Advice on carbonating 13% ABV Barley Wine

[Andreas_L]

Hi folks!
I am trying to sort some thoughts out regarding carbonating a Barley Wine I brewed some months ago which is aging on oak cubes (in glass carboy in cool cellar) right as we speak.

OG 1.115
SG 1.018
Yeast: WLP001 California Ale

I've decided not to get carried away with concern about the low SG - guess it's not too dry for a BW after all.
As is, the beer has an ABV of a little over 13%, and my plan is to keep it on the cubes for another 3-4 months.
Since it's quite strong in alcohol and will be kept cool for a total of 6 months I'm definitely going to have to pitch some yeast for carbonation. My question is if repitching an appropriate amount of the same yeast strain will do the job in such a high alcohol environment, or do you guys and girls think that I might be better off using a champagne yeast?

Also - long time aging brings me to think that the residual CO2 will be fairly low. How would you calculate how much sugar is needed for priming this bad boy?

Best regards, and glad to be on this forum.
Andreas

 

[KTRyan]

As for the yeast I think you would be ok with a high gravity ale yeast WLP500 or WLP510.

As for CO2, for a barley your going to want low carbonation, I'd go for 3/4 oz per gallon.

 

[kal]

+1 for low carbonation. Around 1.5 volumes give or take. Be aware that you won't really get any head or foam on such a high ABV beer either. This is normal.

Kal

 

[sfrisby]

So what do commercial breweries do to get head in their bottled high ABV beers? Thanks.

 

[kal]

They don't. Most very high ABV beers pour with little or no head (usually).

Kal

 

[KTRyan]

I'm going to agree with kal, with the one exception of Belgians, which are often high abv, highly carbonated, with huge rocky heads.

 

[sfrisby]

Recently curious because last week I had my first Chocolate Rain and at 18% it had a glorious head. I thought, why doesn't my RIS have a head like that.

I don't think this is too OT for this thread.

 

[kal]

Good point on the Belgians! I forgot about those. To do often have a ton of head don't they?

Kal

 

[Andreas_L]

So using the same yeast that brought me to this ABV (WLP001) would be out of the question?