Possibly Dumb Yeast Question

[piernas]

So I'm planning on doing a half batch of the Chimay Blue clone recipe from Beer Captured in my 5 gallon secondary. I'm planning on just using the 5 gallon as the primary, leaving it in there for a few weeks, and then bottling it (no secondary). I noticed that the recipe calls to pitch a second dose of yeast 3 days before bottling, and I'm wondering if this will be necessary. I think I might get some dry yeast b/c it'll be easier to split up, and I'm wondering if I should pitch half after adding the wort to the carboy and half a few days before bottling, or if should just pitch the whole packet at the start and let it do its thing.

 

[SporkD2]

Someone else may have a better answer but

1. 1 week is way to soon to bottle. Give it a 3 week rest to make sure you are done fermenting and the yeast have finished cleaning up.

2. I've never pitched yeast twice unless it was a beer that had been conditioning in the secondary for 6+ months.

 

[piernas]

Thanks. Because it is a pretty high alcohol beer, would I be alright just pitching a whole packet/vial of yeast into half a batch?

 

[SporkD2]

Look up MrMaltys pitching calculator

 

[Edcculus]

Recipe? Liquid or dry yeast?

If its a high alcohol beer, it would be a good idea to make a starter using liquid. Even for half a batch. If you use dry, make sure to properly hydrate according to the manufacturers instructions.

Unless you are aging it for 6+ months, I don't see any reason to re-yeast at bottling.

 

[Marius]

Recipe?
Unless you are aging it for 6+ months, I don't see any reason to re-yeast at bottling.

I've done some Belgian Triples, and I've been brewing Chimay Blue clones for quite a long time (It's one of my favorites beers). I have never pitched yeast twice, and my triples have been in primary for 8 weeks. I never had carbonation problems when doing this.

If you are using liquid yeast you must make a good starter, with dry yeast (such as Safale-S33) I never had any problem, just re-hidrate it propertly.

This beer must be fermented at a higher temperature than current Ales, I had the best results when fermenting at 25ºC.

Good luck, Trappist beers are hard to brew. Find a religion you like, wear a brown habit, pray a lot (San Arnoldo is the one you should pray to when brewing Trappist beers) and that's all.