Bottling an old ale

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gandolf888

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Hello all! Getting ready to bottle my first sour and am planning on doing it in normal 12 oz bottles but am worried about bottle bombs and thought I would reach out to the forums for more experienced opinions. The beer was an old ale using wyeast's old ale blend and a some bottle dregs. The receipe was based on the 11-11-11 beer from the forums last year:

Type: All Grain Batch Size: 5.50 gal Boil Size: 7.33 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Taste Notes: *

Date: 1/16/2011 Brewer: Gandolf888
Equipment: Brew Pot (8 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00
Ingredients
Amount 8.0 oz Treacle (100.0 SRM)
14 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)
12.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)
12.0 ozBrown Malt (65.0 SRM)
2.00 ozMagnum [10.00 %] (60 min)
0.50 tspYeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 min)
1.00 itemsWhirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)
1 PkgsOld Ale Blend (Wyeast #9097) *
Beer Profile Est Original Gravity: 1.079 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.079

SG Est Final Gravity: 1.016 SGMeasured Final Gravity: 1.012
SG Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.21 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 8.77 % Bitterness: 54.8 IBU
Calories: 358 cal/pint Color: Est Color: 15.0 SRM Color *
Mash Single Infusion, Full Body, 157.0 F

Notes:
mashed 60 minutes 157 for dextrins for the brett to eat. 1600 ml starter. Pulled off two gallons of the first runnings and boiled down to 2 quarts. added back to kettle with treacle and boiled for 75 minutes.

I've checked the gravity a few times since July and it has stayed at 1.012. The flavor profile is right were I believe it should be. The plan is to bottle for 2.4 volumes of carbonation with 4.4 oz of corn sugar and repitch a sachet of rehydrated Lalvin 71b-1122 champagne yeast.

With the final gravity sitting at 1.012 for the last six months I believe that it is stable. What I am worried about is the champagne yeast might be able to eat more than just the bottling sugar and cause some bottle bombs. With the time and space dedicated to this beer for the last year I would hate to wake up to exploding bottles and losing this beer. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated and thanks to everyone on this forum for helping me to make better beer over the last three years. :ban:
 
If Brett can't eat it then champagne sure as heck won't. Champagne yeast isn't even very good at eating maltose. It's a good bottling yeast since it will handle alcohol and low ph. If your gravity's stable your plan is good.
 
^+1

if you split a batch and fermented with an ale yeast and a wine yeast, the wine yeast would end up much sweeter than the ale yeast

champagne and wine yeasts are incapable of fermenting malto-triose, which is the second most common fermentable sugar in sweet wort
 
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