WLP099 Alcohol tolerance?

I made a barleywine - OG 1.116. I dropped it on a cake of S-04, in two three gallon increments, 24hrs apart. Kept fermentation at 65F. Aerated a few times during the first 48hrs of fermentation.

After vigorous fermentation stopped I roused the yeast each day for a few days (S-04 being highly flocculant), and raised the temperature to 70.

On 2/14, I was at 1.034, today I'm at 1.033. So it's safe to say the S-04 has eaten its fill - I sort of expected it to crap out at 1.045ish, so this is a pleasant surprise.

I've got some WLP099 coming, and I see lots of instructions for making a new high gravity beer with it, but not much knowledge on its most efficient usage when bringing down a beer that's already high in alcohol.

I'm thinking that warming it up to the idea of a 12.47% (according to Brewer's Friend) beer is a good plan... I would make a beer of 1.080, pitch a 6L starter of 099 (as advised by MrMalty) then using the cake for the barleywine. Is my thinking correct here in making a high gravity full-batch starter so the yeast won't be shocked when they fall into a high alcohol environment? Or is the sugar shock more of a concern and I'll be okay to make a normal starter because the beer is already down to 1.033?

Would dearly love and appreciate some input from the yeast scientists here.

I'd make the smaller beer, then rack on to the cake.

I was not the best way to do it, but I added a tube of 099 directly to a stalled out beer. It took a couple of days to get going, and then over a month it slowly chugged away and gave me a 13% beer.

I would just add some EC-1118 dry to the fermenter. Save some money.

i don't think you need to really make a big starter with the 099... the beer you're letting it lose on is only a 1.033 right now. I don't think it is a matter of the 099 needing to do a ton of work. It is just going to be doing it in a boozy environment, which it is built to do.

... just my opinion... could be wrong, but I would just pitch the 099 straight into the 1.033.


We have a Russian River Consecretion clone that was over 1.100 OG. We fermented it down to 1.026 with 001 and then lambic blend.

I used 099 straight into the bottling bucket and it carbed up really well.

wyzazz said:

I'd make the smaller beer, then rack on to the cake.

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Thanks - leaning towards this. I'll have the opportunity to save a bit for bottling time after an extended secondary this time, too.

pjj2ba said:

I was not the best way to do it, but I added a tube of 099 directly to a stalled out beer. It took a couple of days to get going, and then over a month it slowly chugged away and gave me a 13% beer.

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What was the ABV when you added it? I initially thought I could get away with that here, but I don't want to waste $8 finding out that the yeast get in there and never get moving because they see all the alcohol and figure their job is already done.

Mischief_Brewing said:

I would just add some EC-1118 dry to the fermenter. Save some money.

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That's Champagne yeast, right? No worries about it eating too much and killing the body altogether?

Cape Brewing said:

i don't think you need to really make a big starter with the 099... the beer you're letting it lose on is only a 1.033 right now. I don't think it is a matter of the 099 needing to do a ton of work. It is just going to be doing it in a boozy environment, which it is built to do.

... just my opinion... could be wrong, but I would just pitch the 099 straight into the 1.033.

We have a Russian River Consecretion clone that was over 1.100 OG. We fermented it down to 1.026 with 001 and then lambic blend.

I used 099 straight into the bottling bucket and it carbed up really well.

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Cape - I've been quietly following the Utopias thread you eastern MA guys have going. I guess you're a good source of info on this high gravity stuff, considering some of the monsters you're churning out over there! Thanks for the knowledge.

pernox said:

That's Champagne yeast, right? No worries about it eating too much and killing the body altogether?

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Contrary to popular misbelief Champagne/Wine yeast won't consume too many sugars. These yeasts are bred to consume simple sugars and survive high alcohol environments, they cannot consume maltose in any significant quantity if at all. Don't believe me, give it a shot in a small test batch beer, it'll stall out pretty high. If you want to consume more complex sugars you'll need to add a hearty active yeast strain, actually Lager Yeasts will usually consume more complex sugars than Ale Yeasts, so if you don't get this going with the 099, I'd try some amylase then maybe a Lager strain.

You may want to think about amylase enzymes....

I have my double porter (1.120) stall out at 1.045, dumped in a dry packet of notty and I was at 1.024 in the end.

pernox said:

What was the ABV when you added it? I initially thought I could get away with that here, but I don't want to waste $8 finding out that the yeast get in there and never get moving because they see all the alcohol and figure their job is already done.

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The OG was 1.110 when I started. It stopped at ~1.034. I added the 099 and it slowly got to work and finished at around 1.010. It took a while, but it got there.

For the sake of posterity, I'll update this.

I made a basic American Pale Ale/IPA to pitch the 099 into, let it ride for three weeks, and moved the Barleywine onto it while brewing today. We'll see how it comes out!

Barleywine was still at 1.033 - IPA finished out at 1.006.. This yeast is a slavering monster. I'm almost worried about over-attenuating the Barleywine now.

099 is a beast. I'm making a smoked barleywine today and I'm using WLP028 but the gravity is going to be higher than I anticipated already. So I might be going the route of 099 with this at the end as well.

The WLP099 is doing its thing.

3/26 - 1.033
4/5 - 1.030
4/13 - 1.027

Incidentally, I cracked the keg of IPA I made as a starter for it last night, and I'm having one now. It has a little bit of a farty gassy boozy thing going on, which dissipates as I'm drawing off the sediment at the bottom of the keg. It's very dry and clean.