Barleywine in primary for about 6 months. Now what?

[snowcapt]

Had it in a bucket, in the basement since Mid-October.
Just sampled it to see what I wanted to do with it. Measures in at 1.019. Smells good, tastes good.
Temp never got above 55F, so it sat slow and low.
I think I am going to transfer it to a carboy and let it buck for a bit longer, or maybe just bottle it up. Not sure.
Do signs of yeast death and abuse show themselves up front or is that something I get to risk and find out later?
I figure if it smells and tastes good going in, then it should be even better coming out.
Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions?
The recipe is "Old Monster" from BCS, BTW.
Thanks!

[leaky_porch]

Drink it!

If you're going to bottle condition it, I'd suggest some bottling yeast to make sure it gets carbonated. My eighth batch was a barleywine and I ended up with a lot of flat bottles. If you had yeast autolysis, you could pick up some "meat" aroma(not be confused with "meet" aroma. that's much worse. ).

You're right - if you like the way it tastes now, it should only get better with cold conditioning and carbonation.

[brewinhard]

Agreed! Bottle it up with some fresh rehydrated yeast (I prefer champagne for its cheap cost and ability to ferment in a high ABV% environment). Start enjoying those as soon as they are carbonated up!

[leaky_porch]

FWIW, I've heard that Sierra Nevada uses lager yeast for bottle conditioning because it's very flavor-neutral. Champagne yeast is great in high-alcohol environments, but I'd be concerned about it drying the beer out more and contributing its own flavor that might not be appropriate in a barleywine.

[snowcapt]

I think I'm going to keg it and force Carb it, then bottle it via Tasty's fancy bottle filler.

[brewinhard]

FWIW, I've heard that Sierra Nevada uses lager yeast for bottle conditioning because it's very flavor-neutral. Champagne yeast is great in high-alcohol environments, but I'd be concerned about it drying the beer out more and contributing its own flavor that might not be appropriate in a barleywine.

Using rehydrated champagne yeast will not consume any more residual sugars than your original saccharomyces used during primary fermentation. Especially when used for bottling. I have been doing this for years and have never seen a decrease in gravity points after packaging (unless it was with a sour beer).