Hello,
First time poster, long time reader and rookie brewer. I had been reading the rave reviews about the Caribou Slobber extract kit so I tried it out from NB. 3 weeks in primary, 3 weeks in secondary and so far 1 week in the bottle. I wanted to try something new and work on clarity a little with this batch so I introduced Super Kleer to the secondary about 4 days before bottling. During this time my OG was spot on at 1.052 and my FG was 1.017 fermented at a temp of 65-69 degrees.
Well, long story short, I have no carbonation at all. What I have read is that the Super Kleer yanked all the yeast to the bottom of the secondary thus leaving none for the bottling.
So my question is this, what now? Do I empty all the bottles back into my bottling bucket and pitch another Wyeast pack into it? If so how long do I let it run? Do I have to add DME to it or is there enough already in there to eat? How badly did I mess this up?
Those are all my questions and from here on out, if I want to go with a clearer beer I going with irish moss.
You could try turning the bottles over and swirling to get any yeast that’s in there back into solution and warm them up to 75-80F, give it a week and see if they carb up. If not, or if you’d rather just go ahead and fix the problem now, rehydrate a couple grams of S-04 or US-05 in 100mL of warm, sterile water, pop the cap off a beer and use a medicine dropper to add 2mL of slurry to the bottle, then re-cap. Repeat.
One week in the bottle is way to soon, give it two more weeks for full caranation and flavors to develop.
Put a couple of bottles in the warmest place you can find for 3-4 days. I find the top of the refrigerator is a good warm spot. See if that helps. 1 week in the bottle is a short period.
If not, you can open each bottle and add a couple grains of dry yeast to the bottle and recap.
If you bottle 1 soda bottle you can tell how the carbonation is coming along with out opening the glass bottles.
soda bottle…carbonation check cool!
I agree with Bakerman. One week is too soon to give up on it. You usually need to give it 1-3 weeks.
I might ask why you would want to clarify a DARK beer, quite simply racking to the secondary for 1~4 weeks will clarify the beer…
We are actually planning to do a secondary on the AK simply for the clarification it will offer W/O the addition of chemicals/etc. to our beers…
I use tap water boiled and stored in sanitized carboy a few days before brew day for all our brew day water additions so as to use sterile water w/no chlorine or fluoride…to some it may seem/be extreme, I just want the very best product in town/state/country. I like knowing what we use is fresh & un-contaminated…
I do know that if the beer hasn’t started to get fizzy by 14~21 days of bottle conditioning(provided by guidelines/recipe), it may have a problem.
Thanks guys for the help. I just have it in my head that the yeast was pulled to the bottom when the Super Kleer was added. I bought another package of dry yeast if I don’t see any carbonation in the next couple of weeks. I think I’m done with clarifying beer, I just thought I would try something new. After drinking and smelling a sample on bottling day I’m anxious to try this Caribou Slobber.
Rob
I would like the Caribou Slobber, I have been advised against the 2ndary on the AK47, I have an extremely low OG @ 1.026 so it won’t take much to be ready, much like the 4 wk Wheat ale we did, it finished up quick w/05 dry yeast…
