Is There Any Yeast In Clear Beer?

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Aleosaurus cervisiae

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I made a batch of Chris's British Ale from a FWK bought at G&G. I used US04, fermented at 18C for 2 weeks. When I bottled the said beer, I noticed how clear it is. Two weeks later (now), the beer is very nice but hardly any carbonation occurred. Not a bad thing for a British ale mind you, but it still makes me wonder - when the beer is clear at the end of fermentation, is there are enough yeast suspended for a successful carbonation? Usually I make BIAB partials and they tend to be (unintentionally) cloudy and subsequently well carbonated, so I assume there are yeasts floating there.
 
In general (according to the 'Yeast' book) unless you do something out of the ordinary (like filter or let the beer sit in primary/secondary for many weeks) there will still be adequate yeast for bottle conditioning (and the number of yeast cells required is such that the beer can look clear when bottled).

Depending on where you have kept your bottles, with this weather it may be that the yeast were less active due to the temperature, so they might need a bit more time to fully carbonate the bottles.
 
Thanks Wolfy, I thought that might be the case, I will leave them a little longer and see what happens.
 
When storing the bottles in a cool place I've found a few times that it could take 3-4 weeks before carbonation had fully happened. Due to this, I've tended to place a few bottles in a warmer room to speed up the process a bit.

As for clarity and long storage, I once had one in secondary for over a year before bottling (slightly hectic year, so forgot about it) and while it took a little longer to carbonate, it still got there.


Cheers,

Jens
 
I have a super bright, clear Kolsch at the moment, bottled about 4 weeks ago. It is only now starting to get carbonated properly, normally my batches in the shed take about 2-3 weeks, 4 weeks is done. Just takes a long time. The cold weather at the moment probably isn't helping either
 
English yeast styles tend to floc out more anyway, so that explains the clear beer. Low carb, as others said, is weather dependant. I have a brew hitting 4 weeks in the bottle and its still not ready to drink (though half the batch has mysteriously gone anyway)
 
At the Cascade brewery the other day, I was told even after they filter with diatomaceous earth and then use a UV light some yeast is know to survive, hence they can only give the beer treated this way a 3 month shelf life. The bottled beer you get has also been heat treated at 7 temperature steps to get a 1 year shelf life.

So I think you should have enough viable yeast. What temp is the bottles conditioning at?


QldKev
 
as the others have said you will need to leave the bottles longer and/or raise the temp. given that you used an english yeast the bottles should be left at 20 degrees c for two or three weeks. and yes there will be plenty of yeast left in your beer.
 
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