Adding Yeast At Bottling Stage

[tintin]

I'm brewing a strong golden ale at present with wyeast 1388. I've read about the benefits of yeast when added at the bottling stage but I was wondering how to go about it, what quantities, etc. Should I use the same yeast or some dried yeast like T-58? Should I add it straight into the fermenter with the bottling sugar? Thanks for any advice in advance.

 

[Justin T]

It depends what type of taste you want. If you want a consistent taste then add the same yeast. If you want to be a bit creative you can add another yeast strain.

Not sure what the minimum amount to repitch would be but I would imagine that one sachet would be a good amount.

Adding at bottling with the priming sugar will be fine

 

[goatherder]

I made a tripel with 1388 and used the same strain to bottle with. I added it to the bottling bucket with the priming sugar. I used 1/4 of a wyeast pack which came in at around 1 million cells per millilitre for my batch. I gave the yeast a couple of hours on the stirplate in some wort to wake it up.

The results were fantastic. The carbonation was spot on and very consistent bottle to bottle.

 

[tintin]

Would adding too much yeast cause explosions? I'm thinking of adding about quarter of a cup from an old yeast cake.

 

[apd]

Wouldn't think so. Doesn't matter how much yeast is in there. Once they've eaten the sugars, they've eaten the sugars. SO as long as you get the sugar level right, you'll be fine.

 

[goatherder]

I depends on the yeast cake. The idea of pitching yeast at bottling is to provide some healthy yeast to carbonate the beer. You do this when the yeast already in the beer is not in good condition - say in high alcohol beers or after a long lagering phase.

If you are just pulling the beer out of primary and bottling, I'd suggest you would get away with not adding any yeast. Adding too much yeast will just make your beer unnecessarily cloudy.