Barleywine stuck & other q's

[BrewerJ]

If you want to lower the final gravity you have two good options in my opinion. First would be to make a starter and when its at full krausen pitch it into your bw after racking to a new fermentor so that you aren't still sitting on all of that trub. Second is to harvest yeast off of a very recent fermentation, easily done if you have a conicle, and pitch that into your bw after racking off of the old yeast. Also make sure its warm like 68-72 so that the yeast is very active.

[geekbits]

Thanks Saco, making an IPA first sounds like a perfect solution since i love me some IPA too. wish i had known that before i tried. :/ i racked it to secondary the other day and was tasting it, it wasnt overwhelmingly sweet like it was when i first tried it. unfortunately it's only 9ish% abv and i wanted at least double digits, though i obviously want it to taste good too.

thanks kace for the comments on the trub. i'll need to read a little bit more about it, but i'm thinking i will keep it out next time.

brewerJ, i have been debating pretty hard on pitching another starter to lower the FG, i'm on the fence about it especially after tasting it the other day and not thinking it was too bad. i'll be bummed if it doesnt lower the gravity much (waste of money and yeast) and i'm uncertain how much lower it will get, so am unsure it's worth it.

[BrewerJ]

use yeast from one of your next brews and it won't cost you any extra money. Make the starter out of some wort from a brew day and then its all free. But if it tastes good don't worry about it, remember that barleywines will get sweeter as they age and the hops drop out. So if its sweet now it will be real sweat in a couple of years.

[ziggy]

You could also throw in some champagne yeast. It's cheap, easy, alcohol tolerant, and neutral.

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

I am brewing a variation of Jamil's recipe in two weeks. Today I am brewing Tasty APA, and will use that yeast in my barleywine. And if you are at 1.033, bottle that puppy! It's done.

[BrewerJ]

+1 on champaign yeast however you need to make a starter for it don't just throw it in. If you brew lagers you can use some lager yeast as they are able to ferment sugars that ale yeast cant. I have used lager yeast to drop the final gravity of a double ipa before.

[ApresSkiBrewer]

+1 on champaign yeast however you need to make a starter for it don't just throw it in. If you brew lagers you can use some lager yeast as they are able to ferment sugars that ale yeast cant. I have used lager yeast to drop the final gravity of a double ipa before.

+1 on the Champaign yeast as well. If it still comes across a little sweet, you want to get it as dry as possible, if you plan on aging it. Remember though, carbonation provides a little bitterness (or dryness if you will) as well, because it helps lift the beer off the palate. Mind you, still beer tastes much different/sweeter (in some instances) than carbonated beer. If you think its close, and you don't want to put any more time and money into it, bottle it, drink a bottle every 2 months or so... and if it starts to get a little too sweet, just drink it all up and brew it again!

BrewerJ, good tip with the lager yeast... I've never heard of that before... Would you pitch it (high krausen of course, with a starter) at ale temps?

[BrewerJ]

The one time I did it I pitched a starter of 830 ( high Krausen) that I harvested off of a recent oktoberfest. I wanted the yeast to be very active so I kept it at about 58 degrees. It dropped it from 1.022 to 1.016 and I was happy with the results. You could tell that there was a little lager character but the beer overall was much better than it was before.