Lager plan - with pics

[greenxpaddy]

First try from the bottle. Nothing like a commercial lager - clean crisp, low bitterness, gentle floral from the celeia. it's good

[barney]

Did it end up carbonating OK Paddy?

I have a lager ready to bottle and am worried that there may not be enough yeast left in.

[greenxpaddy]

Yes! This was lagered for two months and no problem. They reckon two months is about a rough yardstick. I'm not saying if you had proper lagering temps near zero that it would still be ok as more yeast would probably fall out of suspension. But at average 4-6 degrees c its been ok

[Barley Water]

Well, I hope you don't have problems with bottle conditioning but I'll tell you my sad story. I made a Tripple last summer using yeast I grew up making an Abbey Single. Everything worked out well and I had high hopes for the beer. I then primed the entire batch and bottled it (three 12oz long-necks and the rest Belgian 750's with corks and cages). Well, long story short, the beer is absolutely flat. When I get around to it, I am going to try and salvage the entire thing by opening the bottles, dumping them into a corni (with a layer of CO2 to minimize oxidation) and then force carbonating the whole thing. Of course this pisses me off for a couple of reasons. First; I hate bottling because it's alot of work. Secondly of course, putting something that "robust" in a keg has the potential to get me into some real trouble at home. Anyway, the moral of this cautionary tale is to always over-yeast when bottle conditioning if you either cold condition for a long period of time or you are dealing with a high O.G. beer. Both those situations can yield yeast that is either dormant or so weak due to high gravity brewing that it doesn't have anything left for bottle conditioning, lession learned in the school of hard knocks.

[greenxpaddy]

Don't despair.

If that happens I have decided to mix up a calculated strength of wort and yeast mix and will uncap and inject 5ml into each bottle with a syringe, then recap. I am hoping if I work quickly the yeast will not be shocked by the high sugar content.