Dry yeast to carbonate lager?

[The Pol]

Anyone ever used a small ammount of dry lager yeast at bottling time to help carbonate your beer after cold fermenting? Or would you only use the same liquid yeast strain that fermented the beer? Even if the dry lager yeast is nice and clean fermenting? Planning ahead for my Helles!

Pol

 

[kvh]

are you also adding sugars? If not, the new dry yeasts wouldn't do much I think...

I see no reason why you couldn't add yeast. I've read of people changing flavor profiles by adding a second yeast at conditioning... It might be a simple solution by adding a teeny tiny spoonful into each bottle, filling and capping...

kvh.

 

[The Pol]

Well, yah, Id add sugars too, just like I do to all of my ales... my question was simply this. In order to carbonate some lagers you HAVE to add yeast because the cold ferment and aging causes the yeast to settle out and go dormant. After adding sugar, would it be plausible to add a nice clean dry lager yeast instead of the $6 WLP833 that I am using to ferment the beer?

Pol

 

[Yooper]

From what I understand (but better do a search to make sure!), the yeast is not important at all for the carbonation. You could add a grain or two of Nottingham at bottling per bottle (or rehydrate in some water and add to bottling bucket) because the flavor profile is already created by the lagering and the finished beer. Someone who knows what they're talking about told me this- I think Kaiser or the Baron, IIRC.

I ended up not using any yeast at bottling for my lager- and it was perfect! But I did toy with the idea quite a bit beforehand.

 

[The Pol]

Yeah, I will think it over... I just dont want to end up with a flat Helles... that is all!

 

[Evets]

I recently bottled two lagers with no additional yeast and they are perfectly carbonated. In fact, they carbed up faster than my last several ales. Go figure.

 

[The Pol]

No kidding... I had a stout in the secondary for 2 months and that thing is carbing SLOWWWWWWWWW, Id think that a lager would have even less viable yeast in suspension.... I have a month or more tl think it over.

 

[Evets]

Well, I believe the thing is, lager yeast is used to working at 50-55 degrees. If you carb at , say, 65-70 , the yeast is gonna work a bit faster, even though there may be a little less of it. But then, I've only done two lagers. So maybe I just got lucky.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Just because the yeast go dormant doesn't mean they can't be revived. I've successfully made starters from ale yeast that was near freezing temps for several months. Lager yeast that was more recently active should be even easier to re-invigorate with a bit of priming sugar and warmer temps.

 

[Onescalerguy]

My LoggerLager carbed very nicely after 2 months in the cold without adding any more yeast.I primed with corn sugar in the keg.
cheers