Will bottling my lagered Kolsch with Nottingham further attenuate it?

[Nick_D]

I'm about to bottle a Kolsch I did with WLP029 kolsch yeast. I've lagered it at near freezing for 3 weeks, plus gelatin finings for a further week at slightly below the freezing temp of water (but not freezing the beer of course).

I'd like the insurance of adding some fresh yeast for carbing up, as I'm not too keen on having to wait 2 + months with whatever yeast is left after the gelatin has done its work, or risk not getting good carbonation at all..

Everyone seems to advocate Nottingham as a good bottling yeast for those of us in this situation, as it floccuates well and sets hard, adding nothing to the flavour profile. My question is, is there a risk of it further attenuating my malt profile? I hear it has rather strong attenuation. Will it attenuate further than the WLP029 did?

Thanks!

 

[madscientist451]

What is the gravity now? Danstar says the Nottingham will go to 1.008, so if you need to be above that to get any carbonation. I doubt if it will change your flavor profile.
I've used the WLP Kolsch yeast and after fermentation stopped, I waited a few weeks then bottled and stored it warm for two weeks then cold lager for 3-6 weeks. The carbonation was fine doing that.
Perhaps do an experiment bottling some of your kolsch without the added yeast and see how it carbonates.
The WLP 029 worked well in repitching, I made 3-4 batches from the original tube and could have kept going but switched to some other styles.

 

[Nick_D]

Thanks for the reply. Current gravity is 1.009.

I've bottled like you, warm conditioned for carbonation, and then lagered in the bottles before, but wound up with way more sediment and yeast than I'm keen on. This time I'm bulk lagering and fining with gelatin to get rid of as much as I can before bottling.

I'm not keen on re-pitching any WLP029 at bottling as I've had issues with getting it to clear up. Sometimes it just doesn't want to settle out, sometimes it drops easy.

Would dropping one point of sg to 1.008 make much difference if that happened?

I know it would carb up eventually without added yeast, but could take forever... so I'm trying to work around that.

Thanks