Long secondary ferment

[lordbeermestrength]

Hey guys...

I did a Barleywine back in February that has been in the secondary now for over 9 months. I did re-yeasted it a couple of times and got some more fermentation both times, last time I racked it onto a WLP001 yeast cake on August 11th. I plan on bottling it either this weekend or next. Currently I am about 10.5-11% with a (guessing) FG of about 1.025. That makes it about 3 and a half months since the last yeast addition.

Question is, should I yeast again before bottling? I have heard many say it is probably fine unless you are secondarying for long periods. Is 14 weeks too long? Opinions? Ideas?

 

[MoRoToRiUm]

If you're gravity is stable, I think you should be ok. Were you planning on cold breaking this before you rack it over to your bottling bucket? With how long it's been, unless you move it around a lot, you probably don't have to; I think it would be better to just rack over so you have some yeast sediment in the mix. I'm sure there's still some good yesties in there that will enjoy your bottling sugar and should carb nicely (I normally keg, so please chime in and correct me).

 

[lordbeermestrength]

yeah, I normally keg too, so not sure. I want to bottle this batch so I can save some for a while.

 

[Damonic]

I have a similar situation. I have a wheat that sat in the primary for 3 months... I know, I know. I need to bottle the batch and don't know if there's any viable yeast after such a long period. I was also planning on pitching a dunkel onto the cake but again, don't know about the viability. Anyone?

 

[MoRoToRiUm]

What yeast did you guys use? Won't help me answer, but others might chime in if they have more info.

 

[lordbeermestrength]

So I bottled my barleywine 2 weeks ago. I have been keeping the bottles in the mid 60's. So far there has been very little to no carbonation. While I understand that most people will probably advise me to let it keep for a while before i decide what to do, I am planning on re-yeasting the beer and then re-bottling.

I fear that the yeast is dead or not kicking enough to finish out the 1/4 cup of honey I added at bottling. The big reason I fear it is dead is that I am only at 8.7% and I expected to be around 9.5% by now. If I were to reopen the bottles and re-yeast the batch, what is the best way to go about doing this? I think if I add yeast to each bottle I may have an explosive fermenation, literally.

Thanks!

 

[MoRoToRiUm]

You can try flipping them over and storing them around 70 for a couple weeks...

Other wise I'd say break out the bottling bucket (or fermenter)- make sure you sanitize the outside of the bottles before opening and adding them to the bucket as well. If you are using straight dry yeast, I'd say pitch it and let it sit in the fermenter for any activity to settle down, or make a good liquid starter for it. If you still have the original yeast cake from the batch, that would make it easy. I am saying let it ferment just because I'd hate to see bottle bombs if there is high activity.

 

[lordbeermestrength]

thats kinda what I was thinking. thanks for the opinion!

 

[MoRoToRiUm]

NP, hope you have some good results!

 

[CBBaron]

Give it much more time.
There should still be plenty of yeast left after even 6months and one person on this forum reported success bottling without additional yeast after over 18months.

Given the age of the beer and the alcohol content this one will take a long time to carbonate. You will probably have to warm up the beers a little to help the process along. 70F is a good conditioning temp for a couple weeks.

Craig