Best Time to Re-Pitch to Bottle Condition a Big RIS

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TAK

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I'm getting ready to bottle a RIS (OG=1.110, FG=1.028, ABV=10.75%) and I'm scouring all the posts on bottle conditioning big beers. I've decided that I'm going to re-pitch to get some fresh beasties in there. I drew off a culture from my starter when I brewed this, so I'm thinking that I'll build that up with a couple cups of DME (maybe cold crash and decant) and pitch it before bottling. My question is when is the best time to re-pitch for bottle conditioning? I've seen 3 days before bottling thrown around. I think it makes sense to pitch into the carboy ahead of time to give it time to cleanup if it finds some sugars in there it wants to eat before I feed it bottling sugar. But in theory, if I'm pitching the same yeast, it shouldn't find anything in there that it wants to eat. So is 3 days just going to give it time to fall to the bottom of the carboy and thus, not get sucked up into the bottling? In my head, it seems that the churning activity from fermentation is in large what gets the yeast into suspension. So if there is NO fermentation from the re-pitch, I just picture the culture dropping into the carboy and settling at the bottom with the rest of what's settled out.
 
If you want to do it the easy way, you could rack onto about 1/4 pack of dried champagne yeast when you add your priming sugar and bottle. Your fridge culture should work too. It probably won't find anything to eat, but it will be fresh yeast that hasn't been living in 10% alcohol, so it's possible that it will. Giving it three days should let it eat whatever's left. You don't need very much yeast in solution to carbonate, but if you wanted to add an ounce or two of sugar and the repitch a week or so before bottling to ease your mind, it won't hurt anything.
 
Hmm, maybe I'll rack onto my yeast culture right into my bottling bucket, watch for airlock activity and bottle in 1 to 3 days depending on if I see anything.
 

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