Champagne Yeast to carbonate barleywine

dzamba · Jan 16, 2009

I heard that some barleywines will not carbonate well with priming sugar alone, and that some brewers use champagne yeast to carbonate it. How does this work? Do I add the yeast to the bottling bucket while I'm racking... and do I still use priming sugar?

jkarp · Jan 16, 2009

I did it with my barleywine last year after it aged in the secondary for 5 months. Came out perfect, but you've got to be careful. Be damn sure you really did hit your target FG or you could end up with bottle bombs when the champagne yeast kicks in.

I just added a half pack of hydrated yeast to the bottling bucket along with the priming sugar.

smizak · Jan 16, 2009

jkarp said:
I did it with my barleywine last year after it aged in the secondary for 5 months. Came out perfect, but you've got to be careful. Be damn sure you really did hit your target FG or you could end up with bottle bombs when the champagne yeast kicks in.

I just added a half pack of hydrated yeast to the bottling bucket along with the priming sugar.

I second that warning, make SURE your intial yeast has done it's job as thoroughly as possible. Agitate the carboy and raise your temp a little if you can, just to be sure.

vespa2t · Jan 16, 2009

yes, Champagne yeast works great for carb'ing a high grav brew. Imparts almost no flavor. I pitch it right in the bottling bucket prior to bottling. I let it hydrate for about 30min in some disolved DME first...Works fantastic.

dzamba · Jan 16, 2009

I wasn't following a recipe for this one. SG was 1.090 got it down to 1.020 and racked to secondary last night. Maybe it'll go down a little more. I'll bottle next weekend (if possible) with the champagne yeast.
Thanks for the advice.

Paco · Aug 26, 2009

So assuming the FG is fully reached, the champagne yeast won't work more on the remaining (unfermentable) sugar, correct?

Herky21 · Oct 2, 2012

To avoid bottle bombs, couldn't you just add the champagne yeast a week or so before bottling? The champagne yeast would be able to finish out any sugars and would still be in suspension to create carbonation.

Champagne Yeast to carbonate barleywine

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