Beer Forum

I've got a Barleywine I seem to have botched a wee bit. I mashed pretty high (~156-158ish). Consider it learning from my mistakes as I hadn't quite grasped the degree of effect that the mash temp has on the final beer. The issue I've bumped into is that I'm at about 68.5% attenuation and stuck. My recipe is below. Have I gone too far and messed it all up?

I've been sitting @ 1.032 for the past week-ish (from 1.102). I've roused occasionally (every few days?) for the past two weeks and it was working for a bit (until about a week ago). I even let the temp get up to around ~75F trying to squeeze out any more fermentation. Should I cut my loses and rack to secondary for conditioning (it's been four weeks in primary)?

Thanks!



Characteristics
---------------
Target Recipe Gravity: 1.103 OG (actual 1.102)
Recipe Bitterness: 80 IBU
Recipe Color: 16° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.026
Alcohol by Volume: 9.9%
Alcohol by Weight: 7.8%

Ingredients
-----------
Belgian candi sugar, dark 1.00 lb, Sugar, Other
Light D.M.E. 3.00 lb, Extract, Extract
Maris Otter Malt 20.00 lb, Grain, Mashed

Fuggles 1.00 oz, Pellet, 15 minutes
Fuggles 1.00 oz, Whole, 30 minutes
Kent Golding 1.00 oz, Pellet, 15 minutes
Kent Golding 1.00 oz, Whole, 30 minutes
Magnum 2.00 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes

your probably done, don't worry, it won't be bad. my barleywine went from 1.113 to 1.030 and is awesome, it's a hefty beer and a little extra body won't kill it. i would mash a dash lower next time.

In the spirit of the most recent Sunday session, add glucoamylase to get a few more points of attenuation. This will definitely help with the high mash temp problem.

Yep, that one is too sweet. There are all sorts of schools of thought on what to do. All of them work to some degree for some, but not all, folks.

You are currently sitting at about 9.4% ABV. While that is within the tolerance of many yeasts during fermentation, it is too high to get much if any growth. This will work against you if you try to pitch more yeast. Some folks will suggest pitching another yeast at high krausen, others will suggest a champagne yeast. It might work for some situations, such as underpitching or poor yeast health of the original pitch. However, your problem is long chain sugars that are hard for yeast to digest.

Pitching some Beano in there is another thing some folks will advocate. This will help break down those sugars, but there is really no way to control just how much it will take the gravity down.

My approach is to simply rack off the yeast cake in the next week or two into a keg. Stick the keg in a closet at room temperature and let it sit for a year. I have had barleywines like yours attenuate out another 10 points that way and turn out quite good. Until you do get around to racking it, continue to rouse the yeast every couple of days. This will help both in the long term and the short term. You want some yeast still in suspension when you put it into long term aging. The amount is small enough you don't need to worry abut autolysis. (Think about bottle conditioned beers that sit for years and keep getting better.)

I do think you have learned your lesson about mash temperatures and big beers. I generally mash them at around 148-149° for around 90 minutes. Conversion takes place much quicker than that, but many of the longer chain sugars that are created tend to break down the long the mash.

Good luck with this one whatever you do.

Wayne

Definitely learned my lesson, Bug. I'd rather not wait a year (I was hoping to get this guy done in time for the holidays) though I appreciate the input.

Anymore info on where to find that enzyme or really any info at all on it (how to use it) would be helpful. I'm going to listen to the session episode and try to catch what I can, but I'm running to the HBS tomorrow so I'd like to pick something up then.

Any additional advice on rubbing out those extra points would be great. Suggested yeast/implementation?

What about adding 1-2 drops of olive oil, and stir it for a minute? It's something my lhbs owner suggested once. Might be worth a shot to get the yeast moving.

what does olive oil do?

Have you tried swirling the beer in the carboy? I do this sometimes to rouse the yeast.

Or you can do what I do with my stuck beers. Pitch brettanomyces and put it in the corner!

I have a big saison that I tried every homebrew stores advice on - which was mainly to pitch champagne yeast (not a fan of this solution) I tried 2 different champagne yeasts, and nothing! I heard that brett likes stress so I pitched Brett. Lambicus, and she's got a beautiful pellicle going right now.

Yeah it sucks to wait, but I didn't want to have a barley-wine-like Saison.

Good Luck!

I have a brewing buddy that had a big ale (10.5% shooting for 14% kinda in between styles) that did not finish as low as he wanted. We transferred it to a new carboy with a dose of enzyme and lots of new yeast. No luck with the enzyme. There is only so much we can ask of you yeast. If the enzyme works for you it might only get you a few more points at best. I would pull it off the yeast and age as long as you can. Or rebrew a new batch, mash lower and shoot for a very dry finish and blend. Barleywines are all about time and old age. The longer you can wait the better the out come can be.