Using yeast in bottle conditioning

Hi all, I have a Dubbel which I am getting ready to bottle.  My last attempt at a Belgian ale which has been in the bottle for close to 2 months, still has very low carbonation.  So I was thinking about trying out pitching some more yeast this batch to insure better carbonation.  So far, this current batch was in the primary for 7 days (maybe too long) and it has been in the secondary in a 50-60 degree basement for 3 weeks.  I'm figuring that most of the yeast is pretty much done with it's sugar converting ability at this point which is why I am considering repitching some yeast for this batch.  Also, I collected the yeast during racking from the primary so I will be using this yeast for bottling.

So with all of that said, I am looking for any advice in bottle conditioning with fresh yeast.

I think it's always a good idea to repitch, or "krausen" for bottle conditioning. For two reasons:

1) You have no idea how viable the yeast is that is left in solution prior to bottling.
2) Fresh yeast will ALWAYS give you a more consistent result.

I have found some great inspiration from Vinnie Cilurzo at Russian River. Check out the bottle logs on his site: http://russianriverbrewing.com/web/bottle/index.html

He is a great guy with a wealth of knowledge about beer making. Hell, he INVENTED Double IPA (Blind Pig IPA). He is always more than willing to answer any questions (he GAVE me the Damnation recipe at the Andersen Valley Brew Festival three years ago). His bottle logs give you some great insight as to how he makes his beers.

Darin

Great, thanks for the encouragement and thanks for the link!

Any suggestions on how much to pitch?  I stored my collected yeast in the White Labs vile that my original yeast came from.  I was thinking that I would use half of that.

Also, how long before bottling should I pitch the yeast?

Berkyjay said:

So far, this current batch was in the primary for 7 days (maybe too long) and it has been in the secondary in a 50-60 degree basement for 3 weeks. 

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I would be very surprised if four weeks left this dubbel with too little yeast to bottle condition.  I thought bottling yeast was for very long secondaries, high gravities, or perhaps filtered beers where all yeast is removed.  Aren't most commericals filtered/polished, and thus would require a yeast addition at bottling?  I don't think it would hurt, but seems unnecessary here.

MaltLicker said:

Berkyjay said:

So far, this current batch was in the primary for 7 days (maybe too long) and it has been in the secondary in a 50-60 degree basement for 3 weeks. 

Click to expand...

I would be very surprised if four weeks left this dubbel with too little yeast to bottle condition.  I thought bottling yeast was for very long secondaries, high gravities, or perhaps filtered beers where all yeast is removed.  Aren't most commericals filtered/polished, and thus would require a yeast addition at bottling?  I don't think it would hurt, but seems unnecessary here.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I have had this impression as well.  But I talked to a local brew pub brewer a few weeks ago about yeast and how my last Belgian didn't seem to be carbonating well.  He went on to describe how yeast in high gravity beers tends to make the yeast tired and can really affect bottle conditioning.  We never got to talk about repitching the yeast before bottling which is why I posted today.

The only time I've repitched yeast when bottling was when I bottle beers that have been aging for a few months and/or have been lagered.  I always find these beers carb up much faster compared to beers that have not had additional yeast added at bottling and have sat in the fermenter for 3 weeks (my usual time to let beers ferment for).