[erockrph]

Also, if my fermentation is done and has not gone further, after transferring and conditioning in secondary, do I need to add any yeast before bottling given the size of this beer? Want to make sure that there is enough to work with to bottle condition.

It wouldn't hurt to add a little yeast at bottling as insurance. There's no telling what condition your yeast will be in. It could be fine, it could be sluggish. A quarter pack of US-05 should be more than enough.

[kramerog]

For insurance purposes, I would use a wine yeast because its cheap ($0.50 for 5 g), tolerates high levels of alcohol, and won't ferment out the remaining complex sugars.

[nicosan1]

How about Distiller's Yeast?

[morticaixavier]

How about Distiller's Yeast?

that would likely be more attenuative of complex sugars I would think, could be wrong. The benefit of using wine yeast is that is selected for easting simple fructose/glucose while brewers yeast (and I suspect distillers yeast) strains are more selected for the complex sugars found in malt based wort/beer.

So if your beer is at all underattenuated, by adding wine yeast you are less likely to have further fermentation beyond the priming sugar (simple sugar). that's the idea.

[kramerog]

I'm guessing the distiller's yeast is for secondary fermentation to drive the F.G. down.  Agreed that it would not be a good choice as a bottling yeast unless you had already fermented with distiller's yeast.

[tschmidlin]

A distiller I spoke with recently recommended not using distillers yeast for anything but vodka.  He said they use ale yeast for their whiskey because the off flavors from distillers yeast come through even after distilling.  Based on that, I would not use it for carbonation.

[morticaixavier]

I tried the beers white labs was sampling out at NHC that they brewed with their line of distillers yeast, whisky specific yeasts according to the marketing, and none of them seemed in anyway over attenuated. I suspect distillers yeast, while they may have a higher alcohol tolerance don't actually attenuate any better (within a range of variation).

[denny]

A distiller I spoke with recently recommended not using distillers yeast for anything but vodka.  He said they use ale yeast for their whiskey because the off flavors from distillers yeast come through even after distilling.  Based on that, I would not use it for carbonation.

In addition to the fact that it just isn't necessary!

[nicosan1]

at this point I am just going to transfer to the secondary. Even though I used London Ale yeast packets for fermentation, should I add any yeast in secondary, like say one more pack of Wyeast London or a dry pack of Safale US 5 to ensure carbonation when I bottle condition? 

[morticaixavier]

at this point I am just going to transfer to the secondary. Even though I used London Ale yeast packets for fermentation, should I add any yeast in secondary, like say one more pack of Wyeast London or a dry pack of Safale US 5 to ensure carbonation when I bottle condition?

yeah, it is cheap insurance. I would stick with some of the London ale for reasons of relative attenuation discussed above. You could save yourself a few bucks and pull a little slurry from the bottom of the primary and use that as your extra yeast. Or just be less careful about racking clean beer only and get a little yeast carryover. Or use KramerOg's suggestion of cheap dry wine yeast.

I also question the decision to move to secondary vs. just bottling now. I have tried it both ways and I'm not convinced there is a huge flavor difference between bulk ageing and bottle ageing.