Bottle Conditioning Barleywine

[BOBTHEukBREWER]

I think folks on here are over scared of bottles exploding. I brew for 4 to 7 days and bottle immediately. I have had one bottle explode in 45 years, and that was a St Peters Brewery bottle with thin green glass shaped like a medecine bottle. Yes I have had the odd fire extinguisher type eruption, but I now bottle 3 1 litre PET bottles in every brew so I can feel the pressure. Should I get concerned, I would open the bottles into a clean bucket and re-bottle.

 

[scottlindner]

Over scared is incorrect. I have had bottle bombs before.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

I think folks on here are over scared of bottles exploding. I brew for 4 to 7 days and bottle immediately. I have had one bottle explode in 45 years, and that was a St Peters Brewery bottle with thin green glass shaped like a medecine bottle. Yes I have had the odd fire extinguisher type eruption, but I now bottle 3 1 litre PET bottles in every brew so I can feel the pressure. Should I get concerned, I would open the bottles into a clean bucket and re-bottle.

Did you do 4-7 days and then bottle a barleywine?? Seven days is not enough time for the yeast to work though and then clean-up a beer that is usually OG 1.090 or higher. That's asking for bombs.

And having to re-bottle is just adding an unnecessary step that can possibly result in infection. Why not just wait a couple extra weeks?

 

[cockybitz]

Well first, not all of us dump onto yeast cakes.

Second, I wouldn't really call it "extra work." Just forgetting about it until a few months later and deciding to bottle... seems easy to me

True, indeed. But in the beer itself you have an amount of yeast that is sufficient to finish the fermentation to carbonate. You also have yeast that are tolerable to the high ABV, and able to function at that ABV. By adding new yeast, they are not acclimated to that environment and it would seem that any benefit would be negligible. No?

 

[Veinman]

I used O2 absorbing caps in my barleywine simply because they weren't that much more expensive and I figured they couldn't hurt. That being said, maybe they could hurt. I mean seeing some of the compounds that could be impregnated into the polymer in the lid, some of those have to taste awful.

Now these things have been around long enough with few enough complaints that I presume the o2 absorbers are pretty benign. Some people even swear by them, and that's good enough for me. We are going to need some HBTers to do some blind taste testing though, and my palate isnt nearly good enough for this sort of work.

I'm doing just that right now. I bottled my BarleyWine on December 29th and like you I figured for the extra $2 I might as well use the oxygen absorbing caps just in case they helped at all, but I also bottled 6 bottles with standard caps to compare I'm going to do a side by side tasting at 6 months, 1 year, 2 years and maybe (though unlikely) 3 years to see if there is any noticable difference between the two.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

True, indeed. But in the beer itself you have an amount of yeast that is sufficient to finish the fermentation to carbonate. You also have yeast that are tolerable to the high ABV, and able to function at that ABV. By adding new yeast, they are not acclimated to that environment and it would seem that any benefit would be negligible. No?

That's actually very true. But another issue that can arise is the fact that the yeast are (and I apologize for making them anthropomorphic) pooped from the hefty fermentation. They are living organisms and can only metabolize and reproduce so much

But it appears you are savvy to the fermentation behind-the-scenes and are aware of what can occur... and at this point it really comes down to preference.

 

[Teacher]

That's actually very true. But another issue that can arise is the fact that the yeast are (and I apologize for making them anthropomorphic) pooped from the hefty fermentation. They are living organisms and can only metabolize and reproduce so much

That's true. I once brewed a bw with either US-05 or Notty (don't remember which), and it got to the desired FG very nicely. However, I primed with 4 oz of sugar and bottled, and most bottles, even after nine months, had virtually no carbonation. Only a few bottles carbed up; I figure some especially tolerant cells had made their way into those bottles (I stirred well and frequently during bottling).

 

[amrmedic]

I just brewed my barleywine. I plan on adding yeast when bottling. If I use a dry yeast like Notty, will that affect the flavor of my beer? Or will the small amount of fermentation not have any affect at all?
I am using Wyeast Old Ale blend for primary fermentation

 

[heywolfie1015]

I just brewed my barleywine. I plan on adding yeast when bottling. If I use a dry yeast like Notty, will that affect the flavor of my beer? Or will the small amount of fermentation not have any affect at all?
I am using Wyeast Old Ale blend for primary fermentation

Even if it does, the amount of extra flavor will be negligible. I believe the common wisdom is to use around 1/3 of a pack for bottle conditioning.

