I'm in the process of creating a barleywine that will be given as a gift to commemorate the birth of our first child. I have one previous experience with a barleywine when I first started all-grain. I didn't pitch enough yeast and ended up with a barleywine that was slightly under attenuated and failed to carbonate. 4 years later, I still have 15 bottles left. It's delightful, but not bubbly.
Needless to say, I intend on learning from my previous mistakes. I plan to repitch onto a a yeast cake from a session-IPA. I'll also be hitting it with a few minutes of pure oxygen at pitching. I'm even considering reintroducing more oxygen after about 12 hours of fermentation.
So, I've got a recipe I love and a plan for a healthy fermentation. All that's missing is the yeast. I'm torn between Safeale US-05, which I typically use for my session IPA, and Wyeast 1272 American Ale II. I'm looking for some input. I'm confident that either would attenuate my 1.111 wort down to about 1.028 with two weeks in primary and 2-3 months in secondary before bottle conditioning.
Here are some of my main considerations when making this decision:
1. Blow-off. In my previous batch, I lost nearly a gallon of beer with an overly active fermentation. I've since begun using FermCap and rarely lose volume, even with bigger beers. I'll intend to have a 5.5 gallon batch in a 6.5 gallon fermenter with a 1" hose, but would like to avoid losing volume. I'm wondering if yeast strain can influence the volume lost?
2. Carbonation. I'd like to avoid adding additional yeast at bottling. However, a beer that carbonates is clearly important! I'm hoping the proper pitching and oxygenation will allow for this. Yet, I'm curious if one either yeast strain would be more likely to survive the fermentation and hang around for bottle conditioning?
3. Flavor. Clearly this is important, but both yeasts should play nicely. I have lots of experience with US-05. I love how clean it is and how it typically lets the hops sing over the malt in my pale ales. I don't expect it to behave this way with aging, which is a good thing. I imagine that time will allow the malt complexity to shine through, but would love to hear others experience with either strain.
Fire away! I'd love to get some feedback from those with experience aging a barleywine with either yeast, but any feedback is welcome.
Needless to say, I intend on learning from my previous mistakes. I plan to repitch onto a a yeast cake from a session-IPA. I'll also be hitting it with a few minutes of pure oxygen at pitching. I'm even considering reintroducing more oxygen after about 12 hours of fermentation.
So, I've got a recipe I love and a plan for a healthy fermentation. All that's missing is the yeast. I'm torn between Safeale US-05, which I typically use for my session IPA, and Wyeast 1272 American Ale II. I'm looking for some input. I'm confident that either would attenuate my 1.111 wort down to about 1.028 with two weeks in primary and 2-3 months in secondary before bottle conditioning.
Here are some of my main considerations when making this decision:
1. Blow-off. In my previous batch, I lost nearly a gallon of beer with an overly active fermentation. I've since begun using FermCap and rarely lose volume, even with bigger beers. I'll intend to have a 5.5 gallon batch in a 6.5 gallon fermenter with a 1" hose, but would like to avoid losing volume. I'm wondering if yeast strain can influence the volume lost?
2. Carbonation. I'd like to avoid adding additional yeast at bottling. However, a beer that carbonates is clearly important! I'm hoping the proper pitching and oxygenation will allow for this. Yet, I'm curious if one either yeast strain would be more likely to survive the fermentation and hang around for bottle conditioning?
3. Flavor. Clearly this is important, but both yeasts should play nicely. I have lots of experience with US-05. I love how clean it is and how it typically lets the hops sing over the malt in my pale ales. I don't expect it to behave this way with aging, which is a good thing. I imagine that time will allow the malt complexity to shine through, but would love to hear others experience with either strain.
Fire away! I'd love to get some feedback from those with experience aging a barleywine with either yeast, but any feedback is welcome.
