Bottling with Champagne yeast. Didn't make a starter.

[tinytowers]

I just bottled a Hoppy Stout that had been on oak and vanilla for 5 weeks (secondary) and initially 3 weeks for fermentation (primary), so the beer was approximately 8 weeks old.

The last couple of week in the secondary it dropped to about 55-60.

I added a pack of dry champagne yeast to aid in carbonation given the lengthened time spent in secondary. I'm so used to just pitching dry yeast (s-04/5) without re-hydrating, I went ahead and did the same with the Champagne yeast. However, as I was pitching I noticed the size of the actual yeast was a bit larger, and at the end of bottling I wound up with a ton of yeast at the bottom of the bottling bucket and not in the bottles.

I don't think much of the yeast was actually transferred to the bottles, and I now know next time to re-hydrate, but my question is will my beer still carbonate? It's roughly 7% and like I said, it was 8 weeks old, 5 of those weeks in secondary.

Any rule of thumb when to add yeast and when to bottle without? After a certain amount of time spent aging? Above a certain percentage of alcohol?

Hope I don't wind up with 5 gallons of flat, Vanilla Oak Stout.

 

[tinytowers]

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[tinytowers]

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[ReverseApacheMaster]

Personally I would have bottled it as is but you will definitely have carbonated beer by adding fresh champagne yeast. Definitely no need to rehydrate. When I use dry champagne yeast I find it easiest to just tap a few cells out of the package right into each bottle. It really does not take much.

 

[tinytowers]

Good idea. Any other thoughts on potential carbing issues from anyone else with similar experience?

 

[mxwrench]

I had the exact same thing happen tonight... Did it end up carbing up for you?

 

[tinytowers]

It did, perfectly.