Big buzz barleywine

[eric19312]

Impressive attenuation. Did not think you would get there with all the extract. I do primary fermentations for up to a month but when going longer than that use a secondary. I'd think the cooler basement temp you have would be a great place to secondary this big beer for a few months before bottling.

 

[ThaBrewFather06]

I only use a secondary for adding extra flavors, for example, cherries, oak, dry hopping, etc... If I am not adding anything after the primary fermentation, I let it completely ferment out, wait a week or so, then bottle. No need to add an extra step of sanitizing, cleaning, etc...

That said, the beers I've had aging recently (one is still in secondary on oak), were kept around 60-63 in the basement.

I usually only use primary fermenter as you said above but I added French oak chips for flavoring in the secondary that's reall the reason for a secondary in this beer.

 

[chumpsteak]

To be fair, low attenuation isn't even the major reason to not under pitch. Over stressing the yeast into making off flavors is a big reason.

This. Did you taste it yet? I would be surprised if its not hot with fusels. Seems like for 4 bucks you would have just pitched 2 packs. Pitching only 1 packet on that big of beer is a huge risk that just seems unnecessary. I will also say that the fusel packed beers I made when first starting out actually over attenuated, so that low of attenuation is not necessarily a good thing.

Anyway, hope it turns out well for you.

 

[ThaBrewFather06]

Bottling today after one month in secondary on oak chips tastes really good now can't wait for it to carb up.

 

[ThaBrewFather06]

This. Did you taste it yet? I would be surprised if its not hot with fusels. Seems like for 4 bucks you would have just pitched 2 packs. Pitching only 1 packet on that big of beer is a huge risk that just seems unnecessary. I will also say that the fusel packed beers I made when first starting out actually over attenuated, so that low of attenuation is not necessarily a good thing.

Anyway, hope it turns out well for you.

I had a local brewmaster taste it yesterday her response to this was. There is no reason to double pitch yeast's sole purpose is to reproduce and there is an excellent place for that in an 11% beer. Double pitching can make a yeasty tasting beer. By the time the wort fully ferments the yeast can have reproduced to almost double anyway. The beer does not have any off tastes and had a FG of 1.018. I'm done with people second guessing my pitch when I have a 20+ year vet gaining me help. I don't claim to be an amazing brewer but she has a piece of paper that says she is.

 

[pabloj13]

I had a local brewmaster taste it yesterday her response to this was. There is no reason to double pitch yeast's sole purpose is to reproduce and there is an excellent place for that in an 11% beer. Double pitching can make a yeasty tasting beer. By the time the wort fully ferments the yeast can have reproduced to almost double anyway. The beer does not have any off tastes and had a FG of 1.018. I'm done with people second guessing my pitch when I have a 20+ year vet gaining me help. I don't claim to be an amazing brewer but she has a piece of paper that says she is.

<Sigh> No one was advocating "double pitching". If that's what your local brewmaster told you, then I'd be leary of their advice going forward. That advice demonstrates a lack of understanding of some pretty basic brewing principles. I'm glad for you, however, that there are no off flavors. As people get told here all the time, it'll still make beer.

But in the future, if you're not looking for feedback on your practices, maybe saying something like this is a little silly:

Anyone have any suggestions on this?

Good luck.