Adding yeast at bottling

[huskerbrew]

Having never done this, is there a guideline for how much yeast to add at bottling for proper carbonation and conditioning? I'm assuming that there isn't enough viable yeast after a lengthy secondary in a very high gravity brew. Do I just dump a new vial or smack pack in the bottling bucket or what? Also, can it be a neutral strain like cal ale or does it need to be the same as the fermentation strain? Could I use US-05? If so, how much? I usually just fill from the keg, but I'd like to try to condition the traditional way. Anyone have any tips?

[yellowcolumbia]

Having never done this, is there a guideline for how much yeast to add at bottling for proper carbonation and conditioning? I'm assuming that there isn't enough viable yeast after a lengthy secondary in a very high gravity brew. Do I just dump a new vial or smack pack in the bottling bucket or what? Also, can it be a neutral strain like cal ale or does it need to be the same as the fermentation strain? Could I use US-05? If so, how much? I usually just fill from the keg, but I'd like to try to condition the traditional way. Anyone have any tips?

You can use whatever yeast you want. With the amount of sugar that they are going to be consuming, you won't be getting much flavor from them anyway. I typically use a sachet of nottingham yeast.
Since you have access to a keg, skip the bottleing bucket and minimize the oxygen exposure. Mix the priming sugar and yeast into a keg with the beer. Seal it up and shake it around to mix it all up, then fill the bottles using whatever keg-to-bottle system you use. Since the beer isn't carbonated (much) you won't have to worry about foaming.

[Cliff]

A neutral Champagne yeast might be interesting.
Tiny bubbles

[brewinhard]

If you have a high gravity brew on your hands then you will want to add fresh yeast at packaging. I use Lalvin EC-1118 dry champagne yeast. It's alcohol tolerant, can ferment well in acidic environments, and is very neutral. Plus they only cost about a buck and are cheaper than fermentis and others.

[huskerbrew]

Good point on the dry champagne yeast. Cheaper and better suited. Thanks guys!