Russian Imperial Stout... delayed fermentation

Hey everyone -

I just returned from 6 weeks on tour, having left my russian imperial stout in the basement since 5/13. After a week, I was able to check on it and saw no sign of activity. I was puzzled but saw no course of action but to leave and let time happen.

I was able to look again Thursday of last week, and it was vigorously fermenting, with airlock bubbles every 2 seconds or so. There was about an inch krausen.

Today when I look, bubbles every 3 or 4 seconds, the krausen has receded, and I can see a layer of sediment at the bottom of the glass carboy.

Looking back to brewing, I may have made a few mistakes:
this was the first time I used a dry yeast instead of a liquid, and I may have made the water too hot when I mixed it into what needed to be "warm water"

I think that I may have spaced and forgot to aerate the beer initially after pitching the yeast.

Obviously it would have been helpful to take some gravity measurements, but I skipped that step in the theory that I'd have this fermenting long enough that it couldn't be an issue.

My plan from here is to just let it sit until about September when I will likely bottle. This is a dark beer and my past experiences with bigger beers tell me to be patient.

My question is: is there any reason to do anything at this point but wait longer? (like giving it a gentle stir?)

Since I haven't treated my yeast that nicely, I've heard its helpful to put a pinch of champagne yeast in for the bottling process to speed up carbing the bottles. Would this be weird in this beer style?

below is my recipe:
~~~
Russian Imperial Stout Recipe
Brewed on 5/13/09

1 lb. Crushed 60L Malt
1 lb. Crushed Dark Barley
45 minutes steeping crushed grains

2 pounds Dark spray-dried malt
2x 3.3lbs Dark Malt Extract

61 min – 1oz Columbus hops
46 min – 1oz Chinook
16 min – 1oz Columbus
6 min – 1oz Chinook
3 min – 1oz Chinook

I'm confused. Did it sit in your basement since 5/13 and your not sure if it fermented and then it just took off when you got back? Can you explain the timeline better?

Dry yeast is probably not the best choice for a high gravity beer. Even using liquid yeast cultures, it is not a bad idea to double your pitch rate compared to a low gravity batch. Sounds like the high gravity, lack of aeration, dry yeast, and low pitch rate (relative to OG) conspired to a monster lag in the start of fermentation.

Would it be ridiculous then to pitch a vial of liquid yeast at this point?

I wouldn't think so. The fresh yeast would consume any remaining fermentables and then fall as sediment.

I would plug your recipe into one of the many online recipe calculators to get a projected FG. Then take a hydrometer reading and see how far off (if you are) of that. Additional yeast would be unnecessary if it's actually done already.

I wanted to bump this because I've now tasted 2 12'ers of these!
Thanks y'all for your suggestions!

I ended up using a dash of liquid irish ale yeast at bottling.

Tasting now after 12 days in the bottle:
The beer was definitely fully fermented and the alcohol does come through relatively strongly at approx 7%. A crisp hop bite balances the velvety dark chocolatey malts nicely. A variety of fruit esters are present - fig, raisin.. The beer is very carbonated and has a crisp hop bite. As the beer warms, an almost belgian-like yeast funkiness presents itself. This was in a primary glass fermenter from 5/13/09 to 10/13/09. I think this beer has a lot of promise - it's already amazing young and who knows what time will do!?

A strong IPA was bottled the next day and it came out complex and delicious as hell!