Hi
I'm posting this thread because I have done a significant amount of reading about this general idea on other threads, and about CBC-1, and my hope is to get some more detailed recommendations/advice/experiential anecdotes about adding yeast to flat bottles. Specifically CBC-1
quick backstory:
I have some bottled beer from a couple different batches that ended up flat
(I've waited for a long enough time and at proper temperature to ensure those factors are not the culprit).
One is an imperial stout with vanilla bean tincture added, it's about 11%abv, the other is a 13.5% Barleywine.
As an experiment I added some proofed champagne yeast via sanitized pipette to a few bottles, and it definitely got them more carbonated. But I believe it did change the flavour of the beer enough for me to notice.
Since reading up on CBC-1, and some others posts I thought I would order some, and it just showed up in the mail today.
The details I'm looking for have to do with the method of adding CBC-1 to already bottled, flat beer. Not for primary fermentation, or to prime before bottling.
I've seen some people say to add a few 'dry grains' of yeast to each bottle using "sanitized tweezers" or something like that
- to this point, I would ask anyone that has done this to help me with a few aspects;
1) I use starsan, but if I sanitize tweezers with it, they'll be slightly damp from the sanitizer and won't that cause a problem when sticking them into the packet of yeast? Would you let them sit and 'air-dry' before starting the job?
2) Someone described boiling and then dipping the tweezers in alcohol to sterilze them... I guess I'd still be asking the above question again, and if dipped in alcohol, do you mean isopropyl? or something like a vodka?
3) what is your opinion on this method and it's potential for the "petite mutants"/ undesirable flavours as I'll mention later?
4) how will the dry yeast react to already fermented beer of considerable ABV (11% and 13.5%)?
I'm not sure I've seen other people talk about the method I did with champagne yeast but in regards specifically to CBC-1,
- I found this easy enough to do, but I believe the champagne yeast added a "non-beer" flavour note that is not exactly desirable. Definitely carbed the beer up, and I'm well aware that this technique is far from ideal, more of a "better than nothing" type of remedy, but I'm just trying to figure out the best way forward given the situation. Hoping that CBC-1 will work similarly and just be more subtle in terms of changing flavour (as it claims it won't do...if used as recommended....which of course, this method is not)
- Has anyone used CBC-1 in this manner? i.e. Proofing in warm water, using a sterilized pipette, opening each bottle, and re-capping them? How did that go?
lastly, I've seen on the Lallemand CBC-1 information sheet that they recommend either using it for Primary fermentation, or priming and bottling, and the technique I'm looking at isn't quite either of those.
Also, the Lallemand sheet says if you're going to proof the yeast, to
"adjust the temperature to that of the wort by mixing aliquots of wort or primed beer with the rehydrated yeast (...) Temperature shock of >10°C will cause formation of petite mutants leading to extended or incomplete fermentation and possible formation of undesirable flavors (...)"
(my emphasis added)
Ok, so trying to sum up here;
Got some flat bottles of strong beer. Tried the proofed champagne yeast method, it carbed, but I detect a little wine-y flavour. Wondering about adding CBC-1, whether proofing it in warm water similar to the champagne yeast method is a good idea (doesn't seem like it).
I guess another question I have would be "how sensitive is dry yeast once opening?" For instance if I need to measure out fractions of an 11g packet on a scale, how thorough does the thing I'm measuring it on have to be sterilized/sanitized?
I'm posting this thread because I have done a significant amount of reading about this general idea on other threads, and about CBC-1, and my hope is to get some more detailed recommendations/advice/experiential anecdotes about adding yeast to flat bottles. Specifically CBC-1
quick backstory:
I have some bottled beer from a couple different batches that ended up flat
(I've waited for a long enough time and at proper temperature to ensure those factors are not the culprit).
One is an imperial stout with vanilla bean tincture added, it's about 11%abv, the other is a 13.5% Barleywine.
As an experiment I added some proofed champagne yeast via sanitized pipette to a few bottles, and it definitely got them more carbonated. But I believe it did change the flavour of the beer enough for me to notice.
Since reading up on CBC-1, and some others posts I thought I would order some, and it just showed up in the mail today.
The details I'm looking for have to do with the method of adding CBC-1 to already bottled, flat beer. Not for primary fermentation, or to prime before bottling.
I've seen some people say to add a few 'dry grains' of yeast to each bottle using "sanitized tweezers" or something like that
- to this point, I would ask anyone that has done this to help me with a few aspects;
1) I use starsan, but if I sanitize tweezers with it, they'll be slightly damp from the sanitizer and won't that cause a problem when sticking them into the packet of yeast? Would you let them sit and 'air-dry' before starting the job?
2) Someone described boiling and then dipping the tweezers in alcohol to sterilze them... I guess I'd still be asking the above question again, and if dipped in alcohol, do you mean isopropyl? or something like a vodka?
3) what is your opinion on this method and it's potential for the "petite mutants"/ undesirable flavours as I'll mention later?
4) how will the dry yeast react to already fermented beer of considerable ABV (11% and 13.5%)?
I'm not sure I've seen other people talk about the method I did with champagne yeast but in regards specifically to CBC-1,
- I found this easy enough to do, but I believe the champagne yeast added a "non-beer" flavour note that is not exactly desirable. Definitely carbed the beer up, and I'm well aware that this technique is far from ideal, more of a "better than nothing" type of remedy, but I'm just trying to figure out the best way forward given the situation. Hoping that CBC-1 will work similarly and just be more subtle in terms of changing flavour (as it claims it won't do...if used as recommended....which of course, this method is not)
- Has anyone used CBC-1 in this manner? i.e. Proofing in warm water, using a sterilized pipette, opening each bottle, and re-capping them? How did that go?
lastly, I've seen on the Lallemand CBC-1 information sheet that they recommend either using it for Primary fermentation, or priming and bottling, and the technique I'm looking at isn't quite either of those.
Also, the Lallemand sheet says if you're going to proof the yeast, to
"adjust the temperature to that of the wort by mixing aliquots of wort or primed beer with the rehydrated yeast (...) Temperature shock of >10°C will cause formation of petite mutants leading to extended or incomplete fermentation and possible formation of undesirable flavors (...)"
(my emphasis added)
Ok, so trying to sum up here;
Got some flat bottles of strong beer. Tried the proofed champagne yeast method, it carbed, but I detect a little wine-y flavour. Wondering about adding CBC-1, whether proofing it in warm water similar to the champagne yeast method is a good idea (doesn't seem like it).
I guess another question I have would be "how sensitive is dry yeast once opening?" For instance if I need to measure out fractions of an 11g packet on a scale, how thorough does the thing I'm measuring it on have to be sterilized/sanitized?
