondary (dry hopping the last two). It was, by far, the clearest beer that I ever put into bottles. I'm trying to RDWHAHB, but I'm worried that the clarity means there isn't enough suspended yeast to carbonate the beer (I used my usual 4 oz. priming sugar). It's going to carbonate anyway, right?

 

[FatDragon]

Yes. Some people use gelatin and cold crashing to get their beer super clear before bottling, but there's still enough yeast to carbonate. I can't imagine how long you'd have to let a beer sit before there wasn't enough yeast in suspension to carbonate; I'm thinking years...

 

[sky4meplease]

I have fermented for two weeks, cold crashed for one week and pulled a sample before transfer for a look under the microscope.
Not a single yeast cell.
Now I suppose you would have to work pretty hard not to pick some up during the transfer to the bottling bucket but it's not likely to be the 18 billion cells typically required to sufficiently carbonate a beer.
The result will likely be a slower than normal carb up.
Not necessarily a good thing in a beer you want to drink fresh.
I add bottling yeast when I bottle now.
To answer your question yes it will carbonate anyway.
Keep us posted though.

 

[JesseL]

Reviving this old post for a moment: the beer carbonated just fine. I did my usual 4 oz corn sugar in boiled in 2 cups water, added to the bottling bucket before racking the beer into it, let the bottles condition for three weeks. All good!

 

[Gravity]

Reviving this old post for a moment: the beer carbonated just fine. I did my usual 4 oz corn sugar in boiled in 2 cups water, added to the bottling bucket before racking the beer into it, let the bottles condition for three weeks. All good!

Yea, what you did was normal and no cause for alarm.

glad it was nice

recipe?