Ever tried Champagne Yeast to finish a beer?

I've been thinking about using a champagne yeast to finish a beer off. A secondary yeast pitch after conditioning, as it goes into the keg (instead of force carbing). I know that it's used in some styles when bottling. I guess I'm thinking it will give a dry or crisp finish but I really don't know. I've only used it to make Ginger Ale.

I believe Brooklyn Breweries Sorachi Ace (one of my fav's) is bottled with champagne yeast to carbonate. It's worth a shot in my book.

Unibroue does this on a lot if their beers if I recall correctly.

The only trouble is if you don't filter out the old yeast, they can eat some of the priming sugar too giving you kind of a compromise between the two.

Champagne yeast doesn't give you any extra flavors in the bottle/keg. It's commonly used for bottling because it's neutral, it can survive in higher amounts of alcohol and/or acidity, and it won't eat anything but the priming sugar.

Right but it's been my impression that the carbonation character is also different using
champagne yeast- that it can lend a more sparkling quality to it. I could be mistaken on that though.

Boulevard supposedly filters out their primary strain and carbonates with champagne yeast in their Smokestack series. It's great beer, but the yeast they use hardly compacts on the bottom of the bottles so you have to be pretty careful in pouring so as to not end up with a bunch of yeast flocs in your glass. Either that or I'm just incredibly unlucky in pouring these bottles.

JesperX said:

Right but it's been my impression that the carbonation character is also different using
champagne yeast- that it can lend a more sparkling quality to it. I could be mistaken on that though.

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I've never noticed a difference in beers I've bottled with champagne yeast.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

Champagne yeast doesn't give you any extra flavors in the bottle/keg. It's commonly used for bottling because it's neutral, it can survive in higher amounts of alcohol and/or acidity, and it won't eat anything but the priming sugar.

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Most champagne yeast will kill any ale yeast in the bottle. If you're a micro jealously protecting your house strain, this is an added plus. But if you're a homebrewer who is kegging, there is absolutely no benefit to using champagne yeast.

kingwood-kid said:

Most champagne yeast will kill any ale yeast in the bottle. If you're a micro jealously protecting your house strain, this is an added plus. But if you're a homebrewer who is kegging, there is absolutely no benefit to using champagne yeast.

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There's no need for the ale yeast in the bottle if you're relying on the champagne yeast to do the carbonation.

I actually just bottled up a Golden strong with Fermentis yellow champagne yeast about 5 hours before the start of this post but the problem was that the yeast did not want to rehydrate at all (let sit in the warm priming solution for 10-15 minutes) so at the end of the bottling bucket there were loads of ever-so-slightly bloated grains at the bottom. I looked at all the bottes closely and noticed only a handful of grains were in there. Hoping this batch carbs up but now I won't touch it for a few months because of this. There was a little bit of original yeast sucked up but hopefully this idea of the champagne yeast killing the ale yeast doesn't occur!

The yeast was half used on a previous batch about 2 months ago and stored just folded up in fridge-freezer temps since then. Bad idea?

Bummer, I just read that Danstar states it's good for only three days after opening, awww man!


EDIT: On a better note this is the yellow sachet, Pasteur Champagne, and Red Star staes that an opened packet sealed with as much air out as possible below 45F will be good for 4 weeks so I may be okay. The problem with the rehydration is the sugar content not allowing the water to pass the yeast's cell membrance (per Palmer).

Sorry to dig up an old thread.

If I use champagne yeast to finish off a batch to get the FG down:

1. what does it do the flavour profile of the yeast i first pitched (WLP 530)
2. do i need to do anything special when bottling or can i prime as per normal?

I used a champagne yeast (can't remember the strain) to get an Oberon clone to get a lower FG. It was stuck around 1.018 and I wanted 1.012 or so. Looking back, I wish I would have just let it be. I felt it made the beer too dry. An extra month + in the bottle and it seemed to mellow some, but if I have a beer stop too high for my liking again, I'll just let it be. I think it would have been better than what I ended up with. I'd rather have 50 beers with lower ABV and better flavor than vice versa. No, I didn't have to do anything different when bottling. The carbonation was fine.

eadavis80 said:

I'd rather have 50 beers with lower ABV and better flavor than vice versa. No, I didn't have to do anything different when bottling. The carbonation was fine.

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Thanks for this. Good point, but I went a bit crazy and added too much sugar and honey so am concerned it will be too sweet if i don't. I will see how it goes and remember your experience.

eadavis80 said:

I used a champagne yeast (can't remember the strain) to get an Oberon clone to get a lower FG. It was stuck around 1.018 and I wanted 1.012 or so.

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How do you pitch the champagne yeast into the fermented(ing) beer and get enough oxygen for the champagne yeast without causing oxidation?

If I make a starter with the yeast, pour it into the secondary fermenter than transfer from primary on top of that will that do the job?

I just opened the packet of dried yeast and sprinkled it in. That's what my homebrew shop told me to do. I know it fermented it down because the gravity lowered. I know champagne yeast is more alcohol tolerant than regular ale yeasts. So, that's what I did. Again - I wish I would have just had my beer finish at 1.018 instead of the 1.011 or whatever it got down to. It got higher ABV, but it lowered in taste quality, IMO. It did get better with age, but I'd probably not do it again.

eadavis80 said:

It got higher ABV, but it lowered in taste quality, IMO. It did get better with age, but I'd probably not do it again.

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Thanks, I will see where it gets to.

I am hoping for about 14% ABV, with the plan to age it for a very long time. If the WLP 530 gets me there, and there is a good chance it will, then I won't use the champagne yeast.