Bottle Conditioning High ABV beers

[Jammybstard]

If you've read this before I've already asked on Jims but didnt get a single answer. I don't know if anyone here's got any experience of this.

I had a demijon of Double IPA; the alcohol content would be up at between 9% and 10%.
The yeast was US-05 and it worked very well finishing at 1.011.
I had it conditioning at 3'C for a week, it cleared up nicely and I racked to bottle.
I bottled with the usual flat tsp of sugar per bottle. and have left it at room temperature.

Do you thing there be any yeast left in suspension to carbonate?

The other option of was to add bottling yeast, but chucking fresh yeast into 10% ABV I worry would probably kill them?

 

[markp]

I would say that there probably will be enough yeast left to carbonate the brew....it might just tale a little longer.
My personal experience with US05 is that it isn't particularly flocculant.....I've transferred a brew to a secondary after 10 days in the primary, left it for a week so and then crash cooled to about 5 degrees for 3 days or so...then transferred to a corny. The beer looked very clear on racking to the corny, but when the keg was drunk I still found a nice thin yeast sediment on the bottom.

So, give it time and think you will be fine.
Good yeast choice for the style too, US05 is really clean

 

[rickthebrew]

I would imagine it would be fine, i`ve used us-05 with brews over 7% with no problems :thumb: Sounds like an interesting brew - what was your recipe?

 

[Jammybstard]

I would imagine it would be fine, i`ve used us-05 with brews over 7% with no problems :thumb: Sounds like an interesting brew - what was your recipe?

Complicated!

It started life as my new Centenial Amber IPA, which still needs work:

Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.50 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 72.00 %
0.75 kg Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 12.00 %
0.25 kg Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.00 %
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 4.00 %
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4.00 %
0.25 kg Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.00 %
10.00 gm Magnum - 12 months old [8.00 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 7.7 IBU
5.00 gm Magnum - 12 months old [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 3.5 IBU
25.00 gm Centennial - Barley Bottom - AA 11.5% [11.50 %] (60 min) Hops 25.3 IBU
15.00 gm Centennial - Barley Bottom - AA 11.5% [11.50 %] (45 min) Hops 13.9 IBU
20.00 gm Centennial - Barley Bottom - AA 11.5% [11.50 %] (30 min) Hops 15.6 IBU
10.00 gm Centennial - Barley Bottom - AA 11.5% [11.50 %] (20 min) Hops 6.1 IBU
15.00 gm Centennial - Barley Bottom - AA 11.5% [11.50 %] (10 min) Hops 5.5 IBU
25.00 gm Centennial - Barley Bottom - AA 11.5% [11.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.15 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
Safale US-05 (DCL Yeast #US-05) Yeast-Ale

which made just under 23 L after the losses
Measured Original Gravity: 1.060 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 6.39 %
Bitterness: 77.7 IBU

I Corny kegged 19L and moved the rest, about 3L to a demijon to play with.

Dry Hopped after two weeks of primary Fermentation 5g of Chinook
40g Light DME added after two weeks of primary Fermentation when Grav = 1.011 (Adjusted OG 1.065)
50g Light DME added after two days of secondry fermentation; (Adjusted OG 1.071)
75g Light DME added after four days of secondry fermentation; (Adjusted OG 1.081)
Dry hopped after one week of secondary Fermentation 5g of Chinook
50g Dextrose after one week of secondary Fermentation; (Adjusted OG 1.087) to dry it out.
Dry hopped after two weeks of secondary Fermentation 5g of Chinook and into Cold Conditioning

I roused the yeast and hops as often as i could during the secondry by swirling the DJ; US-05 is a beast, it just kept going and going

Est Original Gravity: 1.087 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Est ABV 9.9%

It's all a bit of an experiment but the couple of sips I had when I bottled seemed pretty good but hard to be sure as it was ice cold.