Ask The Brewmasters

Hello,

I am seeking advice on sourcing a high ABV capable dry yeast for bottle conditioning.  Although, liquid yeast suggestions will also be very much welcomed. I've tried a couple so far that could handle beer as high as 10.2% abv.  

Those yeasts were Fermentis S-189 lager yeast, and the Red Star Cuvee champagne yeast.  

I am producing wild and/or sour barrel aged beers that have had excessive evaporation rates.  

I recently had multiple failures with an 11% abv beer with both of the above yeasts, where zero carbonation was achieved, yet the yeast and sugar dosage rates and temperatures were the same.  I should note that that particular batch of beer was aged in previously used rum barrels that previously held whiskey.  The rest of the beers I have in progress are in previously used wine barrels.    

My next barrel aged beer I have ready for bottle conditioning just got a lab result of 13%.  

I hesitate to use a distillers yeast for fear of the creation of off-flavors during bottle conditioning.  

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

Thank you very much,

Joe Jasper

Musings Fermentation Underground, LLC

Newark, DE

www.musingsbrews.com

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Joe Jasper
Brewer / Co-owner
Musings Fermentation Underground
Newark DE
(503) 956-1884
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Have had good experiences with Lalvin EC-1118.  It is a good dry finishing yeast for high ABV.  I Have not used it for bottle conditioning, but seems to be a good workhorse for higher ABV re-ferments 

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Louwrens Wildschut
Pilot Brewery Lead
Bell's Brewery Inc
Galesburg MI
(269) 250-8146
lwildschut@bellsbeer.com
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Hey Joe! 

I have had really good results with EC1118. I also get a nutrient analysis on the final blend before conditioning to make sure there is enough free nitrogen left in the beer to get the fermentation done in the bottle and if there is not I will add some nutrient before bottling. The other thing that has really helped our bottle conditioning is using GO-Ferm when we rehydrate our yeast.

Hope this helps! 

Brian 

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Brian Coombs
Director of Production Operations
Alesong Brewing and Blending
Eugene OR
(530) 913-6616
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I have no experience using it for bottle conditioning, but Lallemand/Lalvin EC1118 is clean and has a high tolerance (they state 18% but I find it had better character and more consistent tolerance up to 16.5%).

https://shop.scottlab.com/lalvin-ec1118-prise-de-mousse-ec1118

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Kathryn Way
Oskar Blues Brewery
Brevard NC
(828) 883-2337
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Hi Joe,

Bottle conditioning can certainly be a tricky game but I can share some experiences we have had over the past couple of years. ABV is certainly an important factor to consider when determining the success, or lack-thereof, of bottle conditioning. However, we have found acid has had much more of a linear correlation when troubleshooting failed conditioning. Specifically, acetic acid has proven to be a large contributor to yeast stress in this environment. I had ran a bench-top trial looking at the effect VA has refermentations, I have attached this below.

This being said, you can still have successful bottle-conditionings in harsh environments. I will echo Brian on the use of Go-Ferm - not only has this been impactful in helping with the success of refermentations but it has also reduced our VDK clean-up time. We have implemented a protocol to acclimate conditioning yeast to its environment prior to its introduction to the full batch. This process has been adapted from the wine industry - I have found the following literature helpful.

Kemp et. al. Nutrient Addition to Low pH Base Wines (L. cv. Riesling) during Yeast Acclimatization for Sparkling Wine: Its Influence on Yeast Cell Growth, Sugar Consumption and Nitrogen Usage

Ultimately, we will do a two-stage acclimation process. The first day we will introduce the dry yeast (EC1118) with GFPE, YM, a dextrose solution, yeastex and the beer about to be packaged. We will leave this yeast to acclimate at ~80F for ~24hours. The next day we will step up this yeast slurry with more dextrose solution and even more of the beer about to be packaged. We will then let this acclimate at ~80F for ~24hrs. This yeast is then ready to go for the packaging run. If you would like more details on this process and more of the theory of how we came up with this feel free to reach out.

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Joe Shubert
Hood River OR
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I've used CBC conditioning yeast for whiskey barrel aged RIS's from 10% to 14.5% with great success. The ABV was calculated OG -FG x .132 then .5% was added from the barrel.

 I make one Belgian Quad that uses TYB Belgian dry (liquid yeast) spent 8 mo's in barrel and carbed without extraneous yeast. It is a STA-1 POF+ type that stated 83%-100% ADF. I also use this in my meads. The POF can be controlled by  temperature,ie 68 pitch and hold for 2/3 sugar consumption,rise to 76* over 2-3 days and with all the other flavors going on it's hard to tell a Belgian yeast was used.  

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Michael Schaefgen
Mequon WI
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Hi Joe,
I can also vouch for Lalvin EC-1118.  Although champagne yeast has the reputation of high attenuation, the opposite is true.  It is terrible at fermenting complex sugars.  It will ferment all of your priming sugar and nothing but your priming sugar, and it's tolerant of a wide range of alcohol and pH.

If your pH is *super* low you might want to first prop it up in some halfway-acidified wort (like ph 3.6 or so) to acclimate it to the harsh conditions.

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Joe Grimm
Brooklyn NY
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I use Fermentis F-2 and have had good luck up to 10% ABV.  Haven't tried higher ABV than that.

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Derek Edinger
Head of Brewing Operations & Co-founder
Ardennes Brewing LLC
Geneva NY
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