Poor little Barleywine

Started out as a Northern Brewer High Gravity, but found herself the lucky recipient of 1.75lbs of honey in primary and 3.3 lbs of LME in her boil. Sweet little thing fermented steadily for 31 days in primary with a little swirling action to rouse her yeasties. Now that she reclines in secondary after changing from 104 to 61, I wonder how to get her to go down a little more. Tastes absolutely sweet due to the addition of WLP060 and 1056 . I know.... weird combination, but the 060 did nothing after 24 hours so I pitched 1056. Temps were never over 68 so fermentation was slow and steady. She's at about 5.7% ABV but I'd like to coax a little more alcohol out of her. Any suggestions? Pitch dry champagne yeast plus a little yeast nutrient on top? Now I see about 1 bubble per 2 minutes in secondary and I can easily leave her there for another month. Actually, I could bottle now and be really happy with the taste, just want a higher ABV. Greedy bastard aren't I?

I'd make a starter of a high gravity yeast with some nutrient. An OG of 1.104 makes it difficult for the yeast to grow and process the sugars. Next time you do something like this, you might consider adding the honey & extra LME after the initial ferment is almost done. Another technique I was introduced to recently is to put the honey & LME in the bottom of the fermenter, add the aerated wort, then pitch without stirring. The honey will slowly dissolve & be consumed without stressing the yeast so much.

you can also boil the honey full bore... it will still stay sweet

try some champaigne or white wine yeast. also the white labs dry english ale yeast ferments nice at high gravity and clears the beer nicely.

make a big starter

Don't bottle now, whatever you do! Bottle-bombs, you know.

Thanks for the advice. Will pitch a nice sized starter of Super High Gravity soon. I'm in no hurry with this one, I can wait as long as it can. Got an IPA in primary and am slowly sipping my first coffee stout.