Putting yeast back into suspension before racking into bottling bucket???

Just wondering if it is necessary to stir some of the yeast from the trub back into the beer before transferring to the bottling bucket?

Someone was telling me that if you let the beer clear by letting it sit in the primary for a couple of weeks that there may not be enough yeast left in suspension for the priming sugar to do its job and may result in lack of carbonation....

Stieger2012 said:

Just wondering if it is necessary to stir some of the yeast from the trub back into the beer before transferring to the bottling bucket?

Someone was telling me that if you let the beer clear by letting it sit in the primary for a couple of weeks that there may not be enough yeast left in suspension for the priming sugar to do its job and may result in lack of carbonation....

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Do not stir why would you clear the beer just to make it cloudy again and run the risk of oxygen in your beer just bottle it and let it sit it will carb up fine.

Nizzle is correct, there will almost always be (respectively) enough yeast in suspension to complete bottle conditioning carbing.

Agreed on not stirring. Take into consideration that people with "crash cool" their beer to get things out of suspension and compact that trub. they then bottle the beer and let it sit for 3 weeks at 70 degrees. No problems reported.

Don't stir up the trub.

Leaving your beer in contact with trub for a month or more risks creating off flavors and that's what will happen if you stir it up and then transfer everything to the bottles for several more weeks.

Once your fermentation is done, just transfer the beer and leave the trub behind.

Plenty of live active yeast stays in suspension even if the beer looks clear. There is more than plenty to consume the priming sugar and carbonate. All stirring trub back up will do is increase the amount of sediment on the bottom of the bottles once carbed. Leave it behind, package it up and enjoy the brews of your and the yeasties labor.

They're right. Yeas cells being microscopic,you can't see that there's plenty left to carb a bottle of beer even though it's clear. You'll notice it getting even clearer a couple days after it's been bottled. And at our level of brewing,you don't have to worry about autolysis. Especially with the quality of yeasts nowadays. Commercial brewers still do,since they have silo size fermenters putting pressure from the weight of all that beer on the trub/yeast at the bottom. At 5-6 gallons,we don't have that problem.

Stieger2012 said:

Someone was telling me that if you let the beer clear by letting it sit in the primary for a couple of weeks that there may not be enough yeast left in suspension for the priming sugar to do its job and may result in lack of carbonation....

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This is incorrect. There are still millions upon millions of yeast cells in suspension. I've done a 4 week primary followed by a 4 month secondary. The beer carbed up great. I've seen reports of as long as 12 months where the beer still carbs up.

Tippsy-Turvy said:

Leaving your beer in contact with trub for a month or more risks creating off flavors ...

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This is also incorrect. I just bottled a Belgian golden strong that sat on the trub for nine weeks. That style is light in color and flavor, nothing to hide behind. Taste was fantastic. I have a brown ale that has been in primary for close to eight weeks now, and I'm not worried in the slightest.

The "get the beer of the trub" is old, outdated advice that even John Palmer states is long out of date and should be ignored.

I've read numerous posts of beer left on the trub for six months - or more - and still turning out great.

Hmm. It's strange that I'm certain the reading I'd done in the past have typically warned that fermenting in the primary for more than a month is bad - off flavors, soapiness etc - and for the life in me I can't recall where I read it. Yet, this thread has gotten me looking into this subject again and it now seems the consensus is that 1 to 2 months is fine!?! Must be the improvements in yeast that you mention. I wonder if this means that my current routine inherited from Mr Beer days of 2wks fermenting + 4wks bottling is therefore under-developing my beers.

Anyway, don't mean to change the topic so I hope Stieger2012 got his answer.

I give the beer 3 weeks on average for an average gravity beer to finish & settle out. It gives the beer a bit more time to clean up & develope a little before bottling.

Tippsy-Turvy said:

Hmm. It's strange that I'm certain the reading I'd done in the past have typically warned that fermenting in the primary for more than a month is bad - off flavors, soapiness etc - and for the life in me I can't recall where I read it. Yet, this thread has gotten me looking into this subject again and it now seems the consensus is that 1 to 2 months is fine!?! Must be the improvements in yeast that you mention. I wonder if this means that my current routine inherited from Mr Beer days of 2wks fermenting + 4wks bottling is therefore under-developing my beers.

Anyway, don't mean to change the topic so I hope Stieger2012 got his answer.

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The original version of Palmer's "How to Brew" talks about the need to get the beer off the yeast as soon as fermentation is done, because autolysis was a real concern back in the infancy of homebrewing.

Now, we have companies that spend tons of money on yeast research, viability, hardiness, etc. Also, we know now that a lot of the autolysis concerns that commercial breweries have just don't apply to homebrewers, sinc commercial batches have musch greater pressure and heat on the yeast.

As a result, the "move the beer" advice is no longer really applicable. Many brewers use 3-4 weeks as a standard primary for the benefit of letting the extra yeast help clean the beer up and improve conditioning.

That being said, you certainly don't HAVE to leave the beer for longer... but you're not going to hurt it by doing so.

My brown ale that I reference above? I wish it was bottled right now. Thing is, I have three boys playing baseball in three different leagues; I just have no time to do anything for a bit longer. But I'm not worries that my beer will be hurt.