Ive been aging some high abv beer in whiskey barrels for 3-5 months now and am getting ready to bottle the beer. I know that the yeast has all settled out and if there is any residual, its dormant or dead. I was looking to buy some Danstar CBC-1 Yeast (Cask Conditioning and Bottling Yeast) but can’t find it online anywhere…even there website. I haven’t used champagne yeast before and was wondering if it would work for bottling without drying out the beer. I do plan on reserving a good portion of the beers to taste over time. Does anyone have any suggestions or experiences that they could share?
champagne yeast should be fine. It won’t dry the beer out because it’s terrible at eating those complex malt sugars. If your beer yeast didn’t manage it the champagne won’t either. The bottling sugar on the other hand will not stand a chance with those little buggers. and they should not have a problem with the high ABV.
Prise de Mousse strains are the best to use (EC 1118 and Red Star Premier Cuvee). What you shouldn’t use are other yeasts for sparkling wine (like Cote des Blanc), or yeasts from the Champagne region that aren’t actually sparkling wine yeasts (like Pasteur Champagne). I’ve used those other two before and I got little krauesen rings in the necks of the bottles. They also don’t flocc very well.