Bottle conditioning my Belgian Quad - repitch?

[holydrunkmonk]

Hi Guys,

I am new to homebrewing - well, i still consider myself new as I have only brewed 2 IPAS, 1 Hefe, and now my Belgian Quad. I am obsessed with belgian ales like chimay blue so I wanted to give it a shot.

After I brewed it - i realized I needed to bottle age this badboy for 6months. Now i do not mind this, but in the how to brew like a monk book, i noticed they mention that all the old belgian monk reciepes have a "refermentation" in the bottle. Looking online i saw a few people say that you need to add yeast again. Do i need to add yeast packet again before i bottle?

I fermented for 6 weeks in primary with Safrew T-58 ( http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/safbrew-t-58.html )

I bought another pack of the t-58. How do i do this? Do i just make my priming sugar/water and dump it into my bottling bucket and then dump this entire packet of t-58 yeast in as well - give a gentle swirl and autosiphon into bottles?


Fyi - this belgian quad was a 3.5gallon batch.

Thanks, HDM

 

[holydrunkmonk]

Anyone?

 

[Skiffy]

I don't have experience here but I bet people will want to know your recipe, abv and your fermentation schedule before they can provide any real advice.

 

[Wobbegong]

You don't need to add additional yeast. You can add fresh yeast if you want, it wont hurt.

If it was a very high gravity beer that you aged in a carboy for a long time before bottling, adding fresh yeast would be a good idea. You said it was fermented six weeks ago, so I'd just go ahead and add priming sugar (Sugar added to boiling water to sanitize) and bottle it up!!

When you need fresh yeast for bottling, Champagne yeast works really well. Cheap too.

 

[botigol]

I second wobbegong's reply. 'Bottle refermentation' is just carbonating in the bottle. Unless you already hit the alcohol limit of your yeast, there's no need for more yeast. Some people add more to their higher gravity beers as an insurance policy. When I made my quad (9%) last year, I left it to bulk age in the carboy for more than two months and it still carbed up fine.

 

[holydrunkmonk]

I second wobbegong's reply. 'Bottle refermentation' is just carbonating in the bottle. Unless you already hit the alcohol limit of your yeast, there's no need for more yeast. Some people add more to their higher gravity beers as an insurance policy. When I made my quad (9%) last year, I left it to bulk age in the carboy for more than two months and it still carbed up fine.

Thanks and thanks to all of you. Appreciate the help.
I ordered a 2 dollar pack of the same yeast anyways. I think I will just rehydrate some of it and toss it in.

Can i just save the other half of the pack for later even if its opened?

 

[jesran]

I bulk age my Belgians and sours forever. I have a 60 gallon wine barrel for solera sour. I feel like I always need to repitch yeast at bottling. I've had to many flat bottles sitting for months and years in my basement. I've tried everything to get them to carb up, upside down, shake, 80 degrees for months. The yeast is either dead or I forgot to add priming sugar. Even if I forgot to add priming sugar to the Belgians they should referment a little on their eon because they are far from dry.

There is nothing worse than brewing a big beer with all the added ingredients, expense and time and having it be flat every month or two that you check in on it.

I have so much flat beer from this mistake made years ago that I've actually state making over carbed bone dry saison to blend with it as I pour it into my glass. It's actually fantastic, but it's a pain to have two open bottles of beer. Also I'm reluctant to serve it this way to friends. The silver lining is that the world of blending, especially sour blending, seems to yield some terrific results.

 

[botigol]

Thanks and thanks to all of you. Appreciate the help.
I ordered a 2 dollar pack of the same yeast anyways. I think I will just rehydrate some of it and toss it in.

Can i just save the other half of the pack for later even if its opened?

Yep, just keep it closed (folded with a paperclip/chip clip) and in the refrigerator.

 

[holydrunkmonk]

I bulk age my Belgians and sours forever. I have a 60 gallon wine barrel for solera sour. I feel like I always need to repitch yeast at bottling. I've had to many flat bottles sitting for months and years in my basement. I've tried everything to get them to carb up, upside down, shake, 80 degrees for months. The yeast is either dead or I forgot to add priming sugar. Even if I forgot to add priming sugar to the Belgians they should referment a little on their eon because they are far from dry.

There is nothing worse than brewing a big beer with all the added ingredients, expense and time and having it be flat every month or two that you check in on it.

I have so much flat beer from this mistake made years ago that I've actually state making over carbed bone dry saison to blend with it as I pour it into my glass. It's actually fantastic, but it's a pain to have two open bottles of beer. Also I'm reluctant to serve it this way to friends. The silver lining is that the world of blending, especially sour blending, seems to yield some terrific results.

How much yeast do i repitch? The entire packet? Would this cause bottle bombs

 

[botigol]

Bottle bombs are caused by the amount of fermentable sugar present, not the amount of yeast. So you could pitch the whole packet without problem, but that would be a waste of yeast. I seem to recall reading that others use about a teaspoon of dry yeast when doing this, but you'll definitely want to double-check that since I haven't done this myself.

 

[botigol]

I just came across this article about bottle conditioning Belgian-style beers. It doesn't list a specific amount, and actually reads that you should use liquid yeast, but is interesting:

https://byo.com/stories/item/1207-on-the-yeast-guide-to-bottle-conditioning

 

[holydrunkmonk]

Bottle bombs are caused by the amount of fermentable sugar present, not the amount of yeast. So you could pitch the whole packet without problem, but that would be a waste of yeast. I seem to recall reading that others use about a teaspoon of dry yeast when doing this, but you'll definitely want to double-check that since I haven't done this myself.

ok the article that someone posted https://byo.com/stories/item/1207-on-the-yeast-guide-to-bottle-conditioning said that i need to use champagne bottles or the bottles will explodde.

I have breweed a 3.0 CO2 by volume hefeweizen before and it was fine and didnt explode.

 

[holydrunkmonk]

Bottle bombs are caused by the amount of fermentable sugar present, not the amount of yeast. So you could pitch the whole packet without problem, but that would be a waste of yeast. I seem to recall reading that others use about a teaspoon of dry yeast when doing this, but you'll definitely want to double-check that since I haven't done this myself.

ok the article that someone posted https://byo.com/stories/item/1207-on-the-yeast-guide-to-bottle-conditioning said that i need to use champagne bottles or the bottles will explodde.

I have breweed a 3.0 CO2 by volume hefeweizen before and it was fine and didnt explode.

 

[botigol]

It's all a matter of the level of carbonation that you plan to shoot for. 3.0 is about the limit of most 12oz bottles, although some feel that 3 volumes in used glass may be pushing the limit. Some Belgian ales run in the low 3s, thus necessitating the stronger bottles.

I only carbed my quad to 2.3 and it is great, whereas I went to 2.7 on a dark saison and the carbonation washes out some of the dark fruit flavors. YMMV