underattenuated wedding barleywine at bottling!!!

[pwndabear]

uh oh

so my wedding barleywine is way underattenuated from ~1.080 down to 1.036. i have no choice but to bottle today and i have 19 gallons to do (2 carboys with 6.5 gal and 1 with 6). There was some attempted mitigation of the high grav but options fell through.

I was thinking of just going with 1oz priming sugar for each 5 gallons as these beers are meant to sit for a year and be imbibed on our 1 year anniversary.

Does that sound about right to you experts out there?

 

[AnOldUR]

I'd wait and distribute them when you know it's safe. Giving friends and relatives bottle bombs is never good.

Create some kind of card with a clever IOU on it.

 

[AnOldUR]

Maybe wait until the one year mark to hand them out.

 

[mdbrewer1]

What was your expected FG? I'd be very concerned with making bottle bombs considering there is probably still quite a bit of fermentable sugar left.

I'm still fairly new, but if that were my beer I'd re-pitch with new yeast and see if I could get it down further. I'm sure some of the experienced brewers can point you in the right direction if you choose to go that route.

Any particular reason you can't wait on the bottling?

 

[pwndabear]

the wedding is next week and i have to give them out as favors.

i was taking with some of the brewers at the brewery I work in and they were saying that theres definitely something up with the yeast in the beer. They said not to worry about bottle bombs since the beer has been sitting for about 2 months at the same gravity so its very unlikely that they will eat anything else except the dextrose which would be easy for them to eat.

i cant distribute them post-wedding as the logistics of that are ridic especially since we have people coming from all over the place.

 

[Microscopist]

At 1036 I wouldn't prime, especially if it's meant to be stored. I don't even prime for something at 1010 and it still carbonates

 

[pwndabear]

hmmm not priming is actually a decent option. gravity indeed has not changed and it is a barleywine so low carbonation is a valid option

 

[AnOldUR]

They said not to worry about bottle bombs since the beer has been sitting for about 2 months at the same gravity so its very unlikely that they will eat anything else except the dextrose which would be easy for them to eat.

Maybe not the Saccharomyces, but there's a boat load of sugar in there that some other slower eating bug might find inviting. It's your call. Good luck!

 

[Darwin18]

I honestly wouldn't give those out. Worse case scenario is that you give a loved one stitches or worse. Best case scenario is that people get a cloyingly sweet beer. Neither are great options. Go with a commercial barley wine if you're set on handing that out, or come up with a different favor. Sorry - your options are not very good with this beer at the moment.

 

[j1n]

Nothing says "Thanks for coming to my wedding" more than a face full of broken glass.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

No real good options here.
If it were me, I'd sit on the beer for a while and get some pint glasses or steins etched and hand them out instead. Gotta make sure they have something to pour into right? Giving the beer out on the first anniversary or even when you get back from the honeymoon isn't a bad idea if you can fix the beer in that time.
Are these favors for everyone or just the wedding party?

 

[pwndabear]

everyone.

i talked with my head brewer and we discussed the fact that since the yeast has been dormant for 3 weeks, the likelihood of bottle bombs is very small. i am priming 6.5 gal with 1.3oz of dextrose. ill be sitting on them for a week before giving them out and that, we feel, is more than enough time to determine if something bad is going to happen.

thanks for the advice!

 

[eric19312]

get some heavy bottles.

 

[AnOldUR]

horse . . . water . . . no drinky :cross:

 

[mdbrewer1]

Best of luck. I'd keep one of those in a fairly warm place in your house, preferably somewhere that is easy to clean, so you can be the first person to find out if you handed out bombs.

 

[rocketsan]

You're a fool if you give these out. Plain and simple...


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[cannman]

Perhaps bottle in champagne bottles for extra carbonation resistance?

 

[ong]

Doesn't it kinda taste bad with that little attenuation? Is it something you'd want to drink currently? If it is, you could always km/sorbate or pasteurize it, force carb, and bottle. If you're planning on the sweetness decreasing with age, though, that means CO2 formation.

 

[DSorenson]

Out of curiosity, which yeast did you use?

 

[barnaclebob]

Do barley wines ferment very slowly at the end like wine does? I know I let my wine sit for months with no change in gravity. Three months after bottling with no added sugar one broke and I have sparkling wine....

Also the worst thing I can do as a cook or brewer besides get everyone sick is serve bad product... Does the beer taste good? If not own your mistake of procratinating and move on

 

[MindenMan]

If the people you are planning on gifting are people you care about, don't give them potential bottle bombs. I bottled a batch of Strong Scotch Ale in April, and the bottle bombs are still going off. Out of two cases, less than one dozen are left. They are in my garage, in a heavy plastic tub with a weighted cover. I would NOT prime those bottles with anything, just bottle and tell everyone, "Oh, by the way, these bottles might explode with zero notice.." at that point, everyone will consider the nice gesture you made, thank you anyway, but just say no.

 

[Doctor_M]

I feel bad for you since this is your wedding beer but add me to the list of "I wouldn't hand it out".

 

[sandyeggoxj]

80 to 36 is not much of a fermentation. Heck, 1.080 isn't that high of a gravity! Put me in the line for "what yeast did you use"? Also, what were the mitigation tactics that you tried? Did you try a forced ferment? You could still do that and see what happens over the next 48 hours. It might be a PITA, but a voucher for one bottle via UPS delivered in 1 year might be a good thing! Besides, you'll be married for a year and rolling in cash by then. Win-Win!

 

[ja09]

I had a very similar experience with a RIS early last year with a somewhat finicky yeast, wlp007. 1.093 to 1.036. Tried everything in the primary to get lower and only got to 1.033. Got busy with life and frustrated with the beer, finally transferred to secondary over three months in because I wanted to batch age. Low & behold, bubbles started rising to the surface again ever so slowly. Two months later it was at 1.018! Turned out fantastic but a little too thin, was shooting for 1.026. Just drank one the other night and it really is turning into an insanely good beer, even if a little thin.

Please don't force a beer to be ready when it's not, especially when bottling. You could seriously injure someone. Give it to them when it's ready. Like others have said, the 1 year anniversary sounds like a great time!

 

[barnaclebob]

Also I never got the trend of "wedding favors" You're already getting a free meal and booze, what more of a favor do you need?