Windsor for bottleing Wee Heavy

[jcarson83]

I've got a pack of Windsor dry yeast that is probably 2 months old that I was going to use for bottling. It hasn't been refrigerated but its been in my basement at about 60F the entire time.

Is it still good and is it a good match for the Scottish Strong Ale?

I've never pitched yeast just to bottle but I've been getting bad carbonation and its a heavy beer so I thought I would this time. I'm planning on pitching 3 to 4 days before bottling.

 

[jcarson83]

Bump. Anyone?

How about just answer if you refrigerate your dry yeast.

 

[maltMonkey]

I've got a pack of Windsor dry yeast that is probably 2 months old that I was going to use for bottling. It hasn't been refrigerated but its been in my basement at about 60F the entire time.

Is it still good and is it a good match for the Scottish Strong Ale?

I've never pitched yeast just to bottle but I've been getting bad carbonation and its a heavy beer so I thought I would this time. I'm planning on pitching 3 to 4 days before bottling.

I don't know if the yeast will still be good or not--I don't use dry yeast that often but I always refrigerate what I do keep on hand. You could always make a small "test" starter beforehand to pitch part of the packet into to see if you get any activity. Then again, dry yeast is very cheap, so you could always pick up another packet.....or just say "screw it" and pitch it anyway since there should still be enough yeast active in the beer to carbonate...if you're nervous about it I don't see any harm in pitching a bit of the Windsor.

You should only need about 1/4 of the packet. The character of the yeast isn't really important since it's only going to ferment out the small amount of priming sugars you add, and the flavor has already been established by your fermenting yeast. The only thing you will want to watch out for is if the Windsor has a lot higher attenuation rate than the yeast you fermented with (you don't want a big active fermentation from pitching this yeast, just enough "insurance" to carbonate). Your plan of pitching it a few days ahead of time would probably solve any bottle bomb problems. Monitor the gravity before and after repitching just to make sure that not too much activity is going on before bottling, and I think you should be good.

 

[CreeDakota]

My LHBS stores their dry yeast at room temp for longer than 2 months with no problem.

If you used the Windsor for the primary ferment you should be fine. But I misunderstand why pitching again at the botteling stage is necassary at all; there should be plenty of yeast cells still in your beer to metabolize your priming sugar.

 

[jcarson83]

I'm repitching at bottling because it was a big beer (1.088) and the yeast may not have it left in them to bottle condition. Also because its only at 1.026 right now and I want to see if they can get it any lower just as a test. It was in primary for 5 weeks and its been in secondary for 3 so I don't think its a bad idea.