need help on bottling aged RIS

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aharri1

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I brewed a double chocolate Russian imperial stout and plan to bottle it in the next few weeks. It has aged in secondary for almost four months now and I've read u must add yeast to the bottling bucket. Can anyone help me with how much and what type?
 
Anything you use right now will have basically no impact on the flavor, so just use whatever you have that can survive the alcohol level in the beer. Dry US-05 would probably work fine. Also, the yeast will only eat the available sugar, so the exact amount is not really that important. Assuming your batch is 5G, you can re hydrate about have a packet of yeast in a couple cups of warm pre-boiled water, and pitch it along with your priming sugar.
 
O how I wish I was bottling an old RIS. Make sure to take lotsa shot-glass samples.
 
I'm not sure you'll need more yeast after only 4 months. I've seen 8 months as sort of the yardstick for that.
 
Thanks for all the help guys! I plan to let it sit in the bottles for 2 months also for a total of 6.
 
I have had great success with Fermentis T-58 strain for bottle conditioning beers. Had a American Strong Ale with about the same timeline. I re-hydrated the yeast and added it 3 days before bottling, just in case there was some residual sugars remaining. It's been bottled about 2 months and coming along beautifully.

http://www.fermentis.com/fo/pdf/HB/EN/Safbrew_T-58_HB.pdf

Its got a high alcohol tolerance. Depending on the final gravity US-05 may or may not be effective.
 
What is your final gravity?

I bottled a 12%ish RIS that sat on oak for about 4 months without using any bottling yeast and it has carbed up fine.
 
I would think its ok. It will take a while to carb but rolling the bottles around the first week will help. What were the OG and FG?
 
OG was 1.081 and I took a sample yesterday and got 1.004. Any suggestions?
 
dcHokie said:
wow, that finished really low. what yeast strain did you use?

Nottingham dry yeast but I soaked an extra pound of cocoa nibs in half a fifth of vodka for a week and added it to that in secondary. Original fg reading before adding those was 1.020.
 
BradleyBrew said:
I have had great success with Fermentis T-58 strain for bottle conditioning beers. Had a American Strong Ale with about the same timeline. I re-hydrated the yeast and added it 3 days before bottling, just in case there was some residual sugars remaining. It's been bottled about 2 months and coming along beautifully.

http://www.fermentis.com/fo/pdf/HB/EN/Safbrew_T-58_HB.pdf

Its got a high alcohol tolerance. Depending on the final gravity US-05 may or may not be effective.

Thanks for the suggestion! I've never pitched yeast prior to adding though. My batch is 5gallon I guess there is a water/yeast ratio to follow?
 
Thanks for the suggestion! I've never pitched yeast prior to adding though. My batch is 5gallon I guess there is a water/yeast ratio to follow?

I'm not sure about a water/yeast ratio. In the past I just rehydrate a sachet of yeast and pitch onto the fermented beer, let it sit a few days, take a hydro reading, and bottle. I've read that doing this is pretty hard on the yeast because of the high alcohol levels, no oxygen, and no sugar to consume so most probably die.
 
Ok, sounds good. How much water should I pitch the yeast with? Maybe 1/4 cup or less?
 
Ok, sounds good. How much water should I pitch the yeast with? Maybe 1/4 cup or less?

Yeah, you don't need much water. Just make sure you have it warmed to the temp recommended on the yeast sachet, give it a nice stir with something sanitized and wait until it's nice and milky before you pitch and you'll be good to go.
 
dcHokie said:
Yeah, you don't need much water. Just make sure you have it warmed to the temp recommended on the yeast sachet, give it a nice stir with something sanitized and wait until it's nice and milky before you pitch and you'll be good to go.

Thanks for all the help! Its hard being patient until may to drink it :)
 
It came out great!!! I aged it 6 months and it keeps getting better!!
 
I'm jealous! I bottled a 12-13% RIS with champagne yeast (EC-1118) and it's been over 100 days in the bottle and still has really low carbonation, plus a sort of 'green' alcohol flavor. it's bumming me of. Oh well, perhaps the 75 deg temp of my house these days will help things along?
 
Well, I bulk aged mine for 4 months in secondary then added wine yeast to the bottling bucket and bottled. It took over 2 months in bottles before the alcohol taste started to calm down was way better on third month. Maybe just give it more time.
 
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