Should I add more yeast?

[ru41285]

So last night I brewed a Christmas Ale and the OG was 1.071. I pitched a pack of 1028 London Ale without a starter (I never make starters). But now, the morning after, I am rethinking my obviously low pitch rate. I have a vial of some scottish heavy yeast that is similar but slightly more attenuative. Its a pretty big pitch rate in this vial. Should I add it if I want to help speed up fermentation and reduce lag time? I originally pitched the 1028 at about midnight last night. I also want to speed up fermentation so its ready by Christmas. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks a lot.

 

[OldWorld]

I share your same problem. I want a beer to be ready by Christmas. I made a compromise to go with a lower gravity. I wouldn't pitch another yeast. Let it run it's course. 1.071 is a pretty good gravity.

It might finish fermenting close...If you can keg it then it ought to be a little rushed but still good...For bottle conditioning you might get lucky, you might not.

 

[ru41285]

So I took a risk here, but I ended up adding more yeast. I had a bottle of East Coast Yeast Scottish Heavy lying around, so I used that. I left it out for a bit to warm up and by the time it was good to go (about 1 hour of warming up), the bottle felt like it was going to explode. The yeast was already going crazy and was ready to go. When I opened it up, it exploded out like no yeast I've ever seen (I even tried to release the pressure as slowly as possible). I added it and within about 10 minutes it started going off and has since been churning away. Not sure if it was due to the additional yeast, but the lag time ended so I'm happy. Unfortunately, I did underpitch for the respiriation.