Residual Sugars

Hi All,

I made a barleywine for my fourth batch ever. It is a "partial-mash" that ended up about 10.5% abv. I am getting A LOT of residual sugars when I pour it out of the bottle and not a lot of carbonation. It has been in the bottles 2 months now and I was expecting it to be much more carbonated. My guess is the yeast did not do their job when I added the priming sugar?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

What do you mean you see a lot of residual sugars? Barleywines are supposed to be big malt bombs with a lot of sweetness.

10.5% is pushing it for a lot of yeast, meaning they can barely work at that level of alcohol. You might do well to turn the bottles over once a day to rouse the yeast and make sure they're at 70-75 degrees and check again in a couple of weeks. You can also just wait long-term, meaning months. If all else fails, you can boil some water and re-pitch tiny amounts of yeast into each bottle and then re-cap, but this can be dangerous if too much fermentable sugar is left.

 

What I mean is, I see a lot of sugars on the glass, as opposed to a clean lacing with alcohol legs. Most barleywines I have had, are very smooth in appearance, mine looks like I mixed a teaspoon of sugar with a glass of iced tea.

Will definitely rouse the yeast, thanks for the advice. I'd rather drink flat beer than re-pitch yeast. Its delicious just not the way I wanted it to look.

 

Oh wow, I've never heard of that happening. I didn't know that sugar could re-crystalize after a boil unless it was super-concentrated. Maybe it's other stuff - how long has it been sitting after bottling and what was your carbonation sugar type/amount?

 

Its been about 2 months since bottling. Used 3/4 cup of corn sugar(5 gallon batch) and its been sitting at 72 degrees. I've used the same amount/technique for a scotch ale and it turned out perfect. Has to be the yeast right?

 

I'd think it would be something other than the sugars, yeah. Dextrose is really soluble - did you mix it in boiling water before adding? If not, maybe I could see it falling out of solution.

Maybe yeast or protein clumps, but after a couple of months that should have fallen out. Do you have a picture perhaps?

 

Dissolved in boiling water, cooled so it wouldn't killed the yeast. I'll try and get a picture of the next bottle I open. Just imagine Iced Tea with undissolved sugar. That's the best way I can describe it. Maybe high alcohol killed the yeast?

 

The yeast may or may not be dead, but the sugar should still have stayed in solution unless your FG was ridiculously high.

 

Wild guessing here. Could they be tartrate crystals? Those are common in wine but I've never heard of them in beer but if the beer is high gravity... why not?

--edit--
although storage at 72 kind of refutes it...

 

Looks very similar although nothing in the bottom of the glass. I'll just wait a few more months til I crack another one. Thanks Guys

 

Update: Brew is full carbed, nice and smooth. Although it's got more lace than ace. Thanks for the input ya'll.