Bottling Higher ABV Brews?

[NJMevec]

I've heard that when bottling higher ABV brews you may need to pitch more yeast because the first round of pitching is a bit pooped out. The OG was 1.082 and the FG was 1.02215 (after counting for temperature in the room at time of testing). The final ABV is 7.9%. I fermented for about a week and it's been in a carboy settling out a bit more sediment before I felt good bottling it. Bubbles out the airlock are one ever minute and 15 seconds or so. Should I be good to add priming sugar and bottle or do I need to add a bit of champagne yeast? It's an extract Double IPA from Brewer's Best. The before carbonation taste test with my FG sample has me excited!

 

[Steveruch]

do i need to add a bit of champagne yeast?

don't do that!

 

[NJMevec]

don't do that!

Haha that was a quick response! Basing the concern off of a thread HERE and it seems like a common problem where the high ABV kills off the yeast before it can bottle. So I should be good to just add priming sugar and bottle then? I'd say it's already lightly, and I do mean incredibly lightly, carbonated from fermenting in the bucket and sitting in the carboy.

 

[Timberline]

I just bottled a double IPA (my second brew ever) that measures out at a tad over 8% and used the specified amount of yeast in the directions. It was a Northern Brewer extract recipe kit Pliny the Elder clone. Due to the anticipated ABV I let it sit in the fermentor for a total of about 4 weeks which was long after airlock activity had ceased.

 

[Kent88]

just a hair below 8%, probably under 3-weeks fermenting, you should be fine.

 

[kh54s10]

I have bottled four or five 9 - 10% ABV beers without adding new yeast. A couple of them were aged over a month. They carbonated well and only one took any longer that usual. Though they did take some aging for the tastes to blend well.

IMO, 7.9% ABV is not an unusually big beer.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

My magic number seems to be about 10%. When I go over that, I will add yeast at bottling. A few times (but not every time) I've had brews that had carb issues once it got over 10%. I had an 11.5% BDSA (OG 1109) that still hadn't carbed at 5 months and I ended up adding 1ml of champagne yeast to each bottle. Another month and it was carbed fine. However, I've done plenty of brews in the 1080s without added yeast and they all carbed fine.

 

[Easycreeper]

don't do that!

Curious as to why you disagree with this. Noticeable issues with champagne yeast?

I've bottled a less than stellar DIPA (11%) using champagne yeast. I'm under the impression it was the recipe, but if the conditioning yeast contributed to the lack of character, I'd like to know.

 

[sky4meplease]

If you plan to brew a lot of high gravity beers, secondary and/or cold crash before packaging it would be beneficial to have bottling yeast on hand. Maybe not for this beer and maybe not for the next one but eventually you will wish you had added it.
Pretty much everything I bottle now meets the above criteria so it has become part of my process.
Crap that reminds me I have a batch to bottle.

 

[NJMevec]

Thanks for the replies everyone! First batch of beer don't wanna mess anything up. Again, tasting from carboy was great, flavors are nicely balanced (malt and piney bitterness on the front and then a nice smooth pithy grapefruit finish). I'll just try bottling as is (beer bottling/fermenting room hovers between 65-70°F) and if it doesn't take in two weeks I'll deal with it then

 

[GrogNerd]

7.9% ABV? I wouldn't bother with more yeast. like BlueHouse said, 10% would also be my cutoff (did a Bigfoot clone, crappy efficiency & we ended with low ABV, 7.8% compared to 9.6. didn't use extra yeast and it turned out fine)

then I would use Danstar CBC-1 http://www.danstaryeast.com/products/cbc-1-cask-bottle-conditioned-beer-yeast

says it's recommended for 12-14%

 

[Timberline]

I'll just try bottling as is (beer bottling/fermenting room hovers between 65-70°F) and if it doesn't take in two weeks I'll deal with it then

Temp sounds good but I'd give it at least another week or two (total of 3-4) before making any judgements. My first batch was a winter ale at 6.5% and I was anxious to see what I'd made so opened a bottle at ~ 2 weeks. It was good but had a definite sense that it needed more time to age. I opened another bottle at 3 weeks and was amazed at how much better that extra week made it. Now my second batch - the DIPA I mentioned earlier - is in the bottles and I don't plan to open the first one for at least 4 weeks, probably more like 6.

