Q2XL

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I brewed my first barley wine on June 4th, 2009. It has been in the secondary, covered in the basement since that time at about an average temp of 65-70F. I am ready to bottle it soon. My question is should I add more of the same yeast that I used at brewing time to help aid in conditioning? I know there is yeast in there but I am not sure of what the proper procedure is on a beer aging in the secondary for so long. Any help would be appreciated.

rsmith179

Recipes 

I can say that it honestly would not hurt to add a new packet of yeast into your batch right before bottling. Throw in a packet of yeast and priming sugar into your bottling bucket and then rack the beer on top. There's no doubt that there are still yeast in your batch, but is there enough to properly carb your beer? Maybe not. Especially after a prolonged secondary in higher alcohol conditions.

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Sedge

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While it might be a good thing to add some yeast back to the bottling bucket, you may not want to throw in the whole packet. A packet of dry yeast contains a crapload of cells. They'll only eat the priming sugars you throw in so you'll have carbonation control, but without knowing how much yeast is already in solution you might be contributing to a future half inch yeast bed at the bottom of every bottle.

If you have access to a 400x microscope you could take a look and find out what's there.

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jescholler

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I just brewed a barleywine last weekend, so I'll be dealing with this in the next couple of months. I was listening to the Jamil Show on English Barleywine where he recommended adding half a pack/vial of yeast (assuming liquid) for conditioning. He also says that's the rate that Sierra Nevada bottle conditions with. Here's the link (go to 35:45):

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The-Jamil-Show/English-Barleywine-The-Jamil-Show-07-16-07

As far as the type of yeast, I haven't seen/heard any information. I think that you would be pretty safe to condition with the original yeast. You might not want to bottle with a less flocculant yeast since it would take away from the clarity. Let us know how that works. I'm particularly curious since I'll be doing this in about 3 months.

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david_42

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Since you will be priming with sugar, you could add a cheap packet of wine yeast just to be on the safe side.

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DrinksWellWithOthers

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I bottled a 10.5% barleywine a few months ago and added a rehydrated pack of US05 after it sat in secondary for 6-7 months. No problems here, carbed up just fine.

Dalarast

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Well I think the next brew to purchase will be a Barleywine.. can't wait to be in your guys situation!

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JLem

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I used only ~1 gram of dry yeast (cheap, Munton's ale yeast) when I bottled a 3 gallon batch of barley wine and it carbed up perfect. I bottled 5 months after brewing and had racked several times.

I wouldn't pitch an entire packet - you'll end up with quite a bit of yeast sediment in the bottles and I would be afraid it could affect the flavor - especially if you're going to age some bottles for a while.

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denimglen

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I'll be coming up on this in a few months, and was wondering a few things as well.

Are there any worries here with a different yeast attenuating out more than the original yeast?

Also, I read somewhere about over-carbing due to the yeast slowly consuming the longer chain sugars. Does this happen, or just another one of those homebrew myths?

JLem

Recipes 

I can't speak to this directly, but I only added enough priming sugar to carb to 1.8 volumes, which is pretty low. At that level I am not worried about overcarbing even if the yeast consume the longer chain sugars eventually and/or the yeast attenuate well. If those things happen, my carbonation may jump up a few tenths of a volume, but will still be just fine.

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