Greetings fellow brewers, I have some questions that have taken me a while to mull over regarding bottle conditioning. I brewed my first Belgian dark Strong Ale (a 10 gallon batch) and followed the standard procedures for fermentation. It's been aging in two 5 gallon glass carboys at 52 degrees for about 3 months now and I am ready to bottle using the 375ml cork finish bottles. The beer is at 10.5% ABV and, after thiefing some of it out, I like the taste of it now.
My questions are what should I do to get this bottle conditioned perfectly?
Here are my thoughts and I would appreciate any other insight from people who have done something similar.
1. I assume after 3 months that the yeast is toast and I need to pitch more for bottling. Do I use Lallemand's CBC-1 Cask and Bottle Condition yeast or use the White Labs WLP530 Abbey yeast I originally fermented with? How many packets\vials are needed?
2. How much priming sugar should I use? I am getting conflicting info on the carbonation of the Belgian styles. My gut tells me to use a little more than the standard priming sugar packets per 5 gallons, but I don't want to break any bottles over-carbing.
3. I plan on cellaring the bottles in the low 60's for about 6 months. Maybe cooler? Should I go longer or just pop one open every now and then to decide?
Long story short [too late], I don't want to mess this up as there's a whole lot of time and money invested to screw it up now. Any help is appreciated for my sanity check.
My questions are what should I do to get this bottle conditioned perfectly?
Here are my thoughts and I would appreciate any other insight from people who have done something similar.
1. I assume after 3 months that the yeast is toast and I need to pitch more for bottling. Do I use Lallemand's CBC-1 Cask and Bottle Condition yeast or use the White Labs WLP530 Abbey yeast I originally fermented with? How many packets\vials are needed?
2. How much priming sugar should I use? I am getting conflicting info on the carbonation of the Belgian styles. My gut tells me to use a little more than the standard priming sugar packets per 5 gallons, but I don't want to break any bottles over-carbing.
3. I plan on cellaring the bottles in the low 60's for about 6 months. Maybe cooler? Should I go longer or just pop one open every now and then to decide?
Long story short [too late], I don't want to mess this up as there's a whole lot of time and money invested to screw it up now. Any help is appreciated for my sanity check.