So i was invited on a barrel fill for a barley wine thru the local home brew shop. 10 people brew 5 gal batches and we soak in the barrel for 3 to 4 months. Tasting party before to make sure nobody has infections or off flavors.They give you a recipe to follow and my og was 1.083. They said to pitch 4 packs of us05 and i did along with some wyeast nutrient. After it tock off i put it in a water bucket with just 2 ice packs changed daily. Saw bubbler activity for 6 days and checked gravity and im at 1.041. I pulled it from the water bucket and shook the bucket to see if i could liven the yeast back up. Any suggestions? Warmer room maybe?The room its in hangs around 67 degrees. Thanks,
A beer that big takes longer to get to FG than a standard beer - it’s likely not done yet if it’s only been six days. Yeah, let it sit outside the water bath and warm up to room temp. And then if you have a warmer (upstairs) room where the beer could get up near 75F that would help spur the yeast to eat some more sugar. Then just give it some time. I’d warm it up and check FG in a week - 10 days.
EDIT - Did you oxygenate very throughly ? Big beers need extra oxygenation.
I dont oxygenate with a bottle but when i tranfer i hold the tube up considerably to splash and get oxygen in it that way. Thanks for the input just put it in the warmest room in the house.
4 packs of US-O5 is way more than necessary for a 1.083 OG. 2 packs would have been just fine. With that being said, proper aeration is huge as Hoosier stated. It can really help the yeast attenuate properly in a big beer.
What did your grain bill look like?
22lbs 2 row
1 lb carmunich 2
4oz special b (castle malting)
I thought the yeast was overkill as well but then figured because of the high alcohol content may bee an over pitch was necessary.
You should definitely have a lower FG than 1.041 with that grain bill and if you used dry yeast then you shouldn’t really need any oxygen as dry yeast has all the reserves they need. Although a bigger beer can still probably benefit from some additional O2.
One very important variable that hasn’t been mentioned is the mashing temperature. For a beer that big, the mashing temperature should have been in the mid to high 140F’s to produce a highly fermentable wort. In my experience, a wort that big doesn’t need to rely on dextrins and other less fermentable sugars.
I’ve been making Barleywines for the past 10 years and I always mash at 152-153. I’ve never had a problem with attenuation, but I use an entire slurry from a previous 1.050 batch of beer.
what measurement method are you using? if refractometer are you adjusting for alcohol?
O2 is not as big of a deal with using dry yeast, I doubt that is the issue. just more time and warm it up and it’ll be fine. four packs were overkill though.