Repitching After Freezing

[SnowGoon99]

So it got insanely cold here in Maine over the past few days and my Rauchbier froze a little bit. I was planning on bottling tomorrow. Going over HTB, John advises repitching with new yeast. So should i repitch into the fermenter or the bottling bucket? If the fermenter, should i let it sit a couple days before i bottle? Should i make a starter? Any advice would be helpful.

[Jbug]

Is your beer at terminal gravity? If it is and you're ready to bottle, I would dump the yeast in the bottling bucket atop your beer... Stir well with a sanitized spoon... You don't need very much yeast to bottle condition ( like less than a quarter of a white labs vial ) hope this helps!

[SnowGoon99]

So then do i want to go with say S-23 dry yeast instead of WLP 830 to save some cash? Especially if i'm going to waste a vial by only pitching 1/4.

[Jbug]

Yeah using the dry yeast should be fine, I would just rehydrate it... Pitch as much as you want... I really wouldn't use a package of yeast that's been open in my fridge for a few days so I'd pitch the whole thing...

[brewinhard]

I like to use a cheap dry yeast packet like Lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast. It costs under $1 for 5 grams and is alchohol tolerant, flocculates well, and quickly bottle conditions beers (under 1 wk). Just be sure to rehydrate it properly, then add it to the BOTTOM of your bottling bucket along with your priming sugar and rack your beer on top carefully, no stirring required.

Just be sure to let your EIS-rauchbeer warm up a bit to room temps before bottling so you don't shock the freshly added yeast.