How do I know if my yeast is still alive?

I made some Apfelwein about 6 months ago. I used Nottingham yeast (I think). Its been at a constant temp except for one day when it may have dropped down to around 50 (from 70). So, are there any tests for yeast in a carboy? Should I just throw some more yeast in before priming?
Thanks,
Tom.

Did you take a gravity reading? If there is no sugar left to ferment, throwing in yeast will do nothing.

BoxofRain said:

Did you take a gravity reading? If there is no sugar left to ferment, throwing in yeast will do nothing.

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Thanks, but Im talking about priming. I need to know if there are some little yeasties still alive to do the carbing.
Oh, and yes the sugar has all gone. Its at 1.000

tomlivings said:

Thanks, but Im talking about priming. I need to know if there are some little yeasties still alive to do the carbing.
Oh, and yes the sugar has all gone. Its at 1.000

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Ahhhh, ok. I would say that the yeast is dormant and you should get carbonation. It may take a while longer though.

As long as you haven't hit/exceeded the alcohol tolerance of the yeast, you should be fine...

Before you bottle you can yell into your Carboy "Hey guys you ok!?" And if they answer "Just a little buzzed" then your ok.

They might mumble something about turning off the light and keeping it down... Or they might toss some brew at you in an effort to get you to go away. Although that would have the opposite effect on most of us.

Lol ya "hey! Oh wow thanks your doing a good job!"

In the case of apfelwein which is so high grav you prolly exceeded the tolerance or at least tuckered it out, it wouldn't hurt to pitch some fresh yeast at bottling time. I had issues with my last batch of apfelwein carbing up even after 6 months in the bottles. It's such a high alcohol enviroment (of course I'm still partically convinced I primed with lactose and not corn sugar anyway.)