Adding yeast to aged beer before bottling

[rdbrett]

I have an old bourbon ale that I have been aging for 5 months. I am going to bottle this month. My local shop recommended my adding some yeast to it. So, I bought a cheap dry yeast pack. Is this common to do?
I have a couple dopplebocks which are lagering right now, do you recommend this with those as well? At what time frame is this recommended? Any info on what the general practice is is appreicated.
Any chance this causes over carbonation or any other problems?
Thanks for any help!

 

[ColoHox]

What is the ABV? There is likely still enough yeast in suspension to carb, although it will probably take quite some time.

Adding fresh yeast with priming sugar usually gets the job done faster, and seems to work well with old/high ABV brews. I usually add a new starter of the same yeast used for primary, for consistency and similar attenuation (and I usually still have some). Some people also add champagne yeast or something robust for strong beers, but sometimes the FG can drop a bit if your original yeast just pooped out leaving some fermentable sugars. If the beer is fully attenuated, the new yeast should just eat the priming sugar and you will be good.

Edit: The lagers are usually okay to bottle condition after the lagering period without additional yeast. Here is a thread with some relevant discussion.

 

[rdbrett]

If you add new yeast to an aged ale, do you need to add it days prior to bottling? Or can you add the day of bottling? Thx

 

[GrogNerd]

tomorrow I'm bottling a pumpkin barleywine that WLP007 got to 14.6% which has been bulk aging for 2 months

going to use CBC-1 on it. adding it to the bottling bucket along with priming sugar and racking the beast on top of it.

never done it this way before, so I can't tell you how it will turn out. well, not until next Halloween

 

[Gitmoe]

CBC-1 is awesome and I've had and seen great results from using it. My advice is to rehydrate the CBC before adding to your bottling bucket. Otherwise, the yeast will clump and sink so when you're done bottling and get to the bottom of the bucket you'll see a nice pile of yeast that didn't make it into any bottles. A small 1 Cup rehydration starter is ample. You're just trying to make a slurry more or less so it "dissolves" evenly in your batch.

 

[ColoHox]

If you add new yeast to an aged ale, do you need to add it days prior to bottling? Or can you add the day of bottling? Thx

Add the new yeast with your priming sugar and bottle away.

 

[ColoHox]

tomorrow I'm bottling a pumpkin barleywine that WLP007 got to 14.6% which has been bulk aging for 2 months

going to use CBC-1 on it. adding it to the bottling bucket along with priming sugar and racking the beast on top of it.

never done it this way before, so I can't tell you how it will turn out. well, not until next Halloween

I had great results using CBC on old, high ABV batches. I really want to try it out in a primary fermentation.

And your beer is another reason I love WLP007, that thing is a beast.

 

[GrogNerd]

CBC-1 is awesome and I've had and seen great results from using it. My advice is to rehydrate the CBC before adding to your bottling bucket. Otherwise, the yeast will clump and sink so when you're done bottling and get to the bottom of the bucket you'll see a nice pile of yeast that didn't make it into any bottles. A small 1 Cup rehydration starter is ample. You're just trying to make a slurry more or less so it "dissolves" evenly in your batch.

definitely rehydrate

from the datasheet

usage:10g of active dry yeast is used to inoculate 1hl of beer

so, 10g for 26.4 gallons? my batch is <3 gallons, so 1 gram is good?

 

[rdbrett]

I guess I was confused by an earlier thread. How many g do you use for 5 gal? Can you over pitch? I assume not if it has completely accentuated.

 

[GrogNerd]

I was going by the datasheet for CBC-1, which says 10g for 10 hectoliters

10 hectoliters = 26.4 gallons. my batch is around 2.5 gallons, so I suppose I should only use 1 gram

2 grams for 5 gallons.

have no idea you if you can overpitch a priming yeast