Adding another dose of fresh yeast?

I'm currently working on a dark belgian strong right now and I'm following a "trois pistoles" recipe from a book and it walks me through a technique I'm not familiar with and I've asked my LHBS and lead brewer from Cismontane, and told me this process was unneccassary and pointless. But I don't think it'd say to do it unless it was...
It says,"Prime beer in the second stage with another dose of the same strain of fresh yeast 3 days before bottling" That's the part I'm confused on.... It continues to say,"Bottle when fermentation in complete, target gravity is reached and beer has cleared (approx. 6 weeks) with: 1/2 cup corn sugar and 1/2 cup belgian clear candi sugar"... Also says to let it sit in the bottle 6 weeks untill carbonated...

Sorry for wordy post, but any light shed would be appreciated...

Is this a Szamatulski recipe?

Beer was brewed on 12/30/2010 O.G. was 1.083 and on 1/13/2011 it was 1.02... It's been in the secondary ever since (8 weeks or so)

ArcaneXor said:

Is this a Szamatulski recipe?

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it most certainly is

I have a barleywine in primary, getting ready to transfer to 2ndary for a couple weeks plus dry hop and my directions are also to add yeast 3 days prior to bottling.

obuhmyuh said:

it most certainly is

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Hehe, I knew it. Only they would add such weird instructions as "prime with half dextrose and half candi".

Yeah the guys at the LHBS kinda laughed at me when I told about the sugars. They sold me the book though haha.

I assume that adding fresh yeast at bottling is to make sure it carbonates as the long secondary will drop a lot of yeast out of suspension. Sometimes these Belgian recipes call for secondary around the 32F mark which'll put the yeast to sleep and may end up with not enough to carb properly. It wouldn't hurt to add some fresh at bottling, maybe just harvest some yeast from primary and rack the beer and priming sugar onto it when it's ready to bottle.

Thanks for input ChillWill. Harvesting yeast from my primary is something I would have to have done when I moved it to secondary, huh?

There's actually a side note here that says,"The belgian yeast strains are temperature sensitive. Beers fermented with them must be kept above 65*F to avoid a stuck or slow fermentation. Adding another dose of fresh yeast 3 days before bottling will ensure that the beer is fully fermented and will greatly improve carbonation."

Also says its ready to drink in 2months after it's carbonated, will peak between 6-10 months and hold for a year at cellar temp.

I have a similar situation. I am brewing a new Belgium clone of the 1554 and at just over two week I am at 1.032 I started at 1.054. It seems very slow to me. All the others ferment down very rapidly. I am in 68 to 70 deg. I am racking to a secondary to harvest some yeast and I am going to try to grow and pitch again in the secondary with a priming sugar and keg it. Any comments are welcome! I tasted it and its very close to the 1554 Its just like a 2.8 on the alcohol scale. I would like to at least get a buzz from it!

Read a bit of brew like a monk today and it suggests the fresh yeast is added as the year from your primary fermentation could be tired / worn out if its had to work its way through a big beer. Wouldn't have thought it'd be a problem for smaller beers.

Azlightfighter - That seems like some very slow fermentation. I'd be hesitant to take it to out of primary. Maybe pitch a bit more yeast, or maybe some neutral, dry yeast to finish it (assuming the 1.032 you have is fermentable sugar)?

More than likely you've still got enough yeast in suspension to get the job done, but it wouldn't hurt to add extra yeast just in case. I'd just use a little bit of dry yeast. You could either add it three days before or just add it at bottling with your priming solution (just don't add the yeast to hot priming sugar). It might not be necessary, but it would alleviate any concerns about there possibly not being enough yeast.

Yes, there are reasons for pitching yeast prior to bottling (typical process describes 3 days prior to bottling).

These would include:

1. After attenuation of a high gravity brew (9% + by my definitions) there are concerns that the yeast left over wouldn't be viable enough to convert the sugars added at bottle priming to CO2...resulting in under carbonated beer.

2. For longer secondary fermentations (2 months + by my definitions) there are the same concerns that yeast left over might not be viable as well.

In my limited experience (7 beers over 9%) I have added yeast 3 days prior to bottling and every one has carbonated well. I also recognize that these higher gravity beers take longer to carbonate...sometimes 8 weeks or more.

My practice is that I don't re-pitch new yeast on my beers under 9%.

Another option (if you are able) is to force carbonate and then bottle...this way, you don't have to worry about yeast viability.

Thanks surferdrew that seems to answer my question perfectly, and my beer does fit into that category. Over 9% and been aging about 3-4 months (also a little longer to get more flavor out of my oak infusion spirals)