Barleywine Advice?

[The Bone2]

Doing a barleywine tomorrow. (Extract kit from LHBS).

Going to do a starter for the first time. Using WhiteLabs 099 Super High Gravity Ale Yeast.

LHBS suggested also pitching WhiteLabs 001 California Ale (not using starter for this yeast, as I only have one vessel right now).

He suggested against making (1) starter with BOTH yeasts.

Also pitching (3) crushed beanos.

Any other advice would be appreciated.

 

[uglygoat]

what reasons did he give for pitching a second yeast?

 

[The Bone2]

it would bring the final gravity down.

 

[uglygoat]

i think the super high gravity will be enough to ferment out the barely wine mate. i'd save the ca ale for another brew.

 

[The Bone2]

whatsoever, huh?

 

[uglygoat]

i think the super high gravity yeast ferments up to twenty percent alcohol. i wouldn't add the ca yeast.

 

[bradsul]

You need to make a starter for sure for a high gravity beer. But there's really no advantage to using 2 yeasts.

Also I wouldn't add any beano to it. Beano won't stop working just because you hit a certain gravity, you'll end up with a thin watery beer with a ton of alcohol and no real body. As far as I know, the only way to stop beano from working is to heat up the entire batch enough to denature the enzymes (which will also easily kill the yeast).

 

[FlyingHorse]

What are your OG/FG targets?

WLP001 is pretty alcohol tolerant...if treated right, it should get you 75% attenuation even up into the 1.120 OG range. If it does that, I doubt the WLP 099 is going to do much more.

If you want a lower FG, I'd suggest some more fermentable sugars (corn sugar, or honey)...especially with an extract kit. If malt extracts are your only fermentables, you'll have a tough time going over 75% attenuation no matter what yeast you use.

 

[McKBrew]

I can speak from personal experience about Beano. I used some to try to fix a stuck fermentation about the time I joined this forum. I ended up with a dry, wine like nasty mess that went down the drain.