Big buzz barleywine

[BWN]

I would definitely pitched more yeast. You way under pitched. Try using mr malty next time.

 

[pabloj13]

The person who designed this recipe has been brewing for 30 years and can tell a lot about a beer by tasting it. She also knows the owner of DFH and I have the upmost faith in her. I'm not trying to down what you guys are saying but she has never let me down, so we will see.

It's going to make beer, for sure. Will it be the best beer possible? Maybe not. But mostly just wanted to clarify your misunderstanding about what the yeast alcohol tolerance number represents.

 

[eric19312]

A couple of notes - steeping grains above 160 degrees F will result in tannins being extracted - this will make the beer astringent (unpleasantly dry). Pure cane sugar (especially in a long fermenting beer such as this) can lead to cidery flavors - swapping in a raw sugar (or honey or molasses) can avoid this as well as bringing some complex flavors to the party. Belgian Candi sugar would also be a good sub.

You mentioned sweetness so I upped the Munich and added some oats (the oats will provide some texture as well).

I am a fan of highly fermentable sugar including cane in high ABV beers to keep FG in an enjoyable range.

 

[ThaBrewFather06]

I just transferred into secondary with the French oak chips and as I had hoped the single packet of safale 05 was fine in the wort the FG was 1.012 which gives me around 11% ABV.

 

[looneybomber]

I just transferred into secondary with the French oak chips and as I had hoped the single packet of safale 05 was fine in the wort the FG was 1.012 which gives me around 11% ABV.

You sure shut a lot of folks up, including me. That's good attenuation with just one packet.

I forget the details of this thread, but were you going to dry hop this 8mo from now when you're ready to bottle?

 

[AndMan3030]

insane.

 

[latium]

That's a mighty low FG considering there was a full pound of C60 in there, IMO.

 

[pabloj13]

You sure shut a lot of folks up, including me. That's good attenuation with just one packet.

I forget the details of this thread, but were you going to dry hop this 8mo from now when you're ready to bottle?

To be fair, low attenuation isn't even the major reason to not under pitch. Over stressing the yeast into making off flavors is a big reason.

 

[ThaBrewFather06]

I don't like a really hoppy beer so I'm not going to dry hop but I am going to leave in primary for around 2-3 months before bottling. I don't have a fermentation chamber so I'm afraid to let it sit in secondary more than I can control the temp at around 70 degrees. My basement is always around 60 degrees is that too cool to leave my fermenter in or would I be alright leaving at that low a temp.

 

[looneybomber]

I only use a secondary for adding extra flavors, for example, cherries, oak, dry hopping, etc... If I am not adding anything after the primary fermentation, I let it completely ferment out, wait a week or so, then bottle. No need to add an extra step of sanitizing, cleaning, etc...

That said, the beers I've had aging recently (one is still in secondary on oak), were kept around 60-63 in the basement.

 

[eric19312]

Impressive attenuation. Did not think you would get there with all the extract. I do primary fermentations for up to a month but when going longer than that use a secondary. I'd think the cooler basement temp you have would be a great place to secondary this big beer for a few months before bottling.

 

[ThaBrewFather06]

I only use a secondary for adding extra flavors, for example, cherries, oak, dry hopping, etc... If I am not adding anything after the primary fermentation, I let it completely ferment out, wait a week or so, then bottle. No need to add an extra step of sanitizing, cleaning, etc...

That said, the beers I've had aging recently (one is still in secondary on oak), were kept around 60-63 in the basement.

I usually only use primary fermenter as you said above but I added French oak chips for flavoring in the secondary that's reall the reason for a secondary in this beer.

 

[chumpsteak]

To be fair, low attenuation isn't even the major reason to not under pitch. Over stressing the yeast into making off flavors is a big reason.

This. Did you taste it yet? I would be surprised if its not hot with fusels. Seems like for 4 bucks you would have just pitched 2 packs. Pitching only 1 packet on that big of beer is a huge risk that just seems unnecessary. I will also say that the fusel packed beers I made when first starting out actually over attenuated, so that low of attenuation is not necessarily a good thing.

Anyway, hope it turns out well for you.

 

[ThaBrewFather06]

Bottling today after one month in secondary on oak chips tastes really good now can't wait for it to carb up.

 

[ThaBrewFather06]

This. Did you taste it yet? I would be surprised if its not hot with fusels. Seems like for 4 bucks you would have just pitched 2 packs. Pitching only 1 packet on that big of beer is a huge risk that just seems unnecessary. I will also say that the fusel packed beers I made when first starting out actually over attenuated, so that low of attenuation is not necessarily a good thing.

Anyway, hope it turns out well for you.

I had a local brewmaster taste it yesterday her response to this was. There is no reason to double pitch yeast's sole purpose is to reproduce and there is an excellent place for that in an 11% beer. Double pitching can make a yeasty tasting beer. By the time the wort fully ferments the yeast can have reproduced to almost double anyway. The beer does not have any off tastes and had a FG of 1.018. I'm done with people second guessing my pitch when I have a 20+ year vet gaining me help. I don't claim to be an amazing brewer but she has a piece of paper that says she is.

 

[pabloj13]

I had a local brewmaster taste it yesterday her response to this was. There is no reason to double pitch yeast's sole purpose is to reproduce and there is an excellent place for that in an 11% beer. Double pitching can make a yeasty tasting beer. By the time the wort fully ferments the yeast can have reproduced to almost double anyway. The beer does not have any off tastes and had a FG of 1.018. I'm done with people second guessing my pitch when I have a 20+ year vet gaining me help. I don't claim to be an amazing brewer but she has a piece of paper that says she is.

<Sigh> No one was advocating "double pitching". If that's what your local brewmaster told you, then I'd be leary of their advice going forward. That advice demonstrates a lack of understanding of some pretty basic brewing principles. I'm glad for you, however, that there are no off flavors. As people get told here all the time, it'll still make beer.

But in the future, if you're not looking for feedback on your practices, maybe saying something like this is a little silly:

Anyone have any suggestions on this?

Good luck.