Bottling English Barleywine

[Valvefan]

Hi All,

I just brewed an English Barleywine and I have a question about bottle conditioning.

I don't have a kegging system so I bottle condition everything. My english ale yeast (Wyeast 1318) was a fresh smack pack and I made a 1.5 litre starter and had it on a stir plate for 44 hours before pitching. The OG of the wort was 1.106. The fermentation was very quick to start and the kreusen was 30 cm (1 foot) high in 12 hours. I think that I had healthy yeast.

Do I need to pitch more yeast prior to bottling? I was planning to prime with table sugar then bottle condition as usual for an english ale.

Thanks for you help.

Valvefan

 

[Sippin37]

How long has it been in the fermenter? I just bottled an English Barleywine that was 9.5% ABV 3-4 weeks ago that had been in the primary for 2 months. It actually carbed up pretty well already.

I know some people prefer to pitch a little more yeast at bottling to ensure it carbs. The one thing to be careful is using a different yeast at bottling than you did to ferment with because it may eat some extra sugars that the original yeast couldn't and could be a potential source for bottle bombs.

 

[axeman9182]

I brewed an English Barleywine back in June, and after four to five weeks in primary and almost two months in secondary, I bottled in September. I sprinkled a little bit from a pack of US-05 into the bottling bucket (yeah, I probably should have rehydrated). My thought is that for a couple extra dollars I can make sure that a beer I've invested a good amount of money and time into will carbonate properly.

 

[bottlebomber]

I highly recommend adding a little fresh yeast at bottling for anything that big. It's a crapshoot for whether or not it will carb otherwise. I always keep champagne yeast around for this, and just rehydrate about a teaspoon and add it to the cooled priming solution, and mix thoroughly before I bottle. I've bottle conditioned 16% ABV beers doing this.