 

[Carter1932]

I have a barelywine I am ready to bottle after aging 6 months in the secondary. This beer had an OG of 1.104 and FG of 1.030. The apparent attentuation seems a bit low for the London 1028 yeast I used, however the SG has only dropped by 2 points since May, 2011. It taste great as is and I'm ready to bottle.

So my plan is to prime, add yeast and bottle, however I am debating best method of adding bottling yeast.


First, I guess I could just use Notty, but am concerned whether it will survive the high alcohol environment.

Second, I considered bottle harvesting some 1028 from the parigyle batch of porter I made from same grist.

Third, I was wondering if I can/should rack and prime the barleywine and then harvest some of the yeast cake and use that for my bottling yeast. Has anyone tried this method? I figured this yeast would best handle the high alcohol environment.

 

[CTownBrewer]

I would think any yeast you attempt to harvest after fermenting a barleywine would be pretty stressed.

I would use dry yeast mixed in your priming solution after it's cooled. That way you'll rehydrate it & get your priming sugar done in one step. Then rack onto it in your bottling bucket to mix it with your beer.

A word of caution from bottling my barleywine after aging 8 months...my dry yeast never mixed in well with my priming solution like it typically would, so I think it dropped to the bottom when bottling. Mine have been sitting for an additional 3 months since they weren't carbed initially after about a month. I think I got some bad yeast or something. Use Notty or Safale US-05 to be safe. I've had good results carbing my Red EisPA using this method with US-05.

Sent from my iPhone using HB Talk

 

[Carter1932]

I would think any yeast you attempt to harvest after fermenting a barleywine would be pretty stressed.

Sent from my iPhone using HB Talk

Based on someone else's advise I thought that the yeast that survives the barleywine secondary would be more acclimatized to the high alcohol environment and therefore more effective for bottling.

hmmmmm.......

 

[lazybean]

Based on someone else's advise I thought that the yeast that survives the barleywine secondary would be more acclimatized to the high alcohol environment and therefore more effective for bottling.

hmmmmm.......

From my experience, thats true as far as primary fermentation. Using the yeast from one high grav to the next, the second one takes off and ferments strong.

But after the long haul of secondary fermentation, 3 months in my case, they are too warn out. The one time i try to use them for bottle conditioning it was slow slow slow. took almost 4 months for them to carb and clean up all the priming sugar. Since that batch i always pitch a vial of WPL001 in my bottling bucket.

 

[Hooligan]

Scott, I have noticed that the Champagne yeast does add a winey flavor to the batch (I have had it do so when I did a big grain bill brew in the past), but it is greart for getting the numbers up! just to put that out there for you in case you do use it. Good luck I hope you get it right & don't end up with beer gernades Lol!

 

[Carter1932]

I ended up priming my barleywine with yeast I cultivated from a bottle of Porter ale that had the same London 1028 yeast. My Porter ale was the second batch from the barleywine partigyle session.

I made one small starter of about 200 ml and then pitched it into 4.5 gallons (9.8% ABV) of barleywine for priming. I tried one of the barleywines about 3 weeks after priming and its almost fully carbonated so I think I can safely recommend this technique to others.

 

[ao125]

Going back to the initial post, is Wyeast suggesting a smack-pack into the secondary right before bottling should be enough to carb up and condition a high gravity barleywine?

I have one that is just starting week 2 of primary. Moving to secondary on 1/20/12.

I'm sorta new to the whole bottling thing. I've always just force-carbed my kegs.

 

[Butter]

Glad I found this thread as my girlfriend and I are brewing our first barleywine in a couple weeks. It's a clone of Midnight Sun Arctic Devil from AH. I believe we got Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale with the kit. Will be doing a starter, primary for 1-2 wks, secondary for 2-4 wks with a dry hop for a week, then bottling with a fresh smack pack of the same yeast. Hopefully it'll work!

 

[IMNOTL8]

So I have attempted a Dogfish Head Olde School Barelywine clone... My attempt was taken loosely from what I have read on their site and different descriptions of the beer. They wouldn't give me nothing when I emailed them! I didn't think they would...

Anyway... This beer had been brewed, gone through primary and secondary and is bottled for aging. It tasted VERY similar to the Olde School and is VERY high ABV. It was 13% when I put it into the secondary on figs and dates and then when crazy for three or four days... My calculations were to have had it reach 15-17%!

SO... I have never brewed anything that high gravity and was wondering how long this beast is going to take to bottle condition. I did not add any yeast at bottling and did add some DME for bottling (not sure if I really needed to or not).

Do I need to store this at the warmest temp I can? It's been in the bottles maybe 2 weeks.... My plan was to let sit for months.

Any thoughts?

 

[cockybitz]

It will take months. The warmer the temperature, the faster it will condition.