Hey Belgian brewing guys!

[smizak]

Here's my dilemma.

I posted about my Wyeast 3787 bottling concerns before, but have a new quandary.

The beer is a dubbel, my first biggish Belgian. Wyeast 3787, 1.072->1.010, 85.5% app. attenuation~8.1% ABV. Three weeks in the fermenter.

I concerned about poor bottle carbonation, as is the reputation with this yeast. I have a pack of Safbrew T-58 to add fresh yeast, but the LHBS put the bug in my mind that it may ferment it out more and I'll have explosions. If I had champagne bottles and cages, I wouldn't care, but all I have is standard brown bottles.

Should I re-yeast it or am I just being noid?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jkarp]

I add yeast at bottling all the time with my high gravity Belgians. As long as you've hit your FG, the only sugars there for the yeast to eat are what you prime with, regardless of the viable yeast cell count.

 

[HoppyDaze]

I would not re-yeast. You just may have to wait a little longer than normal for them to carb in the bottle. OR you could use a little more priming sugar than normal. Condition in warmer temps...there are numerous variable to look at to push the carbonation along. But, I have no experience with that strain...so I could be wrong

 

[smizak]

I add yeast at bottling all the time with my high gravity Belgians. As long as you've hit your FG, the only sugars there for the yeast to eat are what you prime with, regardless of the viable yeast cell count.

The problem is that the bottling yeast is a different strain. Do you add the same strain yeast?

 

[ericm]

with that degree of attenuation, I realllly doubt that the T-58 will find anything leftover in there to eat (other than the priming sugar you add)

BUT, if you wanted to be reallly cautious, you could try taking a small sample, take a gravity reading (de-gas it to be sure it's accurate), add some of the T-58, keep it warm, etc (you could even aerate, since this is just for testing purposes and not for drinking) and check the gravity again after a week or so to see if it's changed at all.

 

[jkarp]

The problem is that the bottling yeast is a different strain. Do you add the same strain yeast?

Normally, I hold back some of the original yeast starter for bottling, but using a different yeast isn't unheard of - many Belgian breweries do it. The bottling strain should obviously be alcohol tolerant.

 

[dontman]

Keep in mind that you want the beer to condition longer anyway because it is a big beer. So really a little longer time to full carbing should not be a problem.