Bottle Conditioning Lagers

[FatDaddy64]

Back in November I brewed my first lager, a Baltic Porter, which I've been lagering at 33 degrees for about a month now (post fermentation). I'm ready to bottle, but I'd like some guidance on adding fresh yeast for the bottle conditioning. I fermented with Wyeast 2206 (Bavarian Lager), and was planning to add a fresh pack of the same yeast to my bottling bucket along with corn sugar. However, that yeast threw off some nice smelly sulfuric odors during primary fermentation, and I don't want that in my final product.

If I use this same yeast for bottle conditioning will there be enough sulfur production to detect? Is there a better yeast I should use for bottle conditioning? I've used CBC-1 for bottle conditioning ales, but like I said, this is my first lager experience. Thanks in advance!

 

[FermentedCulture]

CBC-1 is just champagne yeast, there's lots of "champagne-style" lagers on the market so it should be possible. There's one which has a "nelson sauvin" dosage added at bottling time which is supposed to be nice.

It could produce the sulphur aromas, and more of them would be trapped. There's some anecdotes about it being hard to remove if it's in solution before bottling. However I don't know if these were bottle conditioned and I can't remember any data about sulphur during the re-fermentation phase.

I do know that yeast in suspension reduces H2S, which is one of the reasons why you hear about belgian white beer and german wheat beer producing these aromas then they dissipate in bottle. Depends on the strain ultimately. You could do a split batch? CBC-1 is cheaper also so you might get more mileage by using it over 2206. Also while CBC is supposed to be neutral, using the original yeast might make the final flavour closer to what's in your fermenter at the moment.

 

[helibrewer]

You don't have to use a lager yeast for bottle conditioning. Find a nice neutral strain that has good flocculation, dry yeast actually works great. Get your beer up to room temp BEFORE adding the yeast, you want it active, not dropping because the temp is too cold

 

[Pappers_]

I take a long time with my lagers (at least 2 months including lagering) and when I bottle condition them I do not add yeast. As long as the bottles are warmish, they'll get back to work, at least enough to bottle condition.

 

[passedpawn]

^^ what Pappers said. The only two times I'd add new yeast is if I had filtered the beer, or if there was a reason I thought I killed the yeast (e.g., > 10% ABV). I doubt that the small amount of fermentation that occurs in the bottle is going to give off flavors. Also, the sulfur that is given off by some yeasts will go away given a little time.

If you still want to add new yeast, I'd suggest S-04, which is a cheap dry yeast that also is a great flocculator. You want a yeast that lays down hard on the bottom of the bottle and stays there when you pour. I used to use half a packet per 5g when I added for bottling.