As a new brewer, patience is the hardest part for me; not for lack of something to drink but to see what my efforts have produced.

 

[BGHSmt7]

7.9% ABV? I wouldn't bother with more yeast. like BlueHouse said, 10% would also be my cutoff (did a Bigfoot clone, crappy efficiency & we ended with low ABV, 7.8% compared to 9.6. didn't use extra yeast and it turned out fine)

then I would use Danstar CBC-1 http://www.danstaryeast.com/products/cbc-1-cask-bottle-conditioned-beer-yeast

says it's recommended for 12-14%

Only time I've added extra yeast to a beer was one that I made that was around 13-14%. I added a sachet of CBC-1 and it worked well.

 

[GrogNerd]

Only time I've added extra yeast to a beer was one that I made that was around 13-14%. I added a sachet of CBC-1 and it worked well.

i had added some DME to an imperial pumpkin ale I thought had crap efficiency (paper in the hydrometer slipped, giving me false reading), then, through feedings and a re-pitch it super-attenuated from 1.125 down to 1.004

so, yes... around 15% ABV and into barleywine territory

added 1/2 a sachet of CBC-1 to the priming solution and, yeah... it definitely worked

 

[Shawn3997]

Why no to champagne yeast? Don't some Belgian beers prime with champagne yeast? (I think I read that somewhere)

 

[NJMevec]

7.9% ABV? I wouldn't bother with more yeast. like BlueHouse said, 10% would also be my cutoff (did a Bigfoot clone, crappy efficiency & we ended with low ABV, 7.8% compared to 9.6. didn't use extra yeast and it turned out fine)

then I would use Danstar CBC-1 http://www.danstaryeast.com/products/cbc-1-cask-bottle-conditioned-beer-yeast

says it's recommended for 12-14%

Awesome good to keep in mind thank you. New to the whole beer making thing, I've found it's about as easy as making soup!

 

[GrogNerd]

Awesome good to keep in mind thank you. New to the whole beer making thing, I've found it's about as easy as making soup!

you're very welcome.

easy as making soup!

You're absolutely right about that. all it is, is specialized cooking. when I explain to people how "easy" it is, I use soup (actually chili) as an analogy

sure, you can open up a can of soup (hopped extract), heat it up and it will make decent, edible soup (drinkable beer)

but, if you want to make your own, better soup (beer*), you can pick and choose your ingredients and make it from scratch

only difference is you don't have to wait a couple weeks to enjoy your soup, or chili

*not that you NEED to go all-grain to make "better" beer, you can make great beer from extract. the best beer I've made was from extract. you just have more control over what flavors you wish to get out of your beer.

welcome to The Obsession™

 

[NJMevec]

patience is the hardest part for me

Have to agree here. Tasted at rack to carboy and tasted after final final gravity test. Patience is something I have very little of and homebrewing requires heaps of it I've discovered...Maybe this will teach me more than making beer!

 

[GrogNerd]

Have to agree here. Tasted at rack to carboy and tasted after final final gravity test. Patience is something I have very little of and homebrewing requires heaps of it I've discovered...Maybe this will teach me more than making beer!

it gets much easier once you have your pipeline established. you have beer at all stages of production and you don't get so focused on the ones that aren't ready to drink yet

maybe try some smaller beers (lower ABV) while starting out. they don't take as long to ferment or condition

 

[Steveruch]

Curious as to why you disagree with this. Noticeable issues with champagne yeast?

I've bottled a less than stellar DIPA (11%) using champagne yeast. I'm under the impression it was the recipe, but if the conditioning yeast contributed to the lack of character, I'd like to know.

There are good beer yeasts that will work great for what the O P wants without having to add champagne character.

 

[bleme]

Why no to champagne yeast? Don't some Belgian beers prime with champagne yeast? (I think I read that somewhere)

It's a risky deal for a new brewer. You don't know if the beer yeast left sugars in there that the champagne yeast can still process so you might get bottle bombs, just like if you package it before you know that the yeast are done. When in doubt, be safe.

