question about bottle carbonating at yeast's upper alcohol limit

Hi erryone -- I just brewed a big wheat/barley wine :cross:, and being ever so clever I pitched it onto a S-04 yeast cake. Then I realized I am not clever and the OG was too high, so S-04 was probably going to call it quits before full attenuation. Also S-04 might leave too much sweetness since it's only like a 75% attenuator to begin with.

Brewtarget thinks I might get down to 1.026 but brewing software can't usually predict attenuation that well in my experience.

So, I diluted the fresh wort down from 1.115 to 1.100 before fermentation started, and hopefully that will stay closer to where S-04 can handle. I mashed at the lower end (~148) to make a more fermentable wort.

My question is this -- since I'm likely close to the upper end of alcohol tolerance for S-04, do I need to do anything special when bottling? I'd like to give this out as a gift brew in 6 months or so.

Options I see are:

- The lazy option: RDWHAHB, wait for S-04 to finish, prime, bottle, and see what happens.
- The proactive option: Wait for S-04 to finish and pitch in a packet or two of US-05, give it a few days to eat any extra sugar, then prime and bottle?
- Another option: Throw in a packet of US-05 and then bottle immediately. I'm a little concerned this might make explodey bottles since I think US-05 is likely to eat more residual sugars plus the priming sugar.
- Yet another option: overcarb in the keg and try to gently bottle it without any priming nonsense. Concerned it won't have a great shelf life if I do this.

Thoughts!? And Thanks!

At 1.100 I'd just wait, prime, bottle and see what happens. That doesn't sound like it is so far off. Worse comes to worse you'll probably see some lazy carbing and it might take a month to fully carb.

I would expect lower attenuation. I just bottled an S05 fermented RIS that I mashed at 156F that clocked in a whopping 67% attenuation. Way below expectations, but I mashed high and it was a 1.110 beer. I did use 2 packets and it was only 4 gallons. Probably should have/need to do oxygen and/or build a real starter and a bigger one next time. Last RIS I did wasn't far off from that and it was a 1.105 beer with S05 that also only hit high 60's for attenuation (also mashed high).

I think next time I need to mash in the mid/high 140's and make a real starter so I have tons of nice healthy yeast before pitching (and/or oxygenate, not just aerate).

Thanks for the input, I'll give it a shot. It's about 80 ibu so that should stand up fine against residual sweetness I hope.

I would say certainly. My RIS was a little higher gravity and only around 56-58IBUs and it is nicely balanced. It is certainly malty, but it isn't over powering or cloying. Probably be a little better once it is carbed up and the bottling sugar is eaten up too. Maybe cooled down to about 55F.