Big beer and bottle conditioning

[chemman14]

I can crash cool this for at least 2 weeks. How much yeast should I add? I would prefer a rogue yeast but anything else high flocculating would be fine

 

[EvilGnome6]

I can crash cool this for at least 2 weeks. How much yeast should I add? I would prefer a rogue yeast but anything else high flocculating would be fine

If you saved the yeast from the primary, you can make a small starter and pitch a portion of it. Lately I've been making a 600 mL starter, decanting half of it and pitching 100 mL of the remaining slurry into the bottling bucket. If you choose dry yeast, 1/2 of a packet will suffice. Nottingham, S-05 or T-58 are all good choices.

 

[chemman14]

If you saved the yeast from the primary, you can make a small starter and pitch a portion of it. Lately I've been making a 600 mL starter, decanting half of it and pitching 100 mL of the remaining slurry into the bottling bucket. If you choose dry yeast, 1/2 of a packet will suffice. Nottingham, S-05 or T-58 are all good choices.

I was thinking of culturing from the dregs of a bottle

 

[EvilGnome6]

I was thinking of culturing from the dregs of a bottle

That would work just fine. Step it up to 500-600 mL. Pitch a bit of it into the bottling bucket and store the rest in a sanitized mason jar to make a starter in a future batch. Win-win.

 

[chemman14]

That would work just fine. Step it up to 500-600 mL. Pitch a bit of it into the bottling bucket and store the rest in a sanitized mason jar to make a starter in a future batch. Win-win.

what would you suggest I start with?

 

[EvilGnome6]

what would you suggest I start with?

I've never tried it before. Here's an article from BYO on Culturing Yeast from Bottles with very detailed instructions. I think I've seen threads around here where they started with a much bigger volume. I'll leave it to others to chime in on that.

 

[maskednegator]

Agitating the carboy to try to reactivate the yeast is often a suggested way to attempt to revive a stuck fermentation. You may be right about CO2 with a large move of a carboy. However, if I slide my carboy across a carpet to store in the corner of the room trying to not stir it up at all, with barely any surface ripples, I will still see a renewal of airlock activity.

This is just anecdotal observations on my part. Not sure how it would apply to a large beer with long storage or flocculated yeast.

That is definitely just CO2 coming out of solution. Airlock activity has only a passing relationship to yeast activity.

 

[chemman14]

so its nearing time for bottling and we still done have a consensus

 

[cheezydemon3]

There is no concensus.

Why risk it for such a special brew?

Go safe and add yeast to the priming sugar after cooling.

Or do whatever you want, but decide.

 

[chemman14]

There is no concensus.

Why risk it for such a special brew?

Go safe and add yeast to the priming sugar after cooling.

Or do whatever you want, but decide.

I plan on adding yeast, but how much and what kind is the question

 

[cheezydemon3]

I would add one smack pack of what you started with, or WL irish Ale yeast, or Notty dry.

Add it to the cooled (but still warm) priming solution and cover it for an hour or so. It should be a little frothy.

Dump that in the bucket, rack onto it.

Bottle, allow 6 weeks or so to carb.

 

[chemman14]

cant add another smack pack as it was pacman :-/

 

[EvilGnome6]

I plan on adding yeast, but how much and what kind is the question

Plenty of options on what yeast to use. The original strain is always a good idea but just about anything will work. For a while I used Nottingham which worked fine but nowadays I use the original strain.

For an idea on the amount, I started with this article on BYO:

Beauty and the Yeast

The Sierra Nevada brewery, for instance, adds only enough yeast to their bottle conditioned beers to get about 250,000 cells/mL, or the equivalent of 1 teaspoon (5 mL) of yeast slurry in a 5-gallon (19 L) batch.

I did some estimating using Mr. Malty and figured that about 25mL out of a 500mL starter would be plenty for a 5 gallon batch so I doubled it to 50mL for good measure. That way I end up with plenty of yeast to do the job but not so much that I end up with a thick layer of sediment in the bottle.

 

[chemman14]

I think I will just add a packet of us-05 to the corn sugar at bottling time. Allow it to sit for an hour or so and activate, pour into my bottling bucket, and rack the beer on top. I would love to get another smack pack of pacman but I dont think I can find one locally

 

[Saccharomyces]

Easiest method I have found is to keep a sanitized, empty WL vial on hand and fill it with some of your primary yeast starter. Then you have yeast ready to add to the bottling bucket.