Bottling my first high gravity Belgian.

I'm bottling a Belgian Strong Dark Ale this weekend. I got some CBC-1 yeast from my LHBS to add to my bottling bucket with the priming sugar to be sure it carbonates.
Question: Do I have to wait after adding the yeast to the bucket before bottling to be sure it is mixed in? If it's rehydrated (per instructions) do I just stir it in and go? Normally when bottling I just stir in the priming sugar and bottle away.

Subscribed for the answer.

Just out of curiosity, what type of finishing yeast are you using, what was the OG&FG, and what was the rational from the LHBS to use a finishing yeast?

I've had luck a couple of times with long secondary fermentations, with high gravity ales carbonating just fine. I.e. my russian imperial stout with 1.100, 1.031 FG carbed just fine in 3 weeks in bottles

But I do not know the answer to your specific questions.

Just gently stir it in and you're good to go. Just bottled 7 gal of a Tripel last night and did the same thing. I always reyeast my Belgians... but not everyone agrees... I usually use the same strain I made the beer with but it doesn't really matter...

O.G. was 1.090. It went into secondary at 1.020, but the recipe adds 1# D180 Dark Candi Syrup in secondary. It's been sitting on the basement floor at 55 degrees for 8 weeks.
I read enough posts on here about high-grav beers not carbonating to make me decide to add yeast to the bottling bucket. My LHBS gave me Lallemand CBC-1 yeast.

That's what I wanted to hear Norsk.

Sounds like a great beer. My Tripel was a 1.088 finishing at 1.008. Belgians can be finicky beers. Most of the time I'll start them off fermenting in the mid sixties and gradually increase the temp to the mid seventies. Many Belgians attenuate more completely at higher temps...

danielz1 said:

I'm bottling a Belgian Strong Dark Ale this weekend.

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Extract or AG? Always on the lookout for new Belgian recipes... Usually brew the whites but my wife has been requesting a Golden Strong as of late...

Norse are you just dumping in a whole new pack of wyeast of the same strain or adding yeast back in that you saved. I used the lallemand CBC 4 weeks ago and just added it into the bucket when racking over. Thinking I should have rehydrated as packet stated in warm water. Seems like yeast was floating in like a granular form still in some of the bottles and isn't settling to bottom like an active liquid yeast would settle. It was hard to control how much got sucked up into each bottle. With a liquid yeast it would just suspend somewhat evenly throughout.

Unsure what I want to do in the future now. Leaning towards adding a wyeast of same type at bottling time. It will increase the cost but easy for me to get since I only work 2 blocks away from my local home brew store. Lots of debate on whether to add yeast or not for the Belgians at bottling time but I had lack of carving up in the 2 beers previous. Now I'm worried I overdid it with the last triples I bottled with the lallemand.

Ryan

Every year or so I start off with new yeast, make starters and keep some in reserve. I use about a third of what a WL vial or Wyeast pack has in them. I've also used a small amount of yeast left over once transferred to the bottling bucket. A quick washing and you're good to go. Tried the Belgian and it was well carbed and good to go barely 2 weeks post bottling. Needs a few more weeks bottle conditioning to mellow out...

Use dry yeast, as it will add no flavor differences, so why waste money. Rehydrate 1/2 pack for 5G batch, pitch with sugar addition.

My 8 took 3 months to carb, but after that was Champagne like.

I bottled my 1st batch of Belgian Golden Strong Ale a month ago and it was really strong! Not sure why, but different bottles had different alcohol contents. I let it carb in the bottles for 15 days. One 16 oz. bottle gave me a pretty good buzz. Be careful, you don't want to get drunk.

Just brewed Belgian strong today. I already have active fermentation bubbles going in the blow off tube. 1 bubble about every 17 seconds right now. Should be going like mad by morning. I won't be bottling till July so plenty of time to decide on whether to add yeast or not at bottling time.

Ryan

I have had my first AG Belgian Strong in the secondary for ~30 days and am looking to bottle soon. Took a hydro reading yesterday and it shows a SG around 1.002! OG was around 1.080. I am worried about this one coming out thin but the reading sample tasted fine so I am moving on...

My question is should I add yeast before bottling? I plan on conditioning for around 3 months before drinking. I usually would not add anything but the epically low SG worries me a bit. Thanks!