Bottling after a year

A friend has a beer he made a year ago and is wanting to bottle it, told him all the yeast are probably dead. What are his options?

Bottle condition with priming sugar and yeast. Many breweries add yeast to the bottles upon bottling. What type/style is his brew?

An Aside:
I brewed a 2.5G batch of Rochfort 8 prior to leaving home and going off to college. This was left in primary at my parents house for 5 years!. I actually forgot about it in one of my closet nooks. So I did some reading and was able to bottle and condition carbonation with yeast and priming sugar. Took an extra 3 months in my apartment but it was the most complex thing that has ever touched these lips.

I'm thinking its a pumpkin

The easiest way to add some yeast is to mix about 1/3 package of dry yeast in the priming sugar solution once it's cooled. Boil the priming solution, cool it, add to the bottling bucket and stir in the yeast. Then rack the beer into it. It will mix well when the priming solution "swirls" around with the beer.

You don't need much- 1/3 of a package is plenty. I'd use a neutral yeast, like nottingham.

What happened, why sitting idle for a year?

FWIW, you can use just about whatever yeast you want. I'd pick up an el-cheapo packet of Red Star Montrachet ($0.55 at the LHBS) and drop 1/3rd of that in there. You won't glean hardly any taste at all from the minor amount of fermentation that goes on in the bottle & I'd prefer something that flocs pretty well to bottle condition if given the choice.

ultravista said:

What happened, why sitting idle for a year?

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He did an extract version of my pumpkin recipe tried it six weeks in and it tasted hot so he let it age.

Told him to keg it and we would break in the new beer gun I received as a gift but between him and I no empty kegs

it's been sitting a year, let it sit longer until you have an empty keg. Or use that new beer gun and empty a keg into bottles and keg it.

I plan on bottling a Bourbon Barrel Old Ale this weekend that has been sitting in secondary for about a year. My main worry is that the yeast has either settled out, or is dead. I conferred with the LHBS and they suggested that I 1) dump a yeast smack pack, 2) let it sit for 3 days, and then 3) bottle with normal priming malt.

Due to time constraints, I must add yeast and bottle on the same day (silly I know, having been a year). Therefore, my plan is to 1) add a whole packet of dry Nottingham yeast to warm water (boiled first), then 2) empty warm yeast and water mixture in bottom of bottling bucket, 3) rack onto this yeast solution, and then 4) add normal priming malt to bucket. Lastly I'll stir, in hopes of evenly distributing the yeast.

This may sound similar to the recommendations above, but I'm wondering if others have had success with these methods. Thoughts? Concerns?
I hope to post again in several weeks with good news.

Make sure the repitched yeast doesn't attenuate more than the original yeast, or it could overly dry out a great beer. Use cheap dry yeast, it will not have a flavor impact.

That should work just fine. You don't even need the whole packet of yeast, 1/3of it is more than enough. I typically use a dry champagne yeast in these instances bevause they are inexpensive, handle high alcohol environments well, and only ferment simple sugars. Good luck!

backroombrewery said:

Therefore, my plan is to 1) add a whole packet of dry Nottingham yeast to warm water (boiled first), then 2) empty warm yeast and water mixture in bottom of bottling bucket, 3) rack onto this yeast solution, and then 4) add normal priming malt to bucket. Lastly I'll stir, in hopes of evenly distributing the yeast.

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So it has been a little over five weeks since bottling using the above method and I'm happy to say that it worked. The beer pours with a a nice full head and good carbonation (not over carbed). I teel that the additional Nottingham yeast did not effect the flavor at all (although I have no way of comparison). Additionally, there is no noticeable difference in the amount of trub in the bottom of each bottle.

Perhaps next time I forget about a beer for a year, I'll use less than the full packet of dry yeast. Other than that, I'm very pleased.