Bottling

[pathofwater]

I am getting ready to bottle my first 5 gal batch of beer. It is a russian imperial stout. We steeped specialized grains and used LME for the boil. I was making it with a friend whom had already made this particular beer previously. We doubled everything except, after it was in primary fermentation and I looked over the recipe that I had gotten from my friend, I realized that we only pitched half of the yeast that the recipe called for. My friend said that as long as the yeast get going, which it did, that it doesn't matter how much yeast you pitch. However our final gravity was not nearly as low as we expected it to be to produce the ABU that we were looking for. In secondary fermentation, I then added some oak strips that had been soaked in bourbon for two weeks along with the 4 oz. of bourbon that they were soaking in. it is now approximately 4 weeks later and as I prepare to bottle, I am wondering a couple of things.

first, because of the less than expected primary fermentation resulting in a smaller difference betrween OG and FG, and because of adding the bourbon to the mix, Should I maybe put a single granule of yeast in each bottle as I am bottling? I just want to make sure that my beer has some fizz. My friend is confident that there are still enough dormant yeast to get active with the priming sugar (cane sugar). I just wondered what some others might think? Thanks for your help in advance.

PRedicted OG 1. 094
predicted FG 1.021

OG: 1.088
gravity at transfer 1.035

 

[JLeuck64]

Yikes!
If I was experiencing those gravity numbers I would not bottle it. I've bottled a batch in the 1.028 range before and I experienced bottle bombs. What we really need to do is figure out a way to get the gravity to drop down some more.

My trick to accomplish this is pitching in a packet of champagne yeast and let it ferment out some more. May take a few weeks... even a month but at least you'll be able to bottle it safely.

We all go through this learning curve for pitching an adequate volume of yeast. My motto these days is... I'm gonna over pitch the yeast!
( ;

 

[LBF]

Yea, you need a yeast starter or some champagne yeast. Try to warm it towards the upper 60's low 70's around 24 to 48 hours after pitching the yeast, you need to get that FG down some more or it's going to taste sickeningly sweet.

 

[CJ-3]

Sounds like you underpitched your yeast, but you have options.

I agree with everyone else so far, the current gravity seems too high for bottling just yet.

You can try giving your current yeast a stir with a sanitized spoon to get it back into suspension. Also add more yeast of the same type you used originally. Let it ferment out some more. It would be nice to get it to the 1.020 range.

 

[MaxStout]

Repitch yeast and bump up the temp a few degrees.