What do I do about an over efficient barleywine??

Today I made a barleywine, and did my first overnight mash. Well, sort of. I started it at 4am and mashed out at 8am. I sparged 6 gal into my boil pot and started it for 2 hours. I also took an additional 2.5 gal and boiled it down to 1.5 gal and added that to the large boil pot at the 1 hour mark. At the end of the boil I had my target 5 gal. I just checked my starting gravity and its at 1.12. My target was 1.09-1.1. This will put me at approximately 14% abv if it attenuates all the way, and I really didn't want that. Should I just add some water to the carboy to try to water it down a bit? I can probably fit 3/4 of a gal in there, or maybe a little more. Its on a cake of US-05 and its doing very well so far! I used 20.5 lbs of grain and according to my calculations that puts me at close to 100% efficiency. I know thats not right because the runnings were still at 1.022 when I stopped sparging. Maybe my hydrometer is a little excited?

are you calculating your mash efficiency using your SG of 1.12? if you are, you're calculating wrong. you have to use your gravity PRE boil. Or maybe I am just reading your post wrong. I hope this helps

100% efficiency would put you at 1.145. You got about 83% efficiency, which definitely puts you at the very high end of the barley wine style. US-05 should peter out around 12% alcohol, which puts you at 1.030 or so.

If you add .75 gal, you'll get an OG of 1.104, and a FG of 1.026, which is a bit better. 10.5% alcohol. Even a quarter gallon will help bring you much more in style (1.114, 1.029, and 11.5%)

Awesome, thanks for the replies. I just use the free recipe calculator on Powersbrewery.com and I apparently did something wrong! I'll add some water tomorrow and hopefully that will take care of it.

Couldn't you just let it go until you hit the gravity you want, then add campden tablets? Let it mellow in the primary for a bit, then re-pitch yeast for bottle conditioning? Someone please correct me if I'm talking outta my @$$.

wyzazz said:

Couldn't you just let it go until you hit the gravity you want, then add campden tablets? Let it mellow in the primary for a bit, then re-pitch yeast for bottle conditioning? Someone please correct me if I'm talking outta my @$$.

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If you try to stop fermentation, then try to bottle condition you'll end up with bottle bombs as the yeast you re-pitch will continue down to the FG of the beer.

conpewter said:

If you try to stop fermentation, then try to bottle condition you'll end up with bottle bombs as the yeast you re-pitch will continue down to the FG of the beer.

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And that's why I said to correct me.