Long lagering!

[EALynx]

I have been lagering an American lager for over 5 months now. I am aware that most all of the yeast I need for bottle conditioning is now out of suspension. Is there a proper amount and type of yeast that I should be using to bottle carbonate my 5 gallons of beer?
Thanks for any input

 

[chillHayze]

I would not add yeast. It may take a few weeks or months but there is still yeast in there that will carbonate it given a priming food. If you add additional yeast you will have to wait for it to clear anyway. Why introduce anything additional into it if the time table will be similar?

 

[newguy]

I've never heard of adding yeast back to carbonate. I'm no expert but I would recommend using DME for bottle carbing. A lager would be a light DME or if thats not an option some corn sugar. right about 5oz for 5 gallons for corn sugar.

 

[boo boo]

After that length of time there will not be very much yeast left in suspension to do justice to your carbonation, so you are correct in trying to use more yeast to do the job.

Add a half pack of any dry beer yeast to your primming solution and mix in your bottling bucket without aerating the beer. bottle as usual, being careful to let the beer "breathe" by letting the primming solution work for a bit to drive off the headspace air in your bottles before capping.

Leave the caps on the uncapped beer for a half an hour before capping and you'll see and hear the caps dancing on top of your bottles.

 

[Yooper]

I think I've used about 1/4 package of yeast to carbonate my lagers, but 1/2 package is ok. I'd dissolve it little warm water, and then add it to the bottling bucket with the priming sugar and stir that well. Then, rack your beer into that the usual way.

I've used nottingham for the lagers. It's ok because you've already got the flavor profile and the amount of fermentation going on for carbonating is so small that it won't impact the flavor. Because you're adding ale yeast, you can carbonate them at room temperature.