Under-attenuated barleywine - what happened?

Here is my 5 gallon barleywine recipe ingredients:

14 lbs Maris Otter extract
2 lbs Rahr 2-row
0.5 lbs Crystal 40L
0.5 lbs Briess Chocolate
2 oz Columbus (whole hop) - at 60 mins
2 oz Centennial (whole hop) - 1 oz at 15 mins, 1 oz at 5 mins
2 packets Safale US-05

So I just bottled it after letting it age 5 months in secondary. When I tested the FG, it was way high and the beer was very sweet to the taste.

OG was 1.090 (was shooting for higher)
FG was 1.032 (wayyy too high)

This puts my ABV at 7.6% when I was shooting for closer to 10. This puts my attenuation around 63%.

Trying to figure out what happened.

I have some ideas of how to improve next time. Here are my thoughts so far:

• Use better yeast for higher abv - though US-05 has gotten my up to 9 before
• Aerate a second time after fermentation starts
• Use a lighter malt extract with more fermentables

Anyone else have any suggestions or input as to what might have gone wrong or what I can do to fix it? Am I on the right path for fixing it next time around with my above ideas?

Expecting when I drink it in six months for it to be cloyingly sweet... damn.

Never done a barelywine so this is all stuff that comes to mind from reading...not experience....

Mash temp?
Fermentation temp?
Pure oxygen is more important for bigger beers
S05 says 81% attenuation....any chance it was stuck? Did you try to revive it at all over the 5months? I would keep an eye on those bottles as the packaging process could restart primary fermentation and you could have some excitement

Ok...that's my list....

How long in the primary? Was the 1.032 SG from the primary or secondary? Are you using a refractometer or a hydrometer for SG?
How much yeast did you pitch?

I agree, mash temp is important to know. Last time I did a big barleywine, I mashed at 148 for something ridiculous like 2 hours.

Looks like you used mostly extract, so your really bound my how fermentable that extract is. However it should do better that 63%. My guess is that you didn't give it enough o2 and underpitched. According to the fermentis info sheet its 6x10^9 viable cells per gram at 11.5 grams per pack. Looks like you pitched 138 billion cells when you should be around 337 billion. Very important for big beers.

Also if you try again and have the same problem, you could swap out sugar for extract to get better attenuation

bassmang4 said:

Looks like you used mostly extract, so your really bound my how fermentable that extract is.

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I think this is the biggest issue for you. Also, a FG of 1.032 isn't way high for a barleywine, the FG range for the English Barleywine style in the BJCP guidelines goes up to 1.030, so its at the highend of the style, but not outrageous.

If your perception is that it is too sweet, that might also be addressed balancing it a little bit with increased bitterness.

Its a winter sipper, enjoy it for what it is!

Moose_MI said:

Did you try to revive it at all over the 5months?

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I did not, it went strong for 1.5 weeks before it started to settle. It really was a monster fermenter by sight.

flars said:

How long in the primary? Was the 1.032 SG from the primary or secondary? Are you using a refractometer or a hydrometer for SG?
How much yeast did you pitch?

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Just over 2 weeks in primary, 5 months in secondary. 1.032 was right before I bottled, after secondary - using hydrometer.

I pitched two 11.5g packs of Safale US-05, which was enough for a previous barleywine I made that went to 9% abv. Different malt extract though.

Pappers_ said:

I think this is the biggest issue for you. Also, a FG of 1.032 isn't way high for a barleywine, the FG range for the English Barleywine style in the BJCP guidelines goes up to 1.030, so its at the highend of the style, but not outrageous.

If your perception is that it is too sweet, that might also be addressed balancing it a little bit with increased bitterness.

Its a winter sipper, enjoy it for what it is!

Click to expand...

Yeah, I think next time I'll shoot for a more fermentable extract. I wanted to get some British character in there with the Maris Otter, was getting ambitious.

Maybe I'll taste it in 6 months and be like "duh, this tastes great" and this will all be moot. Thanks for pointing out the BJCP guidelines, made me feel a little better.

JonM said:

I agree, mash temp is important to know. Last time I did a big barleywine, I mashed at 148 for something ridiculous like 2 hours.

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This was primarily extract so that doesn't really apply for this situation. Next time I may just try a 2-3 gallon all grain version.

clingy said:

I did not, it went strong for 1.5 weeks before it started to settle. It really was a monster fermenter by sight.

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Ok....I missed the fact this was mostly extract so ignore the dumb q about mash temp

I'll bet it was just done.....but would still monitor for bottle bombs just in case

Did you rehydrate the yeast?

I actually made a starter with 2 packs of US-05 for my only barley wine. 1.102-1.026 in 2 months.

Schmoogdaddy said:

Did you rehydrate the yeast?

I actually made a starter with 2 packs of US-05 for my only barley wine. 1.102-1.026 in 2 months.

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Yeah I rehydrated.