Bottling Yeast for RIS - Extended Aging

I used WLP 007, Dry Eglish Ale, to brew a RIS back in December. By the time I get to bottling it will have been aging for six months. I will be adding some yeast to the bottling bucket and am wondering if there are any reccomendations for what a good yeast to use for bottling would be.

Safale S-04 is my favorite for It's clean, fast, high attenuation, flocculates like rocks. Us-05 is ok just it doesn't Flocc out as well as 04. For a 20L (5 Gal) batch I will hydrate about 1/4 - 1/3 pack and dump in bottling bucket with priming sugar solution. Away u go!

Edit: another option is champagne yeast for high abv brews

My OG was 1.10 and my ABV is around 9.4%. Is that high enough for champagne yeast? I really don't like S-04 and would prefer to keep it away from my beer.

jpc8015 said:

My OG was 1.10 and my ABV is around 9.4%. Is that high enough for champagne yeast? I really don't like S-04 and would prefer to keep it away from my beer.

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You won't get any noticeable flavor from your bottling strain. S-04 is perfect since it compacts so tightly after it drops out. I've used S-05 when I bottle high gravity beers and it works fine as well. I've rehydrated the entire packet and dumped the whole thing in before, but I've moved to using about a third of the packet now. Even after about two years my first RIS with the entire pack of S-05 is doing fine, so who knows if it really makes that much difference as to how much you use.

Are you adding the yeast at bottling to ensure there is enough yeast to carbonate after a long bulk age?

Yes, that is the goal here.

You will get very little flavor impact from a bottling yeast. Fermenting that little sugar just doesn't have an effect. Be sure it doesn't attenuate more than your original yeast, or it could severely dry out your beer.

I'm kind of in the same predicament,my RIS I used 05 and if I use the champagne yeast do u use the whole pack or bottling or just 1/4 or 1/3? Thanks in advance

jessej122 said:

I'm kind of in the same predicament,my RIS I used 05 and if I use the champagne yeast do u use the whole pack or bottling or just 1/4 or 1/3? Thanks in advance

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I use Lalvin EC-1118 on every batch (instructions below for results that will result in a commercial-like yeast cake in the bottle with some age). The pack is $0.89 and is cheap insurance and there is always full carbonation in 2-3 weeks, age most things a lot longer... I've never had an overcarbonated batch when using this, and have had final gravites from 1.006-1.020. I believe it's lazier than brewing yeast.

20.0e9 yeast cells/gram of dry yeast.
5.0 gal = 18,927 mL
1.0e6 = 20.0e9*x/18,927, x = 0.95 grams of dry yeast (Scale Linearly for Different Batch Sizes)

Boil 3oz of spring water down to 2 oz in small measuring cup, chill to 80F in water bath.
Sprinkle dry yeast on water surface and cover with plastic wrap, let sit for 15 min.
(Note: Measure by weighing full package after top cut off, tare scale (0.01 gram scale) and add gradually and keep weighing)
Stir yeast, pitch all of prepared yeast into bottling bucket during the transfer.

NOTES: there is always yeast at the bottom of the bottling bucket, but enough always gets into the bottles to do the job. I tried a few different re-yeasting pitching rates after clearing the beers with gelatin and found the one in the calculation above to be ideal for carbonation and minimal bottle yeast cake. I wouldn't change anything after doing 15+ batches with this method. Bottling with S04 or S05 works fine but is unnecesarily expensive. S04 may have produced diacetyl once that was obvious on a 1-2 week old bottle and completely went away.

Cyclman said:

You will get very little flavor impact from a bottling yeast. Fermenting that little sugar just doesn't have an effect. Be sure it doesn't attenuate more than your original yeast, or it could severely dry out your beer.

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This is one thing I worry about. It can also cause bottle bombs.

Cyclman said:

Be sure it doesn't attenuate more than your original yeast, or it could severely dry out your beer.

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this is indeed a concern when using another sacc strain, but isn't a worry when using wine yeast. wine yeasts, like champagne, can only ferment simple sugars. those are the same sugars that sacc eat first. so unless there was so much simple sugar that the sacc max'ed out before they could digest it all (highly unlikely), the only sugars left will be complex. the champagne yeast will only be able to ferment the priming sugar.