i recently brewed a chocolate oatmeal stout and I racked it to the balcones barrel yesterday to age it for about 2 months. I had about a 1/2 of gallon leftover so I poured it into a 1 gallon jug because my wife wanted to enjoy the beer without the bourbon taste. What do you guys recommend the best thing to do is: Keg the batch and carbonate as so? Or buy some bottling yeast and bottle the beer? I've been wanting to buy the bottle gun so I can bottle much easier without all the hassle. So I guess this just may make me purchase the bottle gun. What do you guys think?
I'm sure she's lovely, but it would probably be less hassle to find a new wife than to bottle half of a gallon. That said, I'd probably bottle carb w/ carbonation tablets. A few pellets worth of dry yeast wouldn't be a bad idea either as you mentioned. I wouldn't want to clean a keg for 4 pints of beer.
@CurtFromHershey Lol, she is lovely and getting a new wife wasn't part of my question, ha ha!! I've never used the carbonation tablets, so drop them into the bottle and couple weeks later it's good? I'd rather not screw with the yeast since I'll waste more than I'll end up using.
You should have enough yeast to make the DME tablets work, but make sure you follow the direction carefully. If in doubt, just get some extra DME and measure it yourself. I've found that using DME tablets yields mixed results for me. It seems 2 tablets are not quite enough and 3 is too much. With a dark beer like that I would use DME and age it longer than just a couple of weeks before putting it in the fridge. My personal experience, I made a stout a year ago, and bottle aged it in my shop in what would equal a root cellar for about a year. Then I put it in the fridge and let it set there for about a month. Words.... do not.... come close.
I should add that this beer was made and yeast was pitched August 1st. I doubt the yeast is still active. The beer has been racked twice.
I don't think the carb tablets are DME, but just plain ole sugar I've used 2 for a bomber, so 5 should be about right for a 1/2 gal?
I believe the small carb pills, a little bigger than a baby aspirin, are 0.5 grams of dextrose. So, four or five for a bomber.
The ones I've used are DME, they look like lemon drops. I don't know of Corn Sugar tablets, but I wouldn't doubt they are out there. I like DME for priming and aging in darker beers.
The ones I was referring to (and the only type I am aware of): http://www.morebeer.com/products/carbonation-drops.html
The ones I was referring to are pretty old. They may have been discontinued. I read where the drops are one to a 12oz and two to a bomber.
If there isn't enough viable yeast and if I try to bottle it, am I pretty much screwed? As in there isn't a way to carbonate them?
I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but beer always has yeast in it. You don't need a lot of yeast to prime your beer. If it's a new batch I would be 95% sure you have enough yeast in there to prime the beer. I've known people who grab old Trapist beer and cultivate the yeast from that beer. It's always still there.... waiting... Mwwaaahahahahaha.... Cheers.
If you end up bottling it and it doesn't carb, you could add yeast at that point. It'd be a little bit of a crap shoot, but we are talking 5 bottles tops right? Not worth getting more yeast to my mind. You could just use it for cooking if it doesn't get there.
