Carbing a American barelywine

[JosephN]

So I'm gonna brew a barelywine but when it's all done and cold crashed, how should I go about guaranteeing that I carb it properly? In my experience the higher gravity beers are hard to carb. My yeast will be wyeast Irish ale yeast which has an alcohol tolerance of 12%. I'm expecting a 11.5-12% abv. I'm making a Irish red right now and it ended at at 70% attenuation, so in taking that into consideration with fermentation, but there needs to be enough "viable" yeast to carb by the end of fermentation of the barelywine.

What suggestions do you all experienced brewers have for higher abv beers? Fermentation or other wise?

 

[drgoodbrew]

after brewing a number of b-wines and other high gravity beers, my recommendation is to ferment the batch in 2 separate pails/buckets. once all the wort is in 1 bucket, i pour back and forth between buckets to aerate and then evenly split the wort between the 2 buckets. for yeast, i do not make a starter (let the starter/no-starter arguments begin!!) and pitch a separate package or vail in each bucket. this ensures plenty of yeast (even w/out a starter) and gives the fermentation plenty of space and not make a mess or explode the bucket. after 7-10 days, i swirl one bucket and add it to the other. after another 10 days (or so) i rack to glass and keep it in the dark for 3 months. after a lengthy conditioning process (no cold crashing necessary), i rack into a bottling bucket with a new package (re-hydrated) or vail of yeast--this will provide the necessary carbonation for bottle conditioning.

there are, of course, more scientific methods, and you can read threads for days, but this process works for me. my oldest b-wine is going on 4 years now, and is perfectly carbonated.

keep in mind that you want well aerated wort and FRESH yeast to really get things moving and to set up a healthy fermentation and nice, lengthy conditioning. american yeast is the best choice for the style, but that's the great thing about this hobby...what ever works best for you is the best way to go! good luck!

 

[JosephN]

Any other takes on a process?

I would be a bit worried about transferring so many times. I feel that there would be greater chances of infection (unintentional inoculation), oxidation. I have had friends that add oxygen halfway into their fermentation to help the yeast keep going. Does anyone have a thought on this?

 

[JosephN]

Hey guys and gals I'm looking for opinions. I'm about ready to bottle my barleywine and I'm going to add yeast to it upon bottling. If I decide to use a "Fresh" packet of WLP001 I know how to add it, but if I use Dry yeast, specifically CBC1 for high gravity and cask conditioning, then I don't know how to add it with the hopes that it will hit each bottle. Basically how do I add it to ensure an even mixture?

 

[max384]

Hey guys and gals I'm looking for opinions. I'm about ready to bottle my barleywine and I'm going to add yeast to it upon bottling. If I decide to use a "Fresh" packet of WLP001 I know how to add it, but if I use Dry yeast, specifically CBC1 for high gravity and cask conditioning, then I don't know how to add it with the hopes that it will hit each bottle. Basically how do I add it to ensure an even mixture?

About ready to bottle a 12% barleywine after less than a month? I would definitely rethink this. Barleywines require time to bulk condition before bottling. Not to mention, with a high alcohol beer like this, you're probably going to need the extra time for the yeast to consume all of the sugars. In my experience, the higher the ABV, the slower the yeast work at the end.

I'm assuming you don't keg, right? If you do, the obvious answer is to force carb and bottle from the keg.

If you're naturally carbonating, I'd probably use carbonation tabs for each bottle to ensure uniform sugars are available for each bottle. If you're going to pitch new yeast, just make sure to stir real well. You'll oxygenate the beer a bit this way, but since you'll be adding food for them, they'll use up the oxygen consuming the sugar.

 

[JosephN]

Error, double post

 

[slym2none]

I'd hydrate the yeast first, so that mixing would be easier. If anything, just to ease your mind, put the yeast in the bucket before racking the beer on top of it.

 

[JosephN]

I'd hydrate the yeast first, so that mixing would be easier. If anything, just to ease your mind, put the yeast in the bucket before racking the beer on top of it.

I had a guy suggest that I use my sugar solution to rehydrate the yeasts I've never rehydrated, always just throw it in. I'll look up youtube videos to see how to do it.

 

[JosephN]

Would anyone suggest adding fresh liquid yeast to the beer, mainly because the yeast I used attenuated my last ever at 67%, and if I could throw in a fresh package of WLP001, it might attenuate higher and give me a bigger abv barleywine.

 

[max384]

What is the attenuation for THIS beer? What is the FG?

 

[max384]

I had a guy suggest that I use my sugar solution to rehydrate the yeasts I've never rehydrated, always just throw it in. I'll look up youtube videos to see how to do it.

Rehydrate in water, nothing else. After rehydrating, you can proof with some sugar... But this is really unnecessary if you have a fresh (or even somewhat fresh) packet.

 

[Callacave]

Get a packet of CBC-1, rehydrate, and add to bottling bucket. No worries on carbonation.

 

[JosephN]

What is the attenuation for THIS beer? What is the FG?

I just checked out the FG and it's setting at 1.026 from 1.106, making it 10.55%. Is say it's done, considering the yeast I used, wyeast Irish ale yeast

 

[JosephN]

Get a packet of CBC-1, rehydrate, and add to bottling bucket. No worries on carbonation.

I used a packet of California ale yeast and while I've got some carbonation and slight head retention, I kind of wish I would have used the CBC-1 that I have here at the house. I have also heard that I could use EC-1118 designed for champagne.