Wyeast 1098 alcohol tolerance in barleywine

[beargrylls]

I brewed a 1.101 barleywine today, all Maris Otter mashed at 148-149. Pitched one smack pack of wyeast 1098 into 3.25 gal of wort. I'm hoping to get down to 1.020 or so. What's the highest ABV you guys have gotten this yeast to do? I'm also considering pitching another smack pack tomorrow, as each one has 100 billion cells and mr malty suggest 220 billion for this beer. Thoughts?

 

[specharka]

I brewed a 1.101 barleywine today, all Maris Otter mashed at 148-149. Pitched one smack pack of wyeast 1098 into 3.25 gal of wort. I'm hoping to get down to 1.020 or so. What's the highest ABV you guys have gotten this yeast to do? I'm also considering pitching another smack pack tomorrow, as each one has 100 billion cells and mr malty suggest 220 billion for this beer. Thoughts?

That's not nearly enough. Even at 100% viability you're looking at less than the minimum recommended pitch rate. You want to target 1.5M cells / mL-P, and even then you will struggle to achieve anything remotely close to the 80% apparent attenuation that you're seeking. That's 440 billion cells, not 220.

With big beers like barleywines, there is a greater threat of underpitching, because as yeast cells experience higher alcohol concentrations, they flocculate and go dormant. The higher pitch rates attempt to "trick" the yeast into doing their jobs before the surrounding conditions become too stressful.

Get yourself a vial of WLP099, build at least a 2L starter and pitch the entire volume at high krausen if you want to have a shot of getting there.

 

[beargrylls]

Yeah, after realizing my pitching mistake, I'm now planning on making a starter today and pitching it in at high karusen. I wanted to use Wyeast 1098 in the starter, but it looks like WLP099 may be a better idea

 

[beargrylls]

I ended up making a 1L starter with another pack of wyeast 1098 today, and I'm going to pitch it at high krausen into the already fermenting wort (which is explosively fermenting at 66F btw). I'm estimating 86 billion from the first pack directly into the wort (86% viability of 100 billion cells, based on production date), plus ~175 billion cells from the starter, which will get me to around 260 billion. Brewersfriend calc says I need 295 billion at 1 million cells/ml/plato, so I'm fairly close. Still underpitching a bit, but we'll see what happens. May need to grab that WLP099 if it doesn't finish out!

 

[fantomlord]

I ended up making a 1L starter with another pack of wyeast 1098 today, and I'm going to pitch it at high krausen into the already fermenting wort (which is explosively fermenting at 66F btw). I'm estimating 86 billion from the first pack directly into the wort (86% viability of 100 billion cells, based on production date), plus ~175 billion cells from the starter, which will get me to around 260 billion. Brewersfriend calc says I need 295 billion at 1 million cells/ml/plato, so I'm fairly close. Still underpitching a bit, but we'll see what happens. May need to grab that WLP099 if it doesn't finish out!

I would have probably waited until the active fermentation died down before making the starter to pitch at high krausen. Usually that technique is used either for finishing up a stalled ferment, or sometimes to clean up a lager that has high diacetyl, or something.

 

[motobrewer]

You want to target 1.5M cells / mL-P, and even then you will struggle to achieve anything remotely close to the 80% apparent attenuation that you're seeking. That's 440 billion cells, not 220.

1.5M is often quoted for lagers I believe. Ales are 0.75-1M.

 

[beargrylls]

I went with 1M/ml P as a guideline. Also, I wanted to pitch the "starter" as soon as possible to try to make up for the massive underpitch at the beginning. It's 5 days in now, and most of the yeast has flocced, although I did swirl the carboy a few times over the last few days to keep more in suspension. Will take a gravity reading soon.

 

[beargrylls]

Well, I took a gravity reading today and it is sitting at 1.017 (11% ABV)! After 7 days, 83% apparent attenuation! Was not expecting that. Tastes fairly sweet but a bit thin of a body for a BW, probably resulting from the low mash temp and use of only Maris Otter. Good taste tho, there is bitterness to back it up, reminds me a bit of Old Speckled Hen, but way stronger. Needs to age a bit of solvent character away though.

Now my decision is whether to leave it in primary and bottle next week (14 days total in primary), or transfer to secondary and age for another 2 weeks before bottling. As good as it tastes now, I see no reason to age in bulk other than consistency between bottles, as the aging process will continue in the bottles, albeit slower thank in bulk.

I would appreciate any suggestions from experience you guys may have on bottling high ABV beers earlier and aging in the bottle vs aging in secondary.