Weissbier conditioning?

[ChilliMayne]

I have just brewed my first weissbier and wanted to know the best way to prime it.
I have read about 'Speise' method and so have put aside 2L of I fermented wort which I will add to the bottling bucket.
I intend to syphon I to a secondary and leave for 3-4 weeks.
Some methods of Speise tell me to add a packet of yeast to the unfermented wort at bottling time for priming whilst others say its not necessary as the yeast already in the brew will react with the fresh wort added! Am I best to just add new yeast or do I risk creating a bomb? Is it just not necessary to use a second yeast? This time round I don't want to use carbonation tabs. Any help much appreciated

 

[Praetor]

I have never primed with a Speise but from what I know is that you start the fermentation in the smaller batch and then add it to your main beer. If you used someone's recipe then you should have an idea of the ratios of unfermented and fermented but the 2l for a 5gal batch sounds about right (I don't know of any calculators for this but do a search). As with any beer the "bomb" will come if you do not completely ferment the larger batch of beer and there are still fermentables present but when you control those sugars you can get a well carbonated beer.

Just like using carb tabs; too many tabs will overcarb the beer; too few will undercarb. Just right makes goldilocks happy.

I would pitch a new yeast in the small batch in a large carboy and get fermentation started before racking the large batch onto it and then bottling. If you are afraid of the bombs then store somewhere for proper fermentation (I use a large cooler after bottling so if I get bombs they don'tt make a mess) and after 7 days if you haven't heard a pop or two pull one and open it. Then you can just let them bottle condition for as long as you like.

 

[Kaiser]

you may want to check out this page: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?ti ... arbonation

it also has a link to a calculator for calculating the amount of Speise or Kraeusen needed for bottle conditioning.

I also don't think you have to add more yeast when you decide to use Speise. Kraeusen is different, since you are adding fermenting beer and thus at least the yeast that is in suspension.

Here is a page on Kraeusening: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Kraeusening. The calculations are a bit math heavy, though.

Kai