How much fresh yeast for Belgian bottles?

[EkieEgan]

I am not new to brewing but new to brewing Belgians. I do know that the yeast in suspension will carb the Belgian ales I have bottled (I have a saison and a dubbel bottled), but after reading more on the subject and understanding how beat up Belgian yeasts can get during the extended fermentations, I would really like to add fresh yeast for my next Saison. It's almost done with it's primary. I will be putting it on fruit in the secondary. Anyway, my first Belgian is a dubbel and it's been in the bottle for 7 weeks now. It is starting to show signs of conditioning, but it is taking forever, as I should have expected I guess. Question...I would like to add fresh yeast, perhaps a slurry from a neutral yeast like US-05. If I rehydrate the 05, can I use a pipette to transfer the slurry and if so, how much per bottle? Perhaps I could even use a syringe like they give you with your child's liquid allergy med? I know some people push a few dried yeast grains into each bottle (I'm corking Belgian bottles), but this seems like a measured amount would be better? Any thoughts from the experts?

 

[microbusbrewery]

I've never really had issues getting Belgian styles to carb; the only exception is Belgian sours that have sat for a year or more. I have re-yeasted some of,the sours, but I just add it to the bottling bucket along with the priming sugar. That's quite a bit more simple than individually re-yeasting bottles.

 

[EkieEgan]

Well I decided to relax. It's so tempting to freak out over bottle conditioning, but after reading more on here, I decided to let the bottles sit. Carbonation has started and that means it will finish. There is plenty of sugar for it. It just might take a few more weeks. It's a learning lesson I guess. My next Belgian will have fresh yeast added to the bottling bucket. Thanks for the reply though.

 

[GQT]

Carbonation

Might not be the case for all Belgs. If you use WY3711 chances are your beer is dry as sand, and pretty high in alcohol. Not every yeast will feel happy in say 12% beer, and even remaining 3711 might give up.
I slant my yeast, and for such occasions I would just propagate some 3711 - just enough to do the job.

 

[EkieEgan]

Yeah, my alcohol is nowhere near 12%. I used WL for both my saison and dubbel. They are both in the 7-8+% range. I must say that the WL568 fermented like a beast. Much like 3711 I imagine..same results...violent fermentation and dry as a bone. The dubbel would be easy to repitch yeast as it was capped because I hadn't yet bought my corker, but the saison is corked, so I will be crossing my fingers. I have a saison fermenting now and I cultured up yeast from 3 bottles of Ommegang Hennepin. I went up to 2L and it took off like a rocket. I will be putting it on tart cherries soon (when it gets done with primary). I figured I would start over with culturing yeast from the primary so when I bottle, I can repitch the same yeast. I would like to keep the Ommegang going for awhile. It smells awesome! So I will update this when it's done carbonating.