Not sure what to do about this mess.

Hello all, so I brewed a Barley wine and had it in primary for 4 weeks. Then I transfered it to a 5 gallon carboy. The problem was (and still is) that the carboy was way too big for the amount of barley wine I had (not sure what happened. I brewed a 5 gallon batch).
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Here is a picture of it on the day I transferred it (4 weeks ago):

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i250/endofnight/DSC03391.jpg

Now it has been sitting in secondary with quite a bit of yeast on the bottom for 4 weeks.

First question: WHAT SHOULD I DO? should I buy a 3 gallon carboy and transfer it.

Question two: Did I just ruin the barley wine with off flavors from too much head space and all that yeast on the bottom?

Would appreciate any information.

Please help with my crisis. Trying to RDWHAHB!

I do not think this is a problem. So long as the airlock still shows signs of having positive pressure coming out of the carboy, I wouldn't worry about it.

Your main problem if this was not the case would be oxygen pickup, otherwise your head space is not going to cause you any problems.

Too much yeast on the bottom could potentially cause flavour issues, but unlikely.

If I read you correctly this has been sitting for 8 weeks?

it's fine. leave it alone.

I think I'd be nervous about that much headspace. If you have some co2, you could flush it with co2 and that would help to minimize oxidation.

If I had that much headspace, I'd bottle the beer and age it in the bottle.

Ashtray, 4 weeks in primary and yes, 4 weeks in glass carboy.

+1 to Yooper

Dont' transfer to another carboy, that is only going to add more chance for oxygenating your BW.

Ok, sounds good. I'll bottle it. Is there something special I need to do? like add yeast to the bottling bucket or something?

I've never done a barley wine before. I want to do it right.

Thanks!

I would add hydrate some us-05 to give it a boost if it was myself doing it

Thanks Bensiff. Let me explain what I did so I know If I'm doing the right thing.

Had it in primary for 3 weeks. My FG was 1.030. Beer Calculus estimated an FG of 1.027.

So somebody told me on here to try and get FG down by adding more yeast.

So I added one more packet of dry yeast (sprinkled on top).

Waited one week. The FG stayed the same. transferred to secondary. It has been sitting there for 4 weeks.

So the barley wine sat in primary for 4 weeks and secondary for 4 weeks now.

Should I still add some us-05 to it? Also, when should I add it? to the bottling bucket? Mix it in with my priming sugar? Wait until the bottling bucket is full?

Would appreciate any more info. Thanks!

+1 for aging in the bottle over the carboy if it's been sitting for 2 months.

I would add more yeast for bottle conditioning, because your original yeast is probably stressed or dead depending on the ABV and OG, which I don't see listed.

Adding more yeast to drop the FG was IMHO totally unnecessary. Once your fermentable sugars are gone, they're gone. Brewers yeast does not ferment dextrins no matter how much of it there is. Now if you added some limit-dextrinase, you could convert all the dextrins to smaller chain sugars and get a very low FG. However this is probably undesirable, as it will make the beer thinner, boozier, and less rich in flavour.

I would add the yeast into the bottling bucket instead of the priming sugar. Going from a dry state into a high sugar solution causes osmotic shock. This is why most dry yeast companies recommend re-hydrating in water, and not wort.

Good luck, I bet your beer is just fine.

Thanks Ashtray! My estimated OG was 1.106

When I took my first reading I had an OG of 1.100

there was an estimated ABV of 10.5%

When I did the math I didnt hit that. I think I only achieved about 9-9.5%

Sorry to analyze this to death but do I...

pour the re-hydrated yeast into the bottling bucket before I dump the beer in? After? does it matter?

Also, Why no priming sugar? I knw you said be cause of osmotic shock but how am I supposed to carbonate this beer. I realize that Barley wines have very low to no carbonation. will this be fine?

Thanks again!

You have the beer in a carboy and the liquid is under a blanket of co2 from the yeast. You can leave it that way for some time. When I rack a big beer, I usually add a few tbsp of corn sugar boiled in water as insurance of producing a blanket of co2. Probably not necessary but it gives me peace of mind. Have not had an oxidized big beer yet.