Carbing my barleywine

[Irishcrazy2005]

So this weekend I made up a Bigfoot barleywine clone, but I am already thinking ahead to bottling. I don't like zero carbonation in my barleywine, but they shouldn't be as carbonated as a regular ale either. Does anyone have any recommendations on how much priming sugar I should add to a 5 gallon batch before bottling?

Also, if I plan on leaving this in primary for two weeks and secondary for five, am I going to need to add more yeast before bottling?

 

[thebikingengineer]

A couple of questions:

What was your OG?

What kind of yeast did you use?

I ask because these can have a huge affect on whether or not bottle carbonation is even possible. If the OG is much above 1.100 then your yeast are going to be pretty spent. You may or may not have a high enough ABV to inhibit any further yeast activity (i.e.: carbing). You may have to repitch some champagne yeast to get the results you want, and that will change the flavor of the finished product.

 

[grrtt78]

if it is a bigfoot clone it is probably between 9 and 10% abv. most yeasts survive in that and if its bigfoot im guessing he used wlp 001 which would b fine that high. use somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 cups of priming sugar. i think ne less than that would leave it flat

 

[Irishcrazy2005]

Thanks for the responses. I used WLP 001, and there was a lot of it since I pitched onto the yeast cake after transferring my West Coast Pale Ale to secondary.

My OG was lower than I was shooting for, came in around 1.074

 

[thebikingengineer]

I concur, 3/4 cup of corn sugar should do it. I was thinking you were talking about a colossal barley wine, you know, OG of 1.1XX or so.

 

[Irishcrazy2005]

I concur, 3/4 cup of corn sugar should do it. I was thinking you were talking about a colossal barley wine, you know, OG of 1.1XX or so.

Yeah, I wish that I was. This was my first time formulating my own recipe though, and I undershot the OG. I should have only made 3gal instead of 5gal, because I don't think that I could possibly fit all the extract I need for a 5gal batch to get it up to 1.1xx. I already put in 11.75 lbs of LME and 1 lb. of DME! I don't think my brewkettle could take much more.

 

[thebikingengineer]

It'll fit, you've just got to keep stirring!

 

[Irishcrazy2005]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I just transferred my BW into secondary after two weeks in primary. I have another question though.

As I previously stated, my OG was lower than I had wanted, 1.074. Gravity when I put it in secondary today was 1.025. How much more can I expect this to drop over 5 weeks in secondary? I was really hoping for more attenuation than this. It was pitched onto a yeast cake from a previous batch, so under pitching should not have been a problem. Thanks!