dr_finklestein,
I'm a HG brewery in that most, if not all my brews are above the 1.100+ (except for yeast propagation batches which are lower then 1.080). With that said, in a recent brew, I made an English Barleywine using white labs Edinburgh in that my OG was 1.118 and settled nicely to 1.019. Yes it took time, dropped to 1.035 by day 3, but slowly moved to 1.019 in about 2 weeks! I did however make a HUGE starter, over 1L to accommodate the large amount of sugar.
I've also had success with good old WLP001, in that I made a Quad IPA that had an OG of 1.130. However to make sure I had enough yeast I made a sacrificial brew using the WLP001, it was a 7.5%abv APA, to help propagate more yeast. Once the 1.5L of yeast was pitched, for a 5 gallon batch, you talk about activity! So within 4 days the activity slowed down and my gravity reading was around 1.044, OK not bad but on day 5 I check the gravity and it was 1.040! I let it sit for a one more week and still 1.040
. So I racked to a secondary and made another starter, using the same batch of yeast that I used initially, pitched that and ended up cranking my FG down to 1.021! So a 14.5%abv quad IPA was created, but it did take a lot of effort.
My conclusion is this; you need the proper amount of yeast, as stated by others to make big beers. I think I blew about half the yeast I pitched for my qual out the blow off tube, I think thats why I didnt hit my FG. It is really is hard for home brewers to over pitch, in my opinion, so don't worry. Also, racking the beer over to another vessel and re-pitching yeast usually gets things moving again. One hint that I found that works well with the secondary yeast re-pitching, is that once your starter is made and the yeast is pitched into your starter, try to pitch that yeast into your beer during very active fermentation. Don't wait for the activity to stop otherwise the yeast my simply dive to the bottom, again, of your FV.
Sorry if this is long, but I've very passionate about brewing HG beers.
If you want to talk more, I even made a 1.220 batch that is on its way! But thats another story
Good Luck!