Use Of Champagne Yeast

[ant]

Okey-doke, so after 16 days the 3787 has chewed it's way through just about all of the sugar in the dark belgian, and we've dropped from 1.110 to 1.033... I was planning to wait a couple more days till the gravity readings completely drop off, rack it to secondary and then finish it off with some dry champagne yeast for a few days before bottling.

But having not used and/or bottled with champagne yeast before, I was looking for some clues to get prepared before racking, eg recommended rehydration technique, method to add to secondary without oxidising, time to leave in situ before bottling, expected effect on gravity, etc. And/or just a recommended text that deals with it?

Cheers,
Ant

Edit - jeez, I wish I'd spellchecked the title before posting...

 

[Stuster]

Do you need to use champagne yeast? That yeast should be fine to cope with that gravity beer. According to wyeast it can cope with up to 12% alcohol. You're a way of that. Belgian yeasts tend to slow up at the end of ferment. Maybe let it get a bit warmer (what's the temp now?) and give it another week or even more. I've never used champagne yeast, but apparently it'll leave you with a fairly dry beer.

 

[Boozy the clown]

I used a champers yeast for half of the 'Sugar monster', it brought the gravity down about 10 points and upped the % a bit but I wouldn't use it again. Was just too dry tasting for me.

 

[ant]

Ah. NOW you tell me. Well, I roused, warmed to 21-22C, then racked at 1.030 into 2 11L fermenters, added another fresh starter of 3787 to one, and rehydrated champagne yeast to the other. Not much action after 3 days with the champagne yeast, so added 3787 to that one too.

Has been 5 days now into the secondary fermentation, so will be looking to bottle tonight. Has been very little action from either fermenter, so I'm not expecting too much of a drop in gravity - maybe 5 points or so. Hopefully enough to give some carbonation in the bottles, but not enough for bombs...

I'll be able to give some feedback in 3 months as to dryness doing a side be side tasting.