Best option for bottling a high gravity RIS?

[Redhawk96]

I brewed a high gravity (1.092) Russian Imperial Stout a few months ago that has been chilling out in a secondary fermentor for two months now. I normally don't secondary and I keg all of my beer, but I am working on building up some inventory in bottles of some bigger beers. Needless, to say, it has been many years since I have bottled. Here is my question, what is my best option for a properly carbonated RIS? I racked to secondary after 3 weeks, And after 2 months in secondary, I have a thin yeast film at the bottom of the glass carboy. Should I:

1. Rack to my bottleing bucket, leave the yeast film behind, add the proper amount of corn sgar (according to Beer Smith), and bottle away. I don't mind this taking several months to carbonate, I am targeting drinking this next fall.

2. Swirl in the settled yeast from the secondary prior to transfer into the bottling bucket, than bottle as normal (with corn sugar additiona).

3. Transfer to bottling bucket, add a fresh rehaydrated pack of US-05 (this was yeast used for fermentation), add proper amount of sugar, and bottle?

I guess this boils down to, is there enough yeast suspended in a stout that has been aging for 3 months to properly carbonate it in bottles, even if it takes a few months?

 

[azscoob]

There should be enough yeast to bottle condition your beer, but if you keg, why not keg it and carbonate to your desired level and then bottle off your tap?

I do this all the time, never bottle conditioned a beer in my life.

I bottle off the tap with a diy filler and cap on the foam. I've never had an issue aging beers for over a year, and it's also how I bottle for competitions.

You also get the benefit of sampling a freshly carbed bottle, then see how they do over the coming months

 

[olotti]

I just bottled an 11% ris a month ago that had been in secondary on bourbon oak cubes for 2 months and I got differing opinions of it was in the grey are of whether or not I should add yeast at bottling so I chose better safe than sorry and added a touch of cbc-1 rehydrated to my bottling bucket. I bottled and waxed the bottles and plan on trying my first one at the two month mark and even my boys at my lhbs said it'd take at least 3 months for this to carb but my plan is long term aging so if it's not up to snuff after two months I'll try again in another 3 months. These big beers just take time. I left mine in primary a month before transferring so my thought is buy some cbc-1 find the amount u need from Brewers friend or northern brewer add the x amount of priming sugar for bottle conditioning I used 2.25vol co2 and see where it's at in a couple months.

 

[b-boy]

Here's what I do for my RIS.

I secondary after about 1 month in primary. I add champagne yeast to the secondary to get the last few gravity points. I secondary for about 1 month with the champagne yeast.

I rack again to long term storage for several months. When I'm ready to bottle I add sugar and more champagne yeast to carbonate.

The champagne yeast can handle high alcohol levels, but beer yeast usually craps out ~10% or so.

 

[PlinyTheMiddleAged]

Redhawk,

I bottled a 1.091 Kentucky Breakfast Stout back in October. It was in secondary for about 6 months and there was a thin film of US-05 at the bottom of the carboy. I tried to be careful to not disturb the yeast when I racked into the bottling bucket. Two months later, I have a pretty darn good and well carbed stout. Doing nothing special (except waiting a while for carbonation to happen) worked for me.

 

[PlinyTheMiddleAged]

P.S. I have a RIS in primary right now. It had an og of 1.126. I'll keep it in primary for another month or so. Then I'll have to decide if I'll be bottling or moving to secondary. I'm not sure I see a real need for a long secondary on this one as I'm not adding anything like oak or chocolate nibs to this one. But with an og this high, I'm curious about others' recommendations about bottling and carbonation.

 

[Redhawk96]

Thanks for all of the input guys.

As for bottling from the tap, that might not be a bad idea, however, I carb all of my kegs with corn sugar, the reason being I don't have the fridge space to force carb them, and I have good success with my current system, as it allows me to carb and store kegs in my basement at room temperature (60-64F). I will sometimes have as many as 4 or 5 kegs in inventory, so cold storage is tough most of the year. I also want to store the bottles at room temp for 6-8 months as well for further aging.

I like the idea of adding the sugar and champagne yeast at bottling, that seems like the best option for long term storage and ensuring proper carb levels.

 

[Redhawk96]

Just an update:

I bottled this beer 6 weeks ago by racking to the bottling bucket, adding corn sugar, and leaving the yeast film behind in the secondary, no additional yeast added. It aged for the entire 6 weeks at 60-62 in my basement. I sampled the first bottle last night, and it was perfectly carbed (and delicious).

So it looks like the answer is that, at least with US-05, there is plenty in suspension after 3 months or so to properly carb a high gravity stout, if given enough time (6 weeks, probably less).