Pitching for my 1st barleywine

[Stakem]

So I have been gathering ideas for making a barleywine that I want to brew now and enjoy for the holidays around this time next year.

I have read some recipes that utilize american or english ale yeast in conjunction with a dry champagne yeast. (I am assuming this is done for one or more reasons: to get the FG down and possibly provide that extra yeast in suspension so that bottle conditioning provides enough carb???) Surely these different yeasts are not pitched at the same time... are they? It seems to me that if they would be pitched together, it would be a "free for all" for which one overtakes the other.

So my gut feeling is to primary for a few weeks to a month with the ale yeast and rack to secondary and pitch the champagne yeast. Sound good? Approximately how long is the average time in months to leave in secondary before bottling (with anticipation of it taking quite awhile to get the bottle conditioning to a respectable carb level?)

Thanks for any and all feedback, it is much appreciated.
Cheers

 

[pompeiisneaks]

I've only just read some other thread that indicated it was used at bottling time, I'm guessing for a bit of bottle conditioning... I'd also guess you'd want some stronger bottles w/ corks a la belgians, but not sure... someone, anyone else?