Hi all, I have an imperial stout ageing on oak chips and whiskey. It will be ageing for 2-4 months. I will be bottling the whole batch. Will I need to add any bottle conditioning yeast like Lallemand CBC-1??
I would expect your primary yeast to struggle with bottle conditioning, after that time, but you may be lucky.
But as this is a big project, take luck out of the equation and use a healthy conditioning yeast.
When we did some barrel projects before, this was always the troublesome bit, and we got best results with a dose of conditioning yeast plus some keg conditioning i.e. get 75% of your volumes from keg conditioning with a CO2 tank, and then introduce your priming sugar and conditioning yeast to get the remainder. For a big beer you are really looking to introduce live yeast to scalp up any stray O2.
I made an imperial stout last year and didn't add any extra yeast at bottling time. So far I've only come across one bottle that was sufficiently carbonated, so I'll definitely add extra yeast next time.
A keg sounds like the best option. Hide it away for a few months and then carb it up.
Of course, that's an extra expense but it does rule out the doubt about carbonation and the prospect of creating bottle bombs.
I don't have any kegs as of yet, so I will be bottling all of this in 330ml bottles because it will be 10%. Likely going to have to use some type of yeast for bottling.
Quote from: JMK8 on June 28, 2019, 05:00:01 PM
I don't have any kegs as of yet, so I will be bottling all of this in 330ml bottles because it will be 10%. Likely going to have to use some type of yeast for bottling.
I would use CBC yeast...we use it in work after aging beer in barrels. As stated above, it takes luck out of the equation and being fresh yeast it will scrub away any oxygen...just my 2cents worth