Secondary Fermentation?

OK, here's the situation:

Last year, I brewed a barley wine. 1 week in primary; 5 weeks in secondary. Came in at ~9.5% ABV. Bottled with some corn sugar. 6 weeks later it had ZERO carbonation (but was delicious).

I uncapped all the bottles and dropped in a couple grains of dry champagne yeast into each, and rebottled. Two weeks later, the bottles were beautifully carbonated. 5 months later the beer won awards.

Now, I have done the recipe again. I want the same deliciousness without the uncapping hassle (and without bottle bombs). So what should I do?

Just add a pack of dry champagne yeast to the bottling bucket? Add grains to each bottle as I cap? Fill me in experts . . .

I am of no help, sorry. I have a ~9% ale that did not carbonate either. Roughly how much yeast would you say you used per bottle? And does it have to be champagne yeast? I have some US-05 sitting around.

I just dumped out the champagne yeast on a clean plate and picked up about 2 grains (maybe 3 or 4 for the bombers in the batch). At that much alcohol, I wasn't too worried about contamination. It wasn't y'know - scientific.

I don't know if it needs to be champagne yeast, but that is probably better at high alcohol. Since it is the secondary yeast, it probably won't contribute much to beer flavor.

TheBeerist said:

I am of no help, sorry. I have a ~9% ale that did not carbonate either. Roughly how much yeast would you say you used per bottle? And does it have to be champagne yeast? I have some US-05 sitting around.

Click to expand...