Poor attenuation on high gravity beers

[allouez86]

I've got a barleywine brewed with 100% maris otter with an og of 1.104 and a stout with an og of 1.099 and I've been having trouble getting them low enough. Both have stalled out around 1.040 which is just too sweet for my liking. The barleywine is fermenting with wyeast Thames Valley and the stout is fermenting with wyeast Irish Ale, both fermenting at about 70 degrees. I gave them a few minutes of O2 before pitching 3 liter starters that had been on stir plates for about a day and a half.

I can't quite figure out why I'm not getting them to go any lower. The fact that I used two different yeast strains and they both stalled about the same place makes me think the problem has something to do with my process. Would adding a pitch of dry yeast move things along or should I just ride it out?

The barleywine has been fermenting for 3 weeks and the stout for about 6 weeks.

Any tips or suggestions appreciated.

 

[ColoHox]

What was your mash temp?

 

[Mike_kever_kombi]

What size is this 5 gallons? Generally with high gravity beers you need to use a pitch volume similar in size to a lager. 3 liters may seem like a lot, but how did you come to that volume? Did you just add a vial of yeast to 3 liters of wort, if so, you may need more than 36 hours before pitching.

What I do for anything larger than 2 liters is, start with 1 liter and 1 vial. Stir plate over night. In the morning, add another liter of wort, spin up while at work. Come home, put in fridge for a few hours to get the yeast to drop. Decant, and fill with wort to achieve 2 liters, spin up overnight, next morning top of to 3 liters. If I need to go to four liters I will refer/decant when I get home, top off to 3, spin over night, then go to 4 in morning.

An alternative is to make a 1 gallon batch of 1050-1060 beer, pitch - vial, and collect yeast cake after 5-7 days.

Either way, when your yeast enter a 1099+ environment they are going to be stressed so it is important to make sure you have an abundance of healthy yeast, also, after they start converting sugars to alcahol, they will be in a toxic environment so they need the added population.

It is almost impossible to over pitch a big beer. When you think you have enough yeast, add just a little bit more.

 

[allouez86]

Mashed at 150 on the barleywine and 154 on the stout.

 

[allouez86]

What size is this 5 gallons? Generally with high gravity beers you need to use a pitch volume similar in size to a lager. 3 liters may seem like a lot, but how did you come to that volume? Did you just add a vial of yeast to 3 liters of wort, if so, you may need more than 36 hours before pitching.

What I do for anything larger than 2 liters is, start with 1 liter and 1 vial. Stir plate over night. In the morning, add another liter of wort, spin up while at work. Come home, put in fridge for a few hours to get the yeast to drop. Decant, and fill with wort to achieve 2 liters, spin up overnight, next morning top of to 3 liters. If I need to go to four liters I will refer/decant when I get home, top off to 3, spin over night, then go to 4 in morning.

An alternative is to make a 1 gallon batch of 1050-1060 beer, pitch - vial, and collect yeast cake after 5-7 days.

Either way, when your yeast enter a 1099+ environment they are going to be stressed so it is important to make sure you have an abundance of healthy yeast, also, after they start converting sugars to alcahol, they will be in a toxic environment so they need the added population.

It is almost impossible to over pitch a big beer. When you think you have enough yeast, add just a little bit more.

Thanks for the info. I've been brewing for a few years but usually stick to Saisons and sours and brews that are under 1.065. I plan on brewing both again soon and will step up the starter following your process.

 

[djbradle]

Good luck brewer!

 

[Calder]

Hydrometer or Refractometer?

 

[allouez86]

Hydrometer or Refractometer?

Hydrometer

 

[LeftyRighty]

I've got a barleywine going now, OG = 1.120, started with an average ale yeast. At 6 days, the kraeusen dropped, at 10 days. no airlock activity and just a few tiny bubbles in the wort. FG = 1.054. Added Nottingham yeast and getting good airlock activity again. I'll give 2-3 more weeks, and stopped airlock, before checking again - shooting for FG = 1.025 or less.

I plan to secondary for several months, so I really don't care if I've actually achieved the actual true FG - I figure that finishing in secondary will do no harm.

 

[blizz81]

Yeah, I'd step up the starters a couple times probably. But pitching dried yeast is an ok idea to try to finish.


I'm assuming from the rest of your process details that this was a full boil? (I only ask because partial boil on a barleywine...our third beer ever...is what got me onto full boils. I forget what as it was probably 6 years ago, but I recall reading around and for some reason a partial boil on a huge beer like that, when you would mix with top-off water, you end up creating unfermentable sugars...we never got that barleywine palatable.)