Barleywine FG Bottling question

[bruderbier]

Ok, so I have a barleywine OG 1.115 that seems to have petered out after being pitched directly on a cake of WLP007 at 1.033 after 3 weeks. Apparent attenuation of 71%

A little higher FG than I was hoping, but it is what it is.

So, I'm planning to let it sit another week, secondary a few months, and then bottle. The question is: Assuming the gravity doesn't drop any more and I pitch some US05 or similar at bottling, will the priming yeast eat up some more sugar like 4 more points and give me bottle bombs? Should I add less priming sugar?

First Barleywine, sorry if it is a common question but I couldn't find an answer.

 

[bruderbier]

As an update, it tasted too sweet in Oct, so I let the secondary warm up to room temp over 5 days and pitched 2 packets of rehydrated US-05 with some yeast nutrient. After a week it has signs of some fermentation (bubbles in the hydrometer) and the gravity is down to 1.030. Thank you US-05. The WLP007 yeast cake I used originally petered out too soon. Must have flocced before it was done. Even with rousing.

I wouldn't recommend 007 for a big beer because of that. It will be my go to for pale ales though.

Glad I didn't bottle with more sugar before trying again. Probably would have overcarbed or bombed.

 

[Moose1231]

Thanks for the update, I am planning to make a barley wine soon.

Although I reckon that the % attenuation of us-05 is higher than 007. It may not have been overcarbed if you would have repitch 007 for bottling

 

[Moose1231]

Any reason why you wanted to repitch yeast for bottling?

 

[sweetcell]

Any reason why you wanted to repitch yeast for bottling?

some people fear that after a long secondary in a high alcohol environment, the yeast left in the beer will be too beat up to ferment the priming sugar.

even at 1.033, you were at 11% abv which is getting close to US-05's limit. notice that it too 2 packs to take it down 3 more points (now 11.4%). i'd expect this beer to carb very slowly - but chances are you're going to age this for a while anyways so shouldn't be a problem.

Glad I didn't bottle with more sugar before trying again. Probably would have overcarbed or bombed.

it might not have carbed much, if at all. sounds like the 007 was knocked out and inactive (dormant) so adding more sugar would only have made the beer sweeter. if no cells are active and available to ferment, the sugar would have just sat there.

another strategy is to pitch a wine/champagne yeast. wine yeast are more tolerant of high alcohol and low pH. they can only ferment simple sugars, which the primary (brewer's) yeast have already taken care of. the only think that a wine yeast will have to ferment is the priming sugar you add at bottling.

 

[bruderbier]

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah, after cellaring for 6 months (45°), a new yeast charge would be a better guarantee of carbonation in the bottle. The last thing I'd want after that time commitment would be uncarbonated beer. Plus, 007 flocculates like a layer of plastic on the bottom of the fermenter. I feel like there is less of a chance of enough yeast in suspension at bottling without adding more.

I've heard of using chanpagne or wine yeast for carbonation. It looks like there was some leftover simple sugars though based on the US-05 results so I'm glad I tried that first. Actually, I'm glad that this happened, because now I have active US-05 ready for the priming sugar at bottling time.

I expect it will take another 6 months to carb and that's ok. The more time to mellow the better for this English barley wine.

 

[sweetcell]

I've heard of using chanpagne or wine yeast for carbonation. It looks like there was some leftover simple sugars though based on the US-05 results so I'm glad I tried that first. Actually, I'm glad that this happened, because now I have active US-05 ready for the priming sugar at bottling time.

there most probably weren't any simple sugars left. the simple sugars are the first to be consumed by any yeast, yeast attack more complicated sugars (like maltose) later because they take more effort to digest. had you added champagne yeast instead of US-05, i suspect that nothing would have happened.

how soon will you be bottling? if you plan on having the US-05 active, i wouldn't wait. at 11.4% alcohol those yeast aren't going to stay active very long. that's a really rough enviro for them. i would still consider adding champagne yeast if you wait much longer than a week of two after adding the US-05.