Experiences with failed bottle fermentation

[antoniososam]

This weekend I'm planning to bottle a wee heavy. It was brewed about 5 months ago – 1.098 og, 1.028 fg with Wyeast 1728 (Scottish Ale). It spent 3 weeks in the primary fermentor, then went to a glass carboy and sat in the basement over the winter. The average temp has been around 55, though it's probably been as low as 40 at times. I'm debating whether to add some WLP028 (Edinburg Scottish Ale), which is the closest thing I have, at bottling.

The impression I get from reading similar threads is that it's unnecessary, as long as you're patient. However, some do advise adding yeast. Does anyone have experiences bottling under similar conditions? I'm especially interested if anyone has seen a batch completely fail to bottle carbonate, even after an extended time at relatively warm temps.

 

[Gavin C]

I have no experience on this topic.

It may not be nessecary however I would add yeast at bottling in this situation.

I'd use this one.

 

[jonny_5]

Last year i bottled an imperial porter that had spent 6+ months aging similar to your situation. I did not add any additional yeast and after 8 weeks of bottle conditioning they had little to no carbonation. I decided to pop open half of them and added some CBC-1 right to the bottles, carbed up in 2 weeks. The rest of them did eventually get the right carb level, but it took 4 months. Now I always add in extra yeast when bottling anything high gravity that has sat for a while.

 

[Revvy]

It's a high grav beer that sat in secondary for 5 months? That's when you WOULD consider adding some yeast. CBC-1 is a good bet.

 

[antoniososam]

Thanks. CBC-1 it is. I'll try a few without just for kicks.