Long Secondary-More yeast?

I read on howtobrew.com that doing 6+ week secondary fermentation can cause the yeast to stop working, and that it might be necessary to pitch new yeast in this case.

Is this true, in anyone's experience? Especially for a high gravity beer.

If your bottling a big beer after that long of a secondary, it is not uncommon to repitch some yeast into your bottling bucket.

aha, thanks!

How much should I use? A whole new package? Or just a portion?

How high are you talking about?? What's the ABV of the brew?

IF you have a very high ABV brew, you might just want to pitch some champagne yeast into the bottling bucket (rehydrate it first and put it in early while racking the brew onto the priming solution)... That will give fresh yeast to carbonate and not impact the flavors the original yeast gave the brew. I did this for my old ale since it had been aging on oak for almost 6 weeks. I probably didn't need to do it, but I wanted the extra insurance that it would carbonate.

Just be sure to pick a neutral yeast to use...

I asked a similar question about a month ago. The general consensus was that as long as you initially pitch the correct amount of yeast in a starter & aren't aging in the secondary for 4+ months, you probably don't need to pitch fresh yeast.

The guys I talked to have brewed high gravity beers & had no carbonation issues from the yeast being too stressed. One person even said 4 months was a cautious estimate.

I've had a barleywine (12.5% ABV) in my secondary for about 2 months now & am considering bottling early to preserve some hoppiness. If I do, I'm not going to pitch more yeast.

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Thanks for the info guys. I'm asking because I just had a similar batch come out uncarbonated, and I'd like to avoid that this time. I think I'll try it, just for safety's sake, if it won't adversely affect the brew.

oh, the abv is about 8 percent.