Refining a brew

[inthedark]

Matt - that's great, thanks for the clear reply. I'll be giving this a try.

[hoppingMad]

Just curiuos, Madbrewer, what do you base the comment "less chance you have of there being enough yeast ... " on ? Cheers.
HM.

Actually I can't remember where I have read it, but I have! It might have been a Graham Wheeler book or even a C. Papazian one. I think I have noticed it myself too though. If you are bottle conditioning - it's possible to (Rack/drop-without-adding-oxygen) the beer after alot of yeast has 'dropped' out of solution. Then if left too long, it's possible to subsequently bottle this 'clear' brew without enough yeast suspended in it to condition the brew. 6 weeks later you uncap the bottle, no satisfying hiss, & the beer tastes green and flat.

Regarding 'dropping' I was referring to racking and not adding Oxygen. I personaly don't know if Matt's totally correct on his terms, but I am certainly willing to give him the benefit of the doubt here . When you serve a clear beer it's "dropped bright" so I was referring to a beer the yeast has dropped out of, also whether or not the way I used the word 'drop' is a 'Wheelerism' or not, I couldn't say.

I was asking because I've heard several people say this. And John Palmer mentions it in his book.
I generally brew with lager yeasts, although not always, and frequently use cold conditioning and/or lagering for several weeks. The longest lagering period has been about 5 weeks. Which incidentally isn't that long actually. I've been using mostly dried yeasts and in particular S-23, but more recently I've begun propagating and freezing my own Wyeasts so can't say for sure about these except the one I have used. Anyway I have had no problems whatsoever with natural carbonation in bottles after a 5 week lagering at 2 degrees C with S-23. They always take the same length of time to come up to correct carbonation which is 3 weeks. One week at 20 degrees C then two more weeks somewhat cooler than 20 C.
Also just bottled a Czech Pils four weeks ago in which I used Wyeast Czech Pils yeast. This was lagered for just 3 weeks at 2 C and also came up to carbonation in exactly the same time.
I'm sure there are some out there who have experienced difficulties. There always will be with the numbers of people brewing, but I would encourage those who anticipate a problem with lack of enough yeast for bottle conditioning after lagering to just give it a go, you will probably be fine.