How do you add new yeast at bottling?

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petep1980

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I'm concerned with making the wort as homogenous as possible before bottling so enough yeast is in there to carbonate.

Please don't tell me there will be yeast in there anyways, so why add new yeast.... I am doing some weird Belgian style that requires a new addition of yeast.

I'm guessing a couple days before bottling I add a small starter to get the yeast going, then just bottle that. Is this at all correct?
 
adding yeast has always helped my beer carb a lot quicker and seemingly more consistent so i do it to all of my brews. don't know if this is the correct way to do it and someone might have a different opinion, but i've never had a problem. i always save a little slurry from the starter i make. when it comes time to bottle it let the yeast warm up to room temp and shake it every once in a while. then just dump the slurry into the bottling bucket as you rack into it. as long as you are making starters you might as well pitch a little more because it won't cost you any money for new yeast.
 
I've tried this twice, both with dry yeast straight from the packet. One was a pseudo-lager that I cold conditioned for a week before bottling so the additional yeast was just for insurance. This beer turned out fine. The second was for a strong IPA that I thought was done fermenting. I had about 2 pounds of unrefined sugar in the recipe (similar to belgian recipes). After a week of bottling I thought the beer was perfect. I let it hang out for another week or two before I put it in colder environs. Bottles ended up super carbed and undrinkable. The beer is much better when decarbed so I don't think it was infection.

The "bottling yeast" was different from the fermenting strain and with the amount of sugar I thought I may have stalled the fermentation and the new strain ate the residual sugars on top of my primings (which were to 2 volumes CO2). Others have said the added yeast provided nucleation points for CO2 and that's why I have (slow) gushers. I'm not sold on either theory yet.

While you probably have enough yeast already, the method you are choosing is what I'd do next time. Good luck and report back!
 

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