How much yeast for priming aged beer?

There we go! This is one thing -- ONE thing -- that I agree with him on!!

 

I enjoyed reading this thread. When I saw it when it was first posted, my first thought was, "I've kept a beer that long on yeast, did a secondary, and still didn't pitch any extra yeast and it carbonated perfectly." I did not post this thought immediately.

Not sure anyone explicitly advised it, so here's my contribution right now in clear, unambiguous terms. You don't need to pitch any more yeast. I am 100% sure about this, and I think the rest of you know this, too. Yeast lives for years and beer, despite it's alcohol content, provides a gentle living environment for them. I must say, beer forums across the net underestimate the vitality and perseverance of yeast.

With that said, I think adding a whole pack wouldn't do any harm either, as Jack stated.

 

You are "100% sure" there's enough viable yeast suspended in OP's beer, because you once did a secondary "that long" and it carbonated perfectly. If your beer had not carbonated perfectly, would you be 100% sure that OP's beer would not carbonate?

How long is "that long?" OP stated "several months." 4 months? 8 months? Longer? Yes, yeast can survive for many years in beer, but that's misleading. Every day that goes by, there's less of it left that's viable and adequately vital. And did you notice that he used Wyeast 1968, perhaps the fastest flocculating strain available? Yeast has to be in the beer, not left behind in the bottom of a fermenter, in order to carbonate.

What was the ABV of OP's Burton Ale? Wyeast 1968 is nominally good up to 9%. Burton Ales are historically variable strength-wise, and often higher than 9%. Another unknown (to us).

And at what temperature has OP's beer been sitting? That's another unknown, yet pertinent, factor.

There's too many unknowns to be "100%" sure here, which is probably so many recommend (or at least don't not recommend) insurance yeast.

 

No, the "data point" I provided is not my only one.

 

I think much of the yeast is dead or done after a good 4-5 months. If aging for 2-3 months, I still would add a smidge of fresh yeast just to be safe. But if 4 months or more, absolutely yes. Do you have to?...... At that point, yes, I say yes. But true... most people aren't aging their beers this long before packaging, in which case, if just for a few weeks, less than a couple two tree months, you won't benefit much if at all from fresh yeast. So amount of time matters.

 

I just bottled my sour solera that had been sitting for 7 months in a very low pH environment. I did a clean primary ferment and then racked it onto the bugs for aging. It was fully carbed in 7 days, despite having, presumably, very little sacc transferred over. I think you'd be fine without reyeasting, unless you secondaried and were extremely meticulous about transferring off of the cake from primary.

 

I appreciate erring on the side of caution. I can always appreciate it. But often on this forum and on many beer forums it's erring too much on that side. Like the saying goes, if you never hit your head, how do you know how tall you are?

Most of the time erring on the side of caution has no consequences. But that is "most" of the time. I am not trying to start an argument. I just wanted to provide more opinion. Yes you can introduce plenty of "what ifs" and ask all sorts of questions, but sometimes erring on the side of caution in founded in unwarranted fear of consequence.

 

Drew (@DrewBeechum) wrote an article for BA magazine about homebrewing a Burton Ale:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/articles/14595/winter-is-coming-homebrewing-an-old-burton-ale/

Within that recipe he suggested: "Condition for a minimum of 2 months, preferably 4 – 6 months."

Drew, would you recommend adding some fresh yeast to the bottling bucket after that extended conditioning time?

Cheers!

 

The key is whether there are enough viable yeast in suspension at the time of bottling. Two major factors work against the brewer here: high levels of ethanol and a large amount of time. Pitching a less than ideal amount of yeast to start doesn't help either. There are plenty of forum entries (here and elsewhere) of "My beer didn't carbonate. Help!" to know that sometimes enough viable yeast don't make it into the bottle to enable timely in-bottle carbonation.

It happened to me back in my bottling days. I made an 8.9% Strong Golden Ale with WLP550, which was stepped up with a 700 mL starter. The beer was in the primary for 30 days and the secondary for 46 days [yes, this was made back in the dark ages (2004) when secondaries were a thing]. After 2 months in the bottle, there was essentially no carbonation. I then made a yeast starter (no details in my notes), and added 1 teaspoon of the yeast starter to each bottle. Eleven days later the beer was nicely carbonated. In passing I'll mention that I still have one bottle of that beer in the cellar (along with bottles of some other big Belgians I made back in the day).

If for some reason one suspects that one's yeast might not be up to the task, then there is certainly no harm in adding more yeast. As reported above, it appears that anywhere from 1/10 to 1 yeast packet will likely do the job. As 1/4 packet was mention by a couple of people, that is where I might start.

Specifically for the OP, I'll add that since the beer was fermented with Wyeast ESB -- which is not a strong attenuator -- you might not what to add another yeast that is a strong attenuator, or you might get more carbonation than you bargained for.

Cheers!

 

Whatever you do, don't look up the definition of "splodge" in the urban dictionary . . . it might give you an adverse taste you won't be able to shake.

 

I looked it up. I shouldn't have.

 

You know in my experience - I think as long as you have sufficiently healthy yeast going in the front side of the operation, you should be ok. Adding extra is an insurance policy. (Having said that - most of my experience with long aged yeast beers are my Brut beers which use a Belgian yeast)