Wyeast 1056 Real tolerance

[jester5120]

I've been having trouble finding any info on how alcohol tolerant wyeast 1056 really is. Wyeast claims it's good to around 10 or 11%. I just brewed a barleywine that is reaching 11% and i'm not sure if i'm gonna have issues at bottling. I started the yeast on it's second generation in a 1L 1.040 starter that went into a 1.060 ipa. I threw the 3 gallons of barleywine onto this mega yeast cake with some wyeast nutrients in the wort. This is the first beer i've brewed that is over 11% so i'm really not sure how bottling will go. I've read a lot of articles about people using wlp099 or champagne yeast in there at high alcohol levels but i wanted some advice from veterans on what to do.

 

[a10t2]

The highest I've personally gone is 14.5% ABV. I'd guess its tolerance is somewhere in the high teens.

To guarantee good carbonation you might want to rehydrate a quarter packet or so of dry yeast and mix it into the bottling bucket with the priming sugar.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

You might try krauesening.

See this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/carbing-12-barleywine-after-4-months-secondary-240625/

 

[jester5120]

awesome. thanks for the ideas. another question i had was about it being too dry. It started 1.092 and is sitting right around 1.010. Would my barleywine benefit from adding some more sugar so it has some sort of residual sweetness? I wasn't originally going to throw any in because I was worried about yeast dying off and not carbing the beer but now I have more options.

 

[a10t2]

Adding simple sugars (which are ~100% fermentable) will create more alcohol and dry the beer out further. To increase the SG you would need to add something unfermentable like maltodextrin.

Most importantly, though, how does it taste? No sense in fixing something that isn't broken.

 

[Saccharomyces]

The Chico strain can ferment up to about 15% under the right conditions. I don't think carbing will be an issue unless the beer sits in secondary more than a few weeks.

 

[JuanMoore]

The Chico strain can ferment up to about 15% under the right conditions. I don't think carbing will be an issue unless the beer sits in secondary more than a few weeks.

+1
I've brewed several 11-13% ABV beers using the Chico strain and bottle carbed as usual without any issues. I don't see any need to add anything to help ensure carbonation, but if it makes you feel better do it.

 

[jester5120]

the airlock is still bubbling every few minutes so i guess the yeast is doing ok. I was gonna age this for a 2 months or so but now i'm thinking i'll just bottle after a month and bottle condition it.

 

[jester5120]

not to kick up an old thread but I pushed the 1056 yeast strain to 15% in an 18.5% stout that i made. I had to throw in the wlp099 to finish off the rest but the chico strain is tough as hell