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Carbonation of a barrel aged RIS

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2019 1:55 pm
by LouieMacGoo
As some of you may recall my HBC obtained a fresh Four Roses Bourbon Barrel that we filled with a RIS in January 2018. On March 23 we will be racking the RIS out and refilling the barrel with a Wee Heavy.

Not having done a barrel aged beer before it's my understanding that the RIS is going to be flat coming out and I don't believe that the yeast will be active/viable to bottle condition/carbonate it so it will need to force carbed. Is this a correct assumption?

My plan is to rack to my corny keg, force carbonate it then use a beer gun to bottle some for long term storage.

I welcome any thoughts or ideas on this process or any other options.

Re: Carbonation of a barrel aged RIS

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2019 2:09 pm
by Beer-lord
Don't take my word for it but I think you can add some dry yeast at bottling time and then some sugar but if you already keg, that's the way to do it.
I've read that some people blend with another beer but that's too much work and would very likely change the character I think.
Should we plan a trip to your place to makes sure this is done correctly?

Re: Carbonation of a barrel aged RIS

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:26 pm
by LouieMacGoo
Paul you know ya'll are always welcome. We've got an amazing craft beer scene here in Michigan right now.

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk

Re: Carbonation of a barrel aged RIS

Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2019 12:04 am
by mashani
Sugar +

A cask conditioning yeast like Lallemande CBC-1. Honestly, this is really specifically what CBC-1 is for, it would be a great choice.

OR Another option is T-58. T-58 is used commercially as bottle conditioning strain. It won't add flavor and it makes very little bottle trub when used this way.

OR a Champaign yeast will work fine too.