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Extra yeast, bad for bottling?
I recently got into brewing, and got my second batch going two weeks ago. For my fist batch, I used dry yeast started in some warm water. About a day into fermentation, I was blessed with the sound of a bubbling airlock. After two weeks fermentation, primed and bottled the beer and it turned out great as far as bottling goes (flavor is another issue, but that will come with experience).
For my second batch, I used a liquid yeast and followed the directions from my brew store; let the yeast come to room temperature, shake vigorously, pitch into cooled wort and wait. However, with the liquid yeast I never received the very active fermentation I did with my first batch. After waiting a week and again consulting with my local brew folk, I pitched in a packet of dry yeast. Still no fermentation.
Finally yesterday, a full two weeks after brewing, I check the beer with my hydrometer. It read about 1.012 (porter recipe, started at about 1.043). I have decided to go ahead and bottle it to see how it turns out, but I am concerned about the additional yeast. Does it put me at a greater risk for exploding bottles? If so, is there a way to prevent this from occurring?
Thanks for any advice for a novice!
What you want to see is a steady reading on the hydrometer for 3 days to be sure that fermentation has completed. Once you see that, you know that you can bottle without much fear of a bottle bomb...also if you have fermented most of your sugars out, the yeast will for the most part fall dormant to the bottom of the fermenter, you will just want to be careful and not rouse that yeast up when racking to the bottling bucket so you dont have too much yeast in suspension when you prime and bottle. A little yeast in suspension is a good thing...you will need that for the bottle conditioning/carbing.
For a couple of questions/reminders, did you areate the wort extremely well prior to pitching? I am also guessing that you used a vial of liquid yeast, so as long as it was stored properly, yeast viability shouldn't be a problem, but for a foolproof quick start, check one of the many posts in here about a starter, doing this will make sure that you get your yeast count up to a level that will kick things off quick.
I aerated some, but probably not enough. I think I'm still a little timid in that area. I had consistant readings on the hydrometer about three days apart, so I went ahead and bottled. It has been about a week and I haven't had anything explode on me yet, so I assume thats a good thing.
I think that when I get a little more comfortable brewing, I will work on some of the starters. Hopefully I won't stress myself out again.
Thanks for the response!
If you reached your final gravity you will be fine because even though you extra yeast you are only adding a set amount of priming sugar sugar and it can only carbonate by eating the sugar you added.......that's what is nice about bottle conditioning.......if you know the volume your adding to you can adjust the carbonation of your beer by adding a little less or more sugar.....sort of like carbing with a CO2 tank by changing the output of the regulator.........
I always use a starter when using liquid yeast, except for maybe when making a mild. I've used this website for recommendations on pitching rates.
http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_pitchrates.cfm
Also, i think its beneficial to use dry yeast when you don't have time to make a starter or just cant. You can make a great beer in most styles with it.
I think that when I get a little more comfortable brewing, I will work on some of the starters.
if you are comfortable brewing beer, than you are skilled enough to brew a starter.
a starter culture is just a mini batch of beer, without hops or any additions. all you have to do is dissolve some LME or DME in a pint of water and pitch your yeast a day or two before you intend to brew.
treat it like you would a 5 gallon batch of beer and you will have a successful starter: sanitize your container (mason jar, large beer bottle, flask, etc), stopper, and airlock, cool the wort to pitch temperature, pitch, place in warm area, wait.
and don't worry about the secondary addition of yeast. as long as you don't overprime your bottles, you won't get bombs.
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