Yeast/Starter Question

[thom]

I'm planning on brewing a barley wine with a OG of 1.128 this weekend and am worried about my yeast. I've always brewed smaller beers and just used rehydrated Nottingham yeast, but for this beer I picked up a vial of liquid Irish Ale yeast. I have two questions:

1. Will this yeast work for a beer this big? Should I have chosen something that can tolerate higher alcohol levels, such as champagne yeast?

2. Should I make a starter? I've never really worried about starters before but for a beer this big I think one might be in order. Are they necessary for vials of liquid yeast?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

 

[johnnybrew]

I've never made a barley wine, so I can't speak with direct experience. BUT, I would definitely get a big starter going. If you haven't been looking at pitching rates for past brews, I would recommend you do so in the future. Mr Malty (Jamil) has a great tool to help you figure out how much starter you will need for a brew. For example, on your 1.128 barley wine, you would need at least 5 liters of a simple starter for a 5.25 gal batch. Take a look here: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

You can also look on this page to research alcohol tolerance (see links to Wyeast and White Labs). http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast-tools.php

Also, here's an article from BYO: http://***********/stories/beer-sty...beer-styles/172-barleywine-style-of-the-month

Good luck!

 

[beerkrump]

You probably don't want the champagne yeast. It'll dry out your beer too much.

You might want to try making a small beer (maybe a 1.040 O.G. irish red) and use the yeast cake of that as your starter.

 

[thom]

Thanks guys!