Barleywine or just strong beer?

[TimFarAway]

I brewed what I planned to be a nice 2.5 gallon SMASH barley wine, to be opened on new years. Everything went pretty smoothly, until... I took my OG and it was only 1.080 when it should have been 1.115 or so with 65% efficiency. I used 10lbs M.O. & 15qts of 152* water (stirred well to prevent dough balls), did a sparge/rinse with more 152* water to bring the preboil volume up to 4 gallons. I added 1/3lbs dark candy sugar at the end of the boil. I planned on 1 gal boil off and about 1/2 gal of trub to be left in the kettle. Ended up with only about 2.25 gal in the fermentor, and more than a gallon of trub down the drain. (I know, next time I'll just dump it all in and let gravity drop it out.)

Pitched the WLP090 yeast and am letting it ride. My question is; Do I let it sit in the fermenter for a few months and go with the new year's release date or will it be done sooner? If so, how soon? I usually let the fermenting go on for at least 3 weeks before I take a gravity reading. With only 2 gallons or so to bottle, i'm hesitant to wast any at all. Thanks for the help saving a bottle or two.

 

[NTexBrewer]

Over the summer, I brewed a Barley wine and an Oyster Stout that I plan to drink over the winter. Both were 2 gallon batches.

This is what I did. I did not plan it but because of being busy with other stuff both beers stayed in primary for 30 days. When, I did bottle, I added extra yeast. I am currently being patient and will wait at least 8 weeks before opening one of each to see if they have fully carbonated. That will be the end of this month. If they are fully carbonated then I will move them to a location where they stay around 60 degrees until this winter.

In my experience, the bigger the beer, the longer it takes to carbonate.