Barleywine - Double pitch dry or pitch on cake

Hey all. Noob here. Currently have a porter in primary fermentor that has been in about 3 weeks, and will be bottling soon. It was a kit and came with Coopers ale yeast. Ordered the American Barleywine kit form AHS without yeast. Which do you think would be a better option for the barleywine kit. Pitch directly on current cake from the porter or pitch 2 packs of 11g Notty which I can get cheap locally?

It sounds like this barleywine is your second-ever batch, no? Before tackling the higher-ABV brews like that, I would strongly recommend doing some research/reading on yeast starters. You can search the forums here or even just do a Google search about them, but essentially it's the practice of giving the yeast a little appetizer in a smaller container to help them grow and multiply before they sit down for the big feast of malt you're about to give them in your carboy.

The simple answer is that both of your options would probably work. The Coopers Ale Yeast might be a more appropriate strain for the barley wine than Nottingham - taste the porter when you bottle it, if you like it then go with the yeast cake!

Either way, be ready for some seriously vigorous fermentation which is always awesome to watch, but you'll have a much higher-than-normal chance of blowoff and/or temps increasing.

Hey, thanks for the replies. The barleywine would be my third batch. Have an IPA in bottles that come out really nice for a first attempt. Porter is second batch. The reson I was thinking about the Notty is becasue that was the dry yeast option on the AHS site for that kit and from what I've read seems to be a pretty versitile yeast, and somewhat forgiving of warmer temps. Sounds like either option (double notty or pitch on cake) would work. I am using a 7.9 gallon bucket fermentor instead of the 6.5. Figured that would give me more headspace and options to brew some bigger beers with less chance of an accident requiring cleanup.

I'd say cake. I'd also bet that you lose a good deal of that beer to blowoff unless you pitch cold. I lost a third of mine. Exploded in my chest freezer. Pitched onto cake.

Also, yeast finished too early and left me with some acetaldehyde that took years (literally) to go away. Then it didn't carb (I had to uncap and add yeast).

Good luck.

I've never used Cooper's dry yeast. Do you know what kind of attenuation it has?

I just did a RIS with 2 packages of Notty and it fermented out from 1.120 to 1.022 within a week. Because of that, I can attest to Notty working wonders on high gravity beers.

pitch directly!!! cheaper and usually results in more complex flavors

Hey....Thanks agian for the input. As suspected, getting differnt opinions, but sounds like either option will do OK. Leaning toward the double Notty as it sounds like more of a chance of blow off pitching on the cake. Don't want to lose beer to blow off if possible.

I'm fermetning in 7.9 gallon bucket with standard drilled, grometted hole for airlock. Is this hole big enough for a blowoff tube or will it just clog up. On the two previous batches, never got bubbles in airlock, but certainly got krausen, so guessing the bucket lid doesn't seal properly. Lid doesn't really snap on, just sits there, but it does have a rubber o-ring. My guess is that an overly active ferment will just kind of lift the lid off and run down the bucket. Should be fun in any case.

Here are some links I found on Dry yeast properties

http://brewery.org/library/dryale.html

http://salinabrewersguild.com/SBG-Yeast 101.pdf

I should have mentioned that I ran pure O2 into the wort after cooling. Between that and the cake, I was doomed. Live and learn.

I should have mentioned that I ran pure O2 into the wort after cooling. Between that and the cake, I was doomed. Live and learn.

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Sounds like you created "The Perfect Storm" of fermentation.

I say double pack of notty. coopers yeast isn't very good

You also can stick a piece of hose right in the grommet and run it to a jar of sanitizer or some use cheap vodka. Just make sure it is a good fit and don't put it in more than a half inch. Or you can stick the hose onto the airlock if it fits good.

Generally you shouldnt pitch directly on a yeast cake. You should rinse those yeasties. You really just want to pitch healthy young yeast.

Id make a starter frim the dry yeast. Use the yeast calculator at mrmalty.com to figure out how big you should make it.