Bottle Conditioning a Carboy Aged Barleywine

[Wheelin & Dylan]

I have an American Barleywine that has been aging in a carboy for a little over four months. In the Jamil Show - American Barleywine, at the 46:50 mark, the caller runs into an issue where he bottles his barleywine as usual with priming sugar. He opens the bottle weeks later and it has not carbonated at all. Jamil then says you have to repitch fresh yeast.

At the moment, I don't have any other option than to bottle condition this batch. So I guess what I'm looking for is some guidance on when & how to go about repitching this fresh yeast. Do I do this just before bottling? Do I make a starter? Pitch rate? Suggested strain (originally used Pacific Ale Yeast)?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[imahokie]

I tossed some US-05 (I think - it was dry yeast anyway) at bottling time w/ the sugar. From what I read, after fermentation it doesn't really matter what yeast you throw in, as you can't convert the sugars from the grain/extract any further so you shouldn't be able to change the flavor. Nothing fancy, just pitch and mix.

I had mine in a carboy for 7 months, pitched yeast & sugar in the bucket, bottled, and 6 months later had a good barleywine - 6 months after that I had an outstanding barleywine. Every bottle has been carbonated fine (don't worry about the amount of yeast - worry about the amount of sugar for carbonation).

[Wheelin & Dylan]

Thanks. Yeah, I guess you're right. If there isn't anything in there for the yeast to munch on, it really doesn't matter as far as the taste is concerned.

What I'm gonna do is dump half a vial of Cali Ale yeast in there prior to bottling. That should be enough yeast to make sure that some of it is suspended throughout the 5G batch.

[skerrydude]

The way I did mine was to use a dry pack of champagne/wine yeast. It has a higher alcohol tolerance. I also used about half as much priming sugar as normal, as barleywines should not be overly carbonated.

[maxwell]

Champagne yeast is the way to go because of the alcohol tolerance. One thing to keep in mind is that after aging for months post-fermentation in a carboy, the amount of dissolved CO2 in the beer is going to be much lower than it would be immediately after a fermentation, so you need to add more priming sugar to achieve a given carb level. Brewers of sour beers have this exact same problem and recommend something like 6 oz corn sugar per 5 gal for something like a Flanders Red.

[Wheelin & Dylan]

I'm worried that with Champagne yeast, it will further attenuate any unfermented sugars that the original yeast (Pacific Ale yeast) didn't get to. The Champagne yeast obviously has a higher tolerance to alcohol.

Also, and I'm not doubting anyone's brewing knowledge, but Jamil specifically says in the podcast not to use champagne yeast. I know, he's been wrong before and brewing techniques do change.... not that there is technically a right or wrong here. Its just that the only thing I need this yeast to do is take care of the priming sugar that will condition my bottles.

[Wheelin & Dylan]

Sheeeeeeeit. Disregard that previous post. I'm pickin up what you're puttin down now. You use the champagne yeast because of its alcohol tolerance. Duh... I'm a little slow. If its 10% in there, the Cali yeast I planned on using might be too stressed - even if its just to prime my bottles.

Thanks guys.

[Quin]

Assuming you beer was completely fermented out, there shouldn't be anything left for the champagne yeast to consume other than the new sugar. However, if the primary yeast stopped for some reason, the champagne yeast probably would ferment the sugar plus any other fermentables remaining.

You might take a gravity reading, add some sugar to a small sample with champagne yeast, and see if it ferments down any lower before you commit to the entire batch.