Bottling my First RIS

Yeast & Fermentation
1

Good morning all you beautiful people!

This weekend, or possible the following, I will be bottling my Russian Imperial Stout, and was wondering if there are any tricks to bottle conditioning a brew of this strength.

First off let me put out the information on the beer just-in-case there is something special that needs to take place.

Brew Day - 09/07/14

Partial Mash

Ingredients -

8 lbs Gold LME
4 lbs Gold LME (late addition)
1 lb Gold DME

2 lbs Pale - 6 Row
1.5 lbs Red Wheat
1.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
1 lb Belgian Cara 45
0.5 lbs Caramel 120

1.25 oz Chinook 60"
1.25 oz Chinook 30"
1 oz Kent Goldings 20"
.5 oz Chinook 15"
1 oz Kent Goldings 15"
1 oz Kent Goldings 0"

Yeast - Wyeast 1084 (pitched onto a yeast cake from a previous Irish Red)

Mash:

Protein Rest 1.5 lbs Wheat @ 122 for 25 mins
Infusion Mash @ 152 for 70 mins.

First Running’s 1.042

Boil for 60 mins with Hop Schedule above

OG - 1.121

FG - 1.038

Primary for 3 weeks @ 69-71 Deg
Has been bulk conditioning in secondary for 7+ weeks. @ 69-71 Deg (ambient house temp)

I thought my FG was a little high so I added some Red Star Premier Cuvee yeast about a month ago, but numbers didn’t move, and there was no noticeable fermentation.

So could I assume this beer is finished and ready to be placed in bottles?
If so, I am shooting for 1.8-2.0 volumes of carb.

Should I be adding more yeast at bottling?
Tips and or Advise would be amazing.

I would hate to have this expensive beer not carb…

Cheers!

2

Well you’re not at the alcohol tolerance limit for 1084 yet, although close… And with it being about 10 weeks old, you should still have plenty of viable yeast in there to carb. If it were me, I would prime as normal and put them aside to condition for a looooong time. This one might take a couple of months to carbonate on its own.

3

I agree with porkchop. No addtional yeast is required. Prime and bottle, and wait a few weeks. Bigger beers sometimes take longer to carbonate. It will also probably improve in flavor after about 8-9 months of age, general rule of thumb, but of course as soon as it tastes good, you can and should drink it!