Barleywine 1.145- 1.040?

My barleywine has slowed to a crawl. It's at 1.040 from 1.145. Thats pretty decent attenuation but a bigger FG than I've ever had before. I added a few drops of Beano several weaks ago and it didn't really help much. I haven't added any yeast nutrient in quit a while, should I add a bit more, or is 1.040 acceptable? I was hoping for 1.030. It's in the secondary and is 3 months old.

Hey JnB, That is a huge OG. I would think that you could get lower than that by pitching a champagne yeast. What type did you start out with? What was the recipe you used? Cheers

I don't know. You're looking at 70% AA and almost 14% abv, so your yeast might be maxed out.
Back in the day when they made those, I'm sure they'd have been happy with that TG. But then, they had different tastes, it would've aged awhile and developed some sourness, and would've been hopped to high hell in the first place, all so as to make that 1.040 less than hot syrup.
My suggestion would be taste it, and if you like it, great, and if you don't then throw a little Brett Brux and/or pediococcus in the carboy and leave it for six months in a not-too-cool place. Maybe throw away the stopper when you're done.

30 lbs of grain and nearly 90 IBU's. I'm going to try some more Beano and age a little longer. I still have some very slow bubbling. I wish I would have racked to secondary a little earlier to leave a little more active yeast in the carboy. I did taste it, it wasn't bad. It definately is too green to drink still.

I have a beer in my secondary that has a OG of 1.15, it is only at 1.045 as well! Was in primary for two months and is now sitting in secondary. Going to leave it there for a couple of months and see what happens.
Let me know how you get on.

Haggis

Physically shake the carboy?

On my stalled Maibock, I used Liquid Beano and 2 weeks later, I had no additional action, not a single bubble. Then I mashed up a Beano pill in sanitized and cooled water, stirred it up, dissolved it, tossed it in, and got action in a couple of days.

I can't say why, but the drops didn't work for me...

Then I mashed up a Beano pill in sanitized and cooled water, stirred it up, dissolved it, tossed it in, and got action in a couple of days.

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I suppose most guys would get more action if they used beano...

cweston said:

I suppose most guys would get more action if they used beano...

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Bada bing!

What kind of yeast did you start with? If you didn't use a high alcohol tolerant yeast then I don't think your gravity is going to get much lower with beano. As mentioned earlier your yeast are probably maxed out at 14% abv. Beano may increase the fermentability of the remaining sugars but if your yeast are too drunk to ferment them then your gravity won't drop much further. Adding a champagne yeast may help you reach the desired FG.

But congratulations on the truly epic OG!!!

I added a little more yeast nutrient, and I'm going to try Beano pills instead of drops. I am still getting slow bubbling. I was thinking about putting the carboy on my stir plate, wadda you think? I really think part of my problem was pulling the wort off the Large yeast cake too early. I'd like to avoid repitching, I've heard it can cause off flavors because of the lack of O2 and sugars. If I resuspend what little yeast I have with a stir plate it might help, yes/no?
Has anyone ever tried stir plating a carboy throughout the whole fermentation? I wonder how it would affect the finishing time?

Personally I don't like beano beer. But if you are into that you can use amylase enzyme instead.

Swirl the yeast in the carboy and maybe use some champagne yeast. Hydrate and pitch several packs.

What was your mash temp?

Mash temp was 150. My Yeast was a 1/2 gal starter of Cal Ale yeast WLP 001.

Update, Barleywine is resting now at 1.018 (1.145 OG) which calculates out at 18% ABV. I ended up repitching dry champagne yeast and the ferment took off again. I'll bottle in about 2 weeks. I'm not sure if I the patience for these long fermentations.

How about the patience till it's ready to drink. At that ABV, it will take months to mellow out.

Brewsmith said:

How about the patience till it's ready to drink. At that ABV, it will take months to mellow out.

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MONTHS? That sounds like a year or more.

Then again, at 18% it might take a few years to drink it all.

That's one huge beer. You're definitely looking at around a year for that to mellow enough to enjoy it. You might want to bottle in smaller bottles so that you don't get too sloshed too fast. Each 12 oz will be like having 4-5 BMC beers, so you'll want a friend to split it. Once it's mellowed out, send that thing in to a competition, blow the judges away with your mighty 18%!

Man, any idea of your IBU's?? I'd shiver to think of the alcohol taste in that without mondo hop balance!

