High alc and bottling

I am making a bourbon porter for the first time and will be bottling.  The Porter will be between 9 -10% alc.  Prior to bottling I am going to add 1 1/2 to 2 cups of bourbon depending on taste. With this increase in alc I am wondering if the Wyeast American ale can handle the high alc enough to produce co2.  I know this yeast says it can handle between 10 and 12% but it seems I will be pushing the limit.

My other idea was to keg and drop the beer to 33F and then just pour into the bottles and cap them.

Suggestions?  Anyone ever done the latter?

Assuming you are using 1.5 cups of 80 proof burbon and adding it to a 5 gallon batch of porter at 10%, your ending alcohol content should be about 11.7%.  Its pushing the limit a bit but should be ok, I would think.  If you don't want to risk a batch with no head, try it on a couple of bottles and just add the bourbon to the rest of the batch as you drink it.  Only other option I can think of would be kegging it.

I am not a fan of using champagne yeast as I really don't like the taste.  I am thinking I might try to keg, lower temp of carbonated keg to 33 and try to bottle the carbonated beer.

I also have a nitro bottle.  I was almost thinking of putting it on nitro and bottling it from the nitro keg but if doing this with the co2 won't work then the nitro definitely won't because it is under so much more pressure.  ??? So many options and so little beer to try it with.

I just transferred into secondary.  It is at 10.25%.  It will be 12% or damn close when the bourbon is added.  I just can't see it fermenting any more to give it carbonation.

Anybody ever bottle from a keg?  Anyone?  Buellar?  Buellar? :'(

MikeinWA said:

Anybody ever bottle from a keg?  Anyone?  Buellar?  Buellar? :'(

Click to expand...

Yes. You can go as simple as a sanitized hose stuck on the end of a tap, add a bottle filler to the end of the hose to step up a level, buy or make a counter pressure bottle filler, or for just a little more $ get a Beer Gun. For long term storage and competitions, I would go with the counter pressure filler or Beer Gun. If you think of your keg as a bright tank, you will bottle clear beer with what ever carbonation level or after fermentation flavors like dry hop, fruit, bourbon, etc. you want.
The hose idea works great for filling stuff you want to drink soon such as growlers. I will even use 2 liter PET bottles with a carbonator cap.

I bottled from a keg using a home made filler - basically copper tubing that reached the bottom of the bottle and a valve attached to the liquid side of the keg.  It worked OK after I got the gas pressure low enough to not foam out of the bottle. 

If I do it again, I'll add a stopper to the filler so I can keep the pressure higher and then squeeze the stopper to let excess gas pressure escape as I fill the bottle.  Also, I think I'd increase the length of the filler hose for a more gradual pressure reduction from the keg.  The Beer Gun uses 10 feet, but they don't use a stopper, I think 5-6 ft would be plenty (I had 3 ft the first time).  The whole key is to keep it from foaming as the beer fills the bottle and fill it right to the top so when you withdraw the filler tube it leaves just the right head space.  If you chill your beer to 30-35F before bottling you can probably get away without chilling the bottles. 

OK, I had no clue what a beer gun was.  I just did my research and that is very cool.  Thank you for the suggestion  I am going to grab one this weekend.  This will solve my problem and also let me bottle a few beers for parties so  people don't drain my kegs!