Aging a Strong Scotch

[Mike C-Z]

A few days after x-mas we brewed a strong scotch. It was in primary for two weeks, but now in a 5 gallon glass carboy. Is there a maximum amount of time to leave it in the carboy before bottling? It is sitting in the corner of our basement right now. It is not temp. controlled. Thanks in advance.

[brewd00d]

I have left beers in 2ndary for a few months with no problems. One was a high-gravity Belgian and I was a bit worried about the health of the yeast after slogging through a high grav. beer and then sitting at basement temp. for months w/o being fed, so I added a bit of dry yeast when I bottled and it carbonated very nicely.

[ericburnley]

+1 to what brewd00d said. I had a barleywine that sat in secondary for about 6 months before bottling. If you have something age in bulk like that for a couple months or more, adding yeast at bottling would serve you well- doesn't have to be the same strain, could be a pack of US-05 or Nottingham or something since the flavor/aroma contributions of the bottling yeast would be pretty much nonexistant.

[scottt]

I'm in the same boat. I brewed a braggot back in October. It started at 1.107, and was at 1.030 a month later. I've let it sit untouched for a couple months (it's not laziness - it's "bulk aging"! ) but I think it's time I did something with it. Either move to tertiary or bottle. I've never made a braggot before and I'm not sure how low it should go.


I have the same concerns about yeast since it's 10% alcohol. How much dry yeast would one add at bottling?

[drewseslu]

I have carboys full of Wheatwine that have been in there for over a year and I'm not in the least bit concerned.
They will require more yeast at bottling, however.

[ericburnley]

I have the same concerns about yeast since it's 10% alcohol. How much dry yeast would one add at bottling?

Scott, if it's 5 gallons, I'd think 1 packet is probably fine, to be safe. Nottingham should probably work, and is cheap. Not sure if half a pack would do it- what do others think?

I'm guessing here, but i'd think even in the higher alcohol environment you've got, since you're pitching fresh corn sugar (easily fermentable) and fresh yeast (dry packet, possibly rehydrated, but not necessarily), the yeast wouldn't have a problem taking care of the sugar and carbonating it in a couple weeks. If you were trying to rely on the same yeast that made the beer to carbonate, that's where you'd have potential for trouble. Especially since they've been sitting in that high alcohol environment since probably November.

A year ago, i did a Belgian Dark Strong with 3787 and didn't add yeast at bottling; it carbonated, but it took almost a month. I probably should've pitched some additional bottling yeast.

[BeerGuy]

I have the same concerns about yeast since it's 10% alcohol. How much dry yeast would one add at bottling?

Scott, if it's 5 gallons, I'd think 1 packet is probably fine, to be safe. Nottingham should probably work, and is cheap. Not sure if half a pack would do it- what do others think?

I think a whole packet of yeast is way overkill. One of the big packets of dry lager yeast (15g packet?) usually lasts me 10+ batches. I think a gram or so of rehydrated yeast does the job very well, even in high alcohol beers.

BTW, the process of adding fresh yeast at packaging time is called reseeding.