Bottling after a year

Northern Brewer General
1

I have a peet smoked porter that has been in the secondary since January. I can’t find the date that I brewed it but I am guessing sometime in November maybe. Would there still be enough yeast after this period of time if I bottle now with corn sugar?

2

I would re yeast with a partial packet of US-05. Why risk a lack luster carbonation at this point?

:cheers:

3

You definitely need to add more yeast. Anything in a fermenter for longer than ~2.5 months needs additional yeast.

4

[quote=“ynotbrusum”]I would re yeast with a partial packet of US-05. Why risk a lack luster carbonation at this point?

:cheers: [/quote]

When adding more yeast, it there any formula I should use? Or am I just adding a half pack rehydrated to the bottom of the bottling bucket when I am adding sugar?

5

Rather than buying a pack of yeast I pull a few large spoonfuls of krausen off of a fermenting batch.

6

There’s no real formula. It doesn’t take much to get the job done, and “overpitching” in this case isn’t a real concern. The amount of extra fermentation that needs to happen is too small to have a big flavor impact. I usually just eyeball around a 1/4 packet, and even that is probably way more than you need.

Glug master’s idea of borrowing some krausen would work fine too, and save you the packet of yeast.

7

[quote=“Nate42”]There’s no real formula. . . . I usually just eyeball around a 1/4 packet, and even that is probably way more than you need.

Glug master’s idea of borrowing some krausen would work fine too, and save you the packet of yeast.[/quote]

Definitely no real formula, but make sure to check that fermentation IS really over, of course.

Best solution for the future is to not find yourself in this position again. Of course, I’m saying this after bottling four 5 gallon batches of beer, and one batch of mead in late April, all of which had been sitting in the basement since early last summer. Ouch.

8

You could use a pack of Munton’s regular, it’s only 6 grams and usually pretty cheap. It would work fine for what you need.
12 weeks is about as far as I’d go without repitching.