Barleywine, time to cold crash?

[tacks]

Hi all I'm doing my second barleywine currently (first one turned out like crap), and I am wondering if I should be cold crashing it, here's my situation: Brewed this batch on the 1st of this month, I did a 1.5 liter starter of White Labs WLP099 (Super High Gravity Ale) that I started at 1.075 and let go for two days at approximately 70*F (no stir plate, just lots of agitating it). My OG was 1.109, and 5 days later my gravity is currently at a super dry 1.012. ( although I had blowoff tubing, there were two big blowoffs sending the lid and krausen all over the place). I took readings twice because I didn't believe that I'd dropped 97 points over the course of 5 days, and the airlock is still going strong. I'm at 13% ABV and don't mind if it goes beyond that, but I'm just wondering at what point this will stop fermenting. Any suggestions on whether cold crashing would be advised?

 

[poptarts]

dont cold crash for at least a few days after gravity stops dropping. you want to give the yeast time to clean up the massive mess they are making.

 

[GuldTuborg]

Yes, don't cold crash until well after fermentation is complete.

And you seem, thus far, to be fine from it, but no more high gravity starters, OK? Keep all starters at 1.040 or a bit lower.

 

[TommyTbar]

That was a really small starter for that sort of beer assuming a 5 gallon batch, also don't make a starter that high of gravity it stresses the yeast out, not the best for yeast growth, I would let it finish out as the previous comment stated to let the yeast clean up, I would be a little worried about a super low gravity for that big of a beer tho, you should post your recipe, at this point you have 88% attenuation which is on the high end, it might taste a bit thin and boozy for a while


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[tacks]

Thanks for the responses, this was the first starter I'd done, I figured since my OG was going to be so high, the better to get the yeast used to the environment, next time I'll know better. Hopefully I can mellow this batch out a bit and balance it with a couple vanilla beans and maybe a cinnamon stick with some oak in secondary, will hold off on the cold crash until she bottoms out though. As a follow up question, I was going to bulk age this batch for 4-6 months then bottle, any suggestions for yeast to bottle with? I've heard the cask/bottle conditioning yeast works great but I've never bottled with fresh yeast before. Any guidance would be well received. Thanks again!

 

[tacks]

Also, recipe was:

24# 2 row US
2# honey malt
2# flaked barley
1# crystal 120L
1# candi 75L

Not sure hops really matter for my questions but it was 1 oz magnum (12.4%) and 2 oz northdown (8.6%) @ 60 min.

 

[Hermit]

WLP099 (Super High Gravity Ale)? I've not heard anyone give this a favorable report in terms of beer making. Sometimes I've seen people start with something else and finish off with this. Have you heard different?

 

[tacks]

Well I used it to great effect for an imperial wheat and imperial cherry wheat, @hermit... Great scores on northern brewer where I ordered the supplies for on this batch... Also didn't see any other yeasts that would provide results above 12-13% abv reliably and without question (also, according to Beersmith, I ran about 20 points under what I should have, but with that much grain and no sparge since I was doing a partigyle batch, from what I understand is normal) please guide me if you've had good results with another yeast for that high of gravity though, would love to trade bottles.

 

[Hermit]

You are the first to report acceptable flavor profiles that I have seen. Maybe I just have been reading the wrong stuff. Like I said earlier, most I've seen is people saying they use it to finish up a fermentation.