Barleywine blowoff

So I made my first barleywine attempt on Tuesday. It was a partial mash with 13 lbs of grain and 6 lbs of dme. OG came out to be 1.098, which was about 7 points off my target. I am still trying to optimize my BIAB system and boil off rate so I was ok with this. Basically a little extra went into the fermenter even after boiling an extra half hour.

I pitched onto a pale ale yeast cake of wlp001, added a little yeast nutrient and the thing took off like a rocket. It's settled to the point where I can remove the blowoff tube, but I've lost about a gallon of beer in the process.

I've read about things that help with blowoff (ferm cap?) but wasn't sure if they would work with a beer this big or how much to add in the future. Any suggestions?

Cheers

Chans

Keeping the temp down with putting your carboy in a container of cold water with alternating frozen water bottles will help a lot. That's what I did with a barleywine recently, although I still lost probably a quart or two from blowoff anyways! Maybe that's just part of the fun!

Yes, controlling fermentation temps can help slow the reaction down a bit. Fermcap is a liquid, food safe anti-foaming agent that will work well to help limit the size of your krausen. I add one drop per gallon during the boil to help control the hot break and add two drops per gallon in the fermenter. Just drip it into your wort at any time, even during peak krausen. It works well.

I place my blowoff tube above the fermenter so less liquid is lost due to gravity. Works for me.

Is there any issue with keeping your temps too low? I fermented this one between 68 and 70 and just let it go because I was worried that fermenting cold like I usually do might result in lower attenuation. Has anyone ever experienced this problem in temp controlling a barleywine?

As long as you're at the low end of the temp range, you're fine. Cool early ferm is good, then raise to the higher end of the ferm range to finish it and hit FG. Cool towards the end is when you may not get full attenuation.