Force Carbing and then Pitching Yeast

[Hopper5000]

Hey All,

So I was thinking about the who bottle conditioning vs force carbing in a keg argument. I know the main things are that people like the taste of the yeast C02 vs the artificial C02 and that the yeast can help in the aging process because it will continue to work in the beer.

I have some bigger beers in kegs right now that I have been wondering what to do with. Sometimes I have had trouble getting them to carb up in the bottles so I was thinking about force carbing them and then pitching something like champagne yeast or wlp1 (something with similar attenuation to what I used if not just the same yeast) in them and bottle them so they will age with the yeast.

What do you all think about this. Does this even make sense or will the yeast just die off right away since there was no food for them?

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

Unless you filtered it or let it cold condition for an extended period of time before kegging, there should still be yeast in your beer (probably settled to the bottom of your keg but still in there). You just need to re-suspend them. After bottling with sugar, yeast consumes what is available and goes dormant again, so IMO there's no difference between C02 from yeast or any other means. A chemical is a chemical...but I'm no chemist.

 

[TopherM]

+1

Even though you can't see them, there are millions of yeast cells in each bottle, which is more than enough to aid with carbing and conditioning processes.

 

[Hopper5000]

I guess I should have clarified more, these beers that I am thinking about were barrel aged too so they were essentially sitting in secondary for 2 - 4 months. I think because of that most of the yeast have dropped out. Because they are big beers I have had issues with getting them up to the desired carbonation level within a couple of months which is why I was thinking about the benefits of force carbing and then pitching yeast... or would pitching yeast just not do anything...

 

[homebrewdad]

I guess I should have clarified more, these beers that I am thinking about were barrel aged too so they were essentially sitting in secondary for 2 - 4 months. I think because of that most of the yeast have dropped out. Because they are big beers I have had issues with getting them up to the desired carbonation level within a couple of months which is why I was thinking about the benefits of force carbing and then pitching yeast... or would pitching yeast just not do anything...

Irrelevant. I've done a big beer with 4 week primary, 4 month secondary, and it still carbed up like a champ.

There are TONS of yeast in suspension. Unless you do a very fine filtration (.5 micron) or you pasteurize your beer, you will still have yeast.