Hello,
My lager has been aging in the secondary for 6 weeks. I am starting to fear that I should have bottled long ago. Can I bottle it now? Must I add some yeast?
Thanks,
Hello,
My lager has been aging in the secondary for 6 weeks. I am starting to fear that I should have bottled long ago. Can I bottle it now? Must I add some yeast?
Thanks,
6 weeks is about the cutoff where I would begin to consider adding more yeast. There’s probably still enough yeast in there. If you do add more yeast, you don’t need a standard pitch rate. Just 1 gram is enough.
+1
Lallenamd makes a product simply called CBC. It’s for cask and bottle conditioning. Stuff works great. However, regular brewing yeast works well also.
+1
I’ve done it 4 times w/o adding more yeast. The last 3 times, I let the carboy slowly warm up to 60F, bottled it, then let it cool back down again overnight to about 40F. After 3-4 weeks, they’re perfect. FWIW, I kept my 1st batch cold the whole time and it took 4 months before I was happy, hardly any carbonation at all until the last 3 weeks which is why I tried the warming trick (which is based on something I found on Wyeast’s web site, btw).
I too am a fan of re-yeasting with CBC-1. I do this when I bottle a lagered beer and big beers.
I’ve gone three months at 34f and bottled with no problem.
THIS^^^^^
I bottled a strong ale aged in a bourbon barrel. No extra yeast no problem. Gotta be a minimum of six weeks before bottling. It took longer to carb but I’m patient.