90 IBU's by Pro Mash. Magnum, Cascade and Amarillo. I figured it would need aged at least a year. I'll try it before that for sure, maybe slip a glass to the wife

I'm not surprised WLP-001 hit the wall. I've found that pitching champagne at the same time as the base yeast works really well for very big beers. Make a starter from the base yeast and just re-hydrate the champagne yeast. The base yeast will do most of the work relatively quickly, and by then the champagne yeast is ready to finish the job.

Not that it will speed up the aging process. My 2003 just keeps getting better and the 2005 should be three years old before I tap it.

Eeek. I just bottled mine yesterday. Figured that if it had not moved OG in 5 weeks then it was done! Still at 1.045. Starting of 1.115.
Bottle bombs?

Champagne yeast is unstoppable!! My gravity is down to 1.010 . It tastes nice too. 18.27 ABV.

Jeepsn beer said:

Champagne yeast is unstoppable!! My gravity is down to 1.010 . It tastes nice too. 18.27 ABV.

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SWEET FANCY MOSES! That's the biggest beer that I've ever heard of!

ohiobrewtus said:

SWEET FANCY MOSES! That's the biggest beer that I've ever heard of!

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Check this one out.

ohiobrewtus said:

SWEET FANCY MOSES!

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SEINFELD RULES! Oh, and great news that your brew's gravity is dropping so nicely.

I just bottled a barleywine that was 1.112 and finished at 1.022 also 196 IBU's. I used US-05. I mashed at 149 for 3 hours to get a very fermentable wort. Uncarbed and green it was awsome.

god 196 ibus you can strip tarnish of of brass with that.

196 WOW! I just had a Dogfishhead 120 minute IPA that was way too much for my pansie ass, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't any where near 196 IBU's.

Once you hit about 100 they don;t really count anymore. Something regarding how much the beer can actually take. I'm sure if I wasn't lazy I could look it up.

Denny's Evil Concotions said:

Once you hit about 100 they don;t really count anymore. Something regarding how much the beer can actually take. I'm sure if I wasn't lazy I could look it up.

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I thought it was a question of the tongue not being able to perceive anything much beyond 100IBU's. The question I have is if the bitterness seemingly fades as a barleywine(or whatever) ages over time, will the higher IBU hold up longer than the lower IBU beer( that originally tastes as bitter as the 100+ IBU beer)? Does that make sense?

You got 14% alcohol and 70% attenuation.
I don't think you could ask for much more, unless you use champagne or wine yeast.
I'd worry big time about off flavors though.

Um, I'd be worried about an 18+% beer that had "only" 96 IBU. And I've found, in the past, that ProMash usually says something is going to be more bitter than it ends up, which would worry me even more.

Not to worry you or anything, but this brew might end up a little "hot"---IOW, the alchohol component will stick out more than the hops or malt.

There is a point where the oils will no longer isomerise cause the beer becomes too saturated. There's probably a fancy term for this.. but I don;t remember it.

This brew was "just for the hell of it", It was good experience for any future strong beers I might do. The samples I've takin have been pretty good. I couldn't taste or smell any fusils, which was my biggest worry. I bottled friday at 1.011. I'll give it a try in about 3 weeks.

Well at least you have a good anti-chloresterol beer.... good excuse for drinking I would say. lol

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/6/7/141304.shtml


And while there is a saturation point at which the hops will no loner isomorise.. you'll get other goodness from them. It's complicated and requires better memory recall than what I have.

I've been searching through old threads about barleywines just for fun and i ran across this one. It's been well over a year, nearly two since this beer was brewed. any comments Jeepsn beer?

yeah, I did the same thing -getting ready to start my first ag (building my rig this next weekend) and while a barleywine won't be my first ag, it will be relatively soon (next several months) and found this thread. I'm floored by the OGs listed, and just dying to try it. So its had time to mature, how did it turn out??

dibby33 said:

Eeek. I just bottled mine yesterday. Figured that if it had not moved OG in 5 weeks then it was done! Still at 1.045. Starting of 1.115.
Bottle bombs?

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They did not turn out as bottle bombs. I still have a case of them left and they are lovely! Going to brew another batch when I get the time. Strange seeing my post after all this time

I'm shocked your yeast held up that well with such a small starter (1/2 gallon) for such an enormous beer. I think you could have used 2-4 times as many yeast cells as you ultimately pitched.