Should I add yeast to help carbonate Belgian Tripple?

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing
1

I brewed the 1210 Belgian Tripel Extract Kit in November and it will be ready to bottle in a week. What is the advisability of adding a neutral ale yeast at bottling to assist with carbonation? Should I add a whole packet?

Advice is appreciated. David

2

Half a pack of champagne yeast, rehydrated in tap water, and added to the bottling bucket with the priming sugar. This has always worked well for me when re-yeasting at bottling.

3

Thanks porkchop…would Red Star Pasteur Blanc be OK?

4

Pasteur Blanc would be OK as long as the ABV isn’t too high, but EC-1118 or K1-V1116 would be better. Those are strains that are often pitched into already alcoholic environments (think restarting stuck fermentations or bottle carbonating sparkling wines), so they tend to be very reliable for this. And as you are re-yeasting a tripel, which is a very dry beer, there isn’t a worry about drying it out too much with the new yeast.

5

^^^ What rebuiit said… I’ve used Pasteur Champagne as well. All three of these strains will be good for ABV up into the high teens, but are only capable of fermenting simple sugars. Regardless of what you pitched as your primary strain, the simple sugars are the first to go and all that are left are more complex sugars that the champagne yeast cannot touch. Unless you did something abnormal, such as dumping in a ton of cane sugar beyond the alcohol tolerance of your ale yeast…

6

I’ve brewed this Tripel and NB’s Velvet Rooster using WY 3787. Had no problems with bottle carbonation of either one without additional yeast at bottling.

7

Thanks rebuiltcellars…gotta love the collective knowledge of this forum. We beginners thank you!

8

Thanks Flars — perhaps I am being over cautious…I would hate to have this result in flat beer after all of the time waiting since brewing.