Big Beer question

[Dark_Ale]

I'm getting mixed feedback on Bottling my barley wine. Some say you need more yeast at bottling time, some say you dont. I have heard just make a little slurry with a dry yeast. Do you really need it, How do I know? If I dont need it but add it anyway will it hurt anything? I have been really careful with sanitation everything is great so far, I would hate to make a mistake this far into it, especially when after about a year its best to drink.

 

[uwmgdman]

I'm sure people who have made barley wines will hopefully jump in, but I can say this.

Adding a little yeast slurry won't harm the beer. So if you want to, go for it, it won't hurt.

As far as how can you tell if it needs it (more yeast)? I'd guess you really can't, it's probably something that experience, whether it's your own or others, can only tell you.

Just curious how long has it been in the secondary? And at what temps? What's your recipe/yeast/OG/FG, you know the drill.

 

[david_42]

I keg my barleywines and without exception, they have continued to be active for months, even years. My Old Bog Water is maintaining pressure all by itself and it was kegged in March 2003. There should be plenty of yeast.

 

[dantodd]

I wouldn't worry about yeast cell count unless you have either well exceeded the attenuation rate of the yeast or exceeded the alcohol tolerance.

If you do decide to re-pitch be sure to use the same yeast strain. If you use a different yeast strain it may have a different enough fermentation profile (which sugars it will ferment) to create bottle bombs regardless of your priming. (e.g. if you fermented with an ale yeast and bottle with a champagne or distiller's yeast.)

Many barleywines/old ales are very lightly carbonated anyway. I'd just prime and bottle, even if you get minimal carbonation it will be fine.

 

[PT Ray]

Made a weizenbock using Wyeast 3068 clocking in at 1.100 O.G., bottled with out any additional yeast. Played it safe by being conservative on the priming sugar, wanted some room for error if I bottled a little too early. Have to say it worked out well, 9 months in the bottle it is well carb'd with room to have gone lower or higher.

 

[Dark_Ale]

The recipe is as follows
8lbs Light Malt extract
2lbs Old Barvian Munich
1lb 2row
2lb caravienne
1.5 oz chinook 60Min
3/4 oz Northern brewer 10min
1/4 oz Northern brewer End Boil
Dry Package of Safale 04
OG: 1.085
FG: 1.020
I have posted questions about this recipe last year, asking if everyone thought that this might be an imperial IPA or Barley wine. Anyway I did not have temp control last year and this brew turned out pretty bad. So I am gonna give it another shot.

 

[dibby33]

I'm getting mixed feedback on Bottling my barley wine. Some say you need more yeast at bottling time, some say you dont. I have heard just make a little slurry with a dry yeast. Do you really need it, How do I know? If I dont need it but add it anyway will it hurt anything? I have been really careful with sanitation everything is great so far, I would hate to make a mistake this far into it, especially when after about a year its best to drink.

I am just about to bottle my first attempt at barley wine in the next couple of days. Currently showing 9.3% Took 3 weeks to ferment!

I was just going to bottle straight from primary. If it is going to sit for 1 year ( ) then it should settle and harden up in that time. As for adding more yeast I don't see why you should have to, never heard of that (but I am only learning)

 

[Evan!]

I'm getting mixed feedback on Bottling my barley wine. Some say you need more yeast at bottling time, some say you dont. I have heard just make a little slurry with a dry yeast. Do you really need it, How do I know? If I dont need it but add it anyway will it hurt anything? I have been really careful with sanitation everything is great so far, I would hate to make a mistake this far into it, especially when after about a year its best to drink.

I think this depends mostly on how long between brewing and bottling. Personally, my barleywine spent 14 days in primary and 28 days in secondary. I did add some champagne yeast to the secondary, right after racking, anticipating a follow-up fermentation...but amazingly, the safeale had taken the beast all the way up to 12.5% by itself. So maybe those champagne yeasts played a part during bottle carbonation, but I never added any at bottling. I've tried a few bottles, and each has been plenty carbonated. So I would say, you don't need it unless you've been aging it in secondary for extended periods.

These days, if I leave it in secondary for more than a month, I always add rehydrated dry nottingham yeast, just to be on the safe side. As someone else said, it can't hurt. I've just noticed that with the big beers that I leave for extended aging in secondary, so much yeast falls out that, if I don't add any more at bottling, it takes forever to carbonate. Though, with a barleywine, you're going to wait for at least a year anyway, so...