viable yeast after 6 months?

[bierandbikes]

I racked my cider over to a secondary after about a month, and it has been in the secondary (with virtually no headspace) for the past 5 months. I plan to bottle condition/carbonate.

Question: is there likely enough yeast still in suspension or should I add some yeast before bottling? If I should add yeast, any suggestions? Add yeast and sugar to bottling bucket?

This is my first cider. Thanks for the help.

 

[bierandbikes]

So after a little more reading on the site, it seems that my yeast should be fine. I guess the better question then is should I stir up any of the yeast or just rack to the bottling bucket and add my sugar? It's nice and clear so I prefer not to stir up anything from the bottom.

Been waiting since before Christmas for this. Complex blend of apples, but nothing funky. It tasted awesome when I racked it over, but definitely needed the carbonation.

 

[Aristotelian]

You could test it to be sure by adding some sugar. If you see signs of carbonation you are good to go. Only downside would by slightly higher ABV. You could also do a test bottle to be sure. It would take you another couple of weeks, but you have waited 5 months so what's another couple of weeks? In any case, I would guess you will be fine. Think of how easy it is to culture yeast from dregs of commercial bottles.

 

[IslandLizard]

You could test it to be sure by adding some sugar. If you see signs of carbonation you are good to go. Only downside would by slightly higher ABV. You could also do a test bottle to be sure. It would take you another couple of weeks, but you have waited 5 months so what's another couple of weeks? In any case, I would guess you will be fine. Think of how easy it is to culture yeast from dregs of commercial bottles.

+1^ on adding a little sugar to test. But it may disturb the lees layer on the bottom. I would not do a test bottle as it will drop your cider level in the secondary, exposing it to air/oxygen with will cause oxidation, unless you have CO2 or N2 to purge the headspace.

 

[bierandbikes]

I didn't think about that. I was very careful to fill the secondary all the way up so there is virtually no headspace/surface exposure.

So it sounds like some sort of test would tell me for sure if the yeast are still in solution, but doing so could create problems. I also gather that chances are pretty high that the yeast are just waiting for another meal so I should be good to simply add priming sugar and bottle. I suppose the worst thing that could happen is that it doesn't carb up and I have slightly sweeter still cider than intended. It is at about .997 now.