 

[kristiismean]

larger beers can take a little bit longer from what I have found with my own stuff.

I have also noticed that table sugar seems to carb faster than corn sugar. but that might be my imagination, or just a coincidence.

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

There are good beer yeasts that will work great for what the O P wants without having to add champagne character.

Realistically you're going to get pretty much 0 character from a yeast that eats a point or two of gravity. I routinely use whatever I might have about when 1968 stalls out on me without evident esters.

 

[Steveruch]

Realistically you're going to get pretty much 0 character from a yeast that eats a point or two of gravity. I routinely use whatever I might have about when 1968 stalls out on me without evident esters.

The O P had a final gravity of 1.022; I'd be willing to bet champagne yeast would have eaten quite a bit more than a point or two off of that.

 

[BGHSmt7]

The O P had a final gravity of 1.022; I'd be willing to bet champagne yeast would have eaten quite a bit more than a point or two off of that.

The beer already has about 73% attenuation. Even champagne yeast will only eat so much. If the OP keeps the temp down, there shouldn't be many flavors / esters produced by the champagne yeast

 

[Shawn3997]

I did a little research. Some say that champagne yeasts only eat the simpler sugars in fruit juices and not the myriad of complex beer sugars. They won't help at all with increasing beer attenuation. They are good for carbonation in high-ABV beers as they are highly alcohol-tolerant and they will eat the simple sugars but not the complex beer sugars.

Others say that the champagne yeasts do eat all of the sugars down to nothing, like they do in fruit juices, and if you use them you will end up with a very "thin" beer.

I'm not sure which is true but it seems like it would be an easy thing to test out ("hint, hint" to you "tester" types).

 

[Jimbodaman]

What's with everyone fermenting Medium to High gravity beers for a week and being like why isn't it done yet? Is there some bad literature going around saying a week is good enough? It may well be done 1.022 FG isn't terrible for a 1.082 SG but it could drop a few more points. Patience one of the most important ingredients. Cheers.

 

[NJMevec]

What's with everyone fermenting Medium to High gravity beers for a week and being like why isn't it done yet? Is there some bad literature going around saying a week is good enough? It may well be done 1.022 FG isn't terrible for a 1.082 SG but it could drop a few more points. Patience one of the most important ingredients. Cheers.

First off. I was in carboy when I made this post. I had read on some forums of "high ABV beers" not carbonating with residual yeast but what is "high ABV"? To a noob brewer like me I'd have assumed 8% or higher so I figured I'd ask.

Secondly, I left it in the carboy for about a week after fermenting for about a week, and the FG stayed the exact same since I transfered from the fermenter to the carboy, even though the airlock was bubbling on bottle day (1 bubble every 2 min 48 sec).

Third, I bottled yesterday. I'm planning on a two week minimum carbonation period just to be sure it will more than likely be carbonated. Opted for a 2.3 volume of CO2 with 2.9 oz of corn sugar for the 3.5 gal of beer I had to bottle (played it safe with trub in all containers, now that I've done my first brew I could probably get it up to 4 gallons. Started with 4.5 gallons into base fermenter [4 gal of wort with .5 gallons of distilled water to get to the OG I was aiming for]).

Four, I'm going off of a Brewer's Best kit and the instructions that came with the literature. In fact, going to secondary isn't even included in the instructions (it says you can if desired, but to consult a local homebrew shop if you wish to).

While a noob I have a hydrometer and my noob status means I'm probably trying to be MORE careful to ensure a good brew with no bottle bombs because I don't have any experience to go off of. I asked a question based on a number of other people's experience that I had read. I didn't just do what they said, I asked and then waited for a number of replies before I made a judgement. If that isn't showing patience I really don't know what is.

How long do you leave a high gravity brew in the fermenter? Beer is a lot like cooking, everyone has a different method of going at it! Cheers and enjoy your beers.

 

[Jimbodaman]

I'm sorry for sounding condescending I really am, I read what I wrote after and realized how it sounded. I didn't see your post was on the beginning brewing section or I would've been less abrasive. I recommend reading John Palmer's how to brew at howtobrew.com it's great for beginners he will explain the " hows and the what's " of your first beers.