Bottling an aged brew

[Immocles]

Hey folks,
A friend and I started brewing at the same time last year and while it stuck for me, he found himself not finding the time or gumption to keep it rolling. We brewed an extract porter in late January, 5 gallons worth. He racked 3 gallons of it into a carboy and bottled/drank the remainder. That three gallons has been sitting as-is since about February. He's a bit timid to taste it, so that will fall on me to judge if its even worth bottling or not. But if it is, I have a couple different open packets of dry yeast to carb it, and I'm wondering if it matters what I use? Ive got us05, s04, and some champagne yeast (yellow packet..blanc ?). How much of which yeast would kick off the carbonation?

Thanks!

 

[RPh_Guy]

It doesn't matter which yeast. Use half a packet.
Rehydrate it and add it when it's about halfway racked into the bottling bucket.

 

[Miraculix]

It doesn't matter which yeast. Use half a packet.
Rehydrate it and add it when it's about halfway racked into the bottling bucket.

It certainly DOES matter which yeast you use. If the yeast is higher attenuative than the initial yeast used for fermentation, you risk overcarbonation or bottlebombs.

Best would be to use the same yeast that the beer was fermented with or a specific bottling yeast like cbc1 that won't attenuate further than simple sugars are in solution.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Good call. The "champagne" yeast would be fine at least.

 

[Miraculix]

Good call. The "champagne" yeast would be fine at least.

Yes, that one should be similar to cbc1. Although I am not 100% certain if there are not a few champagne yeast varieties out there that can digest the complex malt sugars.

 

[Immocles]

Thanks for the insight folks. The champagne yeast is red star premier blanc. I was leaning towards that yeast, mostly since it was dirt cheap and I don’t have much use for it right now. Otherwise I’ll see if he remembers or wrote down what he used.