Adding yeast to bottle bucket??

So I am using a bourbon barrel to age my stout and the first batch is taking 6 weeks to provide barely any carbonation.

i am thinking the yeast was too weak after 4 weeks in fermenters and then 6 weeks in barrel.

While I believe with more patience the first batch will be fine, however I would like to speed up carbonation on second batch. Anyone have any experience/tips with adding yeast to bottling bucket?

I was thinking buy dry yeast, rehydrate for a few days in a starter and pitch to bucket. Is it that simple?

Thanks!

Give it enough time and it will reach full carbonation. That said I re-yeast all my beers over 1.060 for bottling and usually use the same yeast I fermented with. The added yeast will just be working on the added sugar so not much chance for off flavors regardless of which yeast is used... within reason.

If you want to use dry yeast (which is fine) no need to wait a few days and using it to make a starter isn't recommended. Just rehydrate the yeast in tap water which has been boiled while you are filling the bottling bucket on top of the sugar and then pour it in. Give it a gentle, whirlpool like stir with a large spoon and you will be good to go. Good luck.

Some people have strong opinions on the whole re-yeasting thing, should be interesting to observe the responses...

I sometimes add more yeast at bottling time. I'll pick a highly flocculant dry yeast like Nottingham or S-04. I've already taken the time to let the beer clarify, so I don't want to add yeast that is going to stay in suspension. I rehydrate the yeast according to the manufacturer's directions, add my priming syrup and rehydrated slurry to the bottling bucket as I'm siphoning to let it mix well, then I bottle. 3 weeks later its perfectly carbonated and ready to drink. I haven't seen dry yeast manufactures recommend anywhere using a stir plate for any number of days, but I may not be looking in the right places.

People will preach that time heals all and that you don't need to add more yeast. That works too, but when I have an imperial IPA that's gone from above 1.080 to 1.008 and has been dry hopped with lots of expensive hops, I don't want to be waiting months for that tired yeast from primary to get things carbonated. I'll loose too much of that fresh dry hopped character I'm going after. For a Belgian triple or imperial stout that benefit from long term conditioning, I may skip that extra yeast addition at bottling. Same thing with average gravity beers. They have all carbonated fine without extra yeast. But, I have noticed that my high OG/high ABV beers take significantly longer to carbonate without that extra yeast addition. They eventually do carbonate though.

Thank you both for the information posted here. I find it very helpful