I brewed a barleywine (english-ish) back in November using 24 lbs Maris Otter, 1 lb Biscuit Malt
6 oz Special B, and used Sterling and EKG hops. I wanted it to be fairly attenuated so I mashed at 149 F. However, this was my first time doing an overnight mash, so it went from 149 to 147 over a period of 10 hrs. Starting OG was 1.107 and I pitched 1 full packet each of Bry-97 and Lallemand Abbaye to encourage some fun ester production. After ~2 weeks of primary I transferred to a 5 gal freshly dumped whiskey barrel. I took a refractometer reading at that point which calculated out to be ~1.011 (I expected ~1.025)! I didn't worry about it too much as I know a refract can be off, especially the higher the OG.
So after 1 month of aging in the barrel I primed, bottled, and grabbed my hydrometer sample. Hydrometer showed a FG of 1.009...91% attenuation! So I bottled a ~14.2% ABV beer. After 3 weeks at room temp I threw a bottle in the fridge...no carbonation. I am going to let them sit for about another 3 weeks or so to see if anything changes. If not, I may try to pop them open, drop in some champagne yeast, and recap. However, will typical bottling yeast even work at this ABV? I've heard you can get champagne yeasts up to roughly 18% ABV with primary, but only about 14% tolerance when using to bottle condition. Anyone have any luck/tips/advice on bottle conditioning beers >14-15%?
6 oz Special B, and used Sterling and EKG hops. I wanted it to be fairly attenuated so I mashed at 149 F. However, this was my first time doing an overnight mash, so it went from 149 to 147 over a period of 10 hrs. Starting OG was 1.107 and I pitched 1 full packet each of Bry-97 and Lallemand Abbaye to encourage some fun ester production. After ~2 weeks of primary I transferred to a 5 gal freshly dumped whiskey barrel. I took a refractometer reading at that point which calculated out to be ~1.011 (I expected ~1.025)! I didn't worry about it too much as I know a refract can be off, especially the higher the OG.
So after 1 month of aging in the barrel I primed, bottled, and grabbed my hydrometer sample. Hydrometer showed a FG of 1.009...91% attenuation! So I bottled a ~14.2% ABV beer. After 3 weeks at room temp I threw a bottle in the fridge...no carbonation. I am going to let them sit for about another 3 weeks or so to see if anything changes. If not, I may try to pop them open, drop in some champagne yeast, and recap. However, will typical bottling yeast even work at this ABV? I've heard you can get champagne yeasts up to roughly 18% ABV with primary, but only about 14% tolerance when using to bottle condition. Anyone have any luck/tips/advice on bottle conditioning beers >14-15%?