Flat Barleywine

[moparx12]

Hey guys,

I was having a problem with carbonation and wanted to get someone elses opinion on what to do about it.

I brewed a small batch of barleywine about 2 months ago and it has been aging in bottles for about 3 weeks now. I have opened a couple of them already and found that the beer is not carbonated - just a very slight hiss when the cap is popped.

It sat in the secondary vessel for about a month and cleared very nicely. I also used that plastic powder to help clear the beer and help with chill haze. I am thinking that too much of the yeast dropped out of suspension which is why i am having the problem.

should i add a small amount of yeast to each bottle? If so what strain? ABV is around 9.5-10. Im confident that adding more sugar alone will not help because i have tried it.

Thanks

 

[Ichthy]

If it's only been 3 weeks in the bottle you need to keep waiting. It can take much longer with a high ABV beers. There is no way you cleared enough yeat out of suspension. Just RDWHAHB.

 

[bassbone]

anytime I brew a Big beer (8% ABV + or so) I always add a second yeast at bottling time. I generally just go with dry yeast (US05) no matter what strain I used to ferment. It is not necessarily just yeast dropping out.... more likely there is still yeast there, it is just exhausted due to the work it has done.

Huge beers are a lot of stress for yeast, so your experience with it not properly carbonating in bottles is not all that uncommon.

What temp have these been sitting at since you bottled?

I would give it a while longer (maybe check in another 2 weeks) and if they are still flat start thinking about adding yeast.

 

[Beernip]

If you heard a slight hiss then it is working but just needs more time. Store the bottles at 70* for at least 4 weeks with a big BW. My BW is the same way right now after 3 weeks in the bottle but I don't plan on drinking it until Christmas time (8 months of aging) so am being patient.

 

[soundsandsuds]

Were they refrigerated for a couple of days beforehand? That's necessary to get the CO2 to dissolve into solution. Huge beers take longer to carb, too.

 

[Revvy]

Waitafreakinminute!!! You brewed a barelywine 2 months ago and you want to drink it now?

And you bottled a barleywine 3 weeks ago, and you think there's a problem because it is not carbed yet?!?!!?

Are you freaking nuts?????

We're talking months here, not weeks!!! Most barelywine don't even go into the bottle for at least 6 months....maybe even a year.

I just made a barleywine going on three weeks ago that I won't even be drinking for 5 years......I don't even know yet when it is going to go into secondary let alone when it will be going into bottles....

Even without talking about whether it should even be in the bottles yet, or whether you should be even considering drinking it yet...It's not surprising it isn't carbed yet.

There's nothing wrong...it's a big beer you have there, it will take time. The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."

If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them ore time. If you added your sugar, then the beer will carb up eventually, it's really a foolroof process. All beers will carb up eventually. A lot of new brewers think they have to "troubleshoot" a bottling issue, when there really is none, the beer knows how to carb itself. In fact if you run beersmiths carbing calculator, some lower grav beers don't even require additional sugar to reach their minimum level of carbonation. Just time.

Lazy Llama came up with a handy dandy chart to determine how long something takes in brewing, whether it's fermentation, carbonation, bottle conditioning....

Yours in in the "long time" category, so go brew something else that will be ready in a few weeks.

So forget about this beer for awhile. Like a year from now at least. Due yourself a favor, give this beer the time that it needs....there's a reason they are called barleywines they need a lot of time to mellow.

 

[kevmoron]

Notwithstanding the emphatic tone of post above this one (Understand that for any post about lack of carbonation, you will get the same response from Revvy - it's reflexive), it's possible that you lost most of the yeast in the process of fining the beer, in addition to it being a very challenging high alcohol environment.

What did you use? Isinglass? Gelatin? Polyclar? These can strip out the yeast.

I'd wait another month - for a barleywine it won't hurt it to age a bit longer. If you don't have carbonation in a month, select a good hardy high attenuation yeast strain with a high alcohol tolerance and make yourself a starter. Dose 1 mL of slurry into each bottle and recap. If you already had priming sugar in there, they should carb up.

 

[soundsandsuds]

I say leave it. Mucking with it is the wrong thing to do. One of the functions of a Barleywine is its ability to improve over decades. Let it carb and get better. Unless you pasteurized it or passed it through a very fine filter, it will carb up.
RDWHAHB.

Make a low grav session beer like a Mild or an Ordinary Bitter. It'll be ready nice and quick.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

it's possible that you lost most of the yeast in the process of fining the beer, in addition to it being a very challenging high alcohol environment.

It's possible... but not very probable. Even when using finings the specifically target yeast (I know gelatin works really well), you will still have more than enough yeast in suspension to carbonate. Even if you let your beer sit for months, it is still most likely going to carb without the addition of new yeast.

 

[Eisendrath]

I've only made a 1/2 doz or so Barlywines, but my input is 6 months conditioning, and it's worth it.

 

[Revvy]

I've only made a 1/2 doz or so Barlywines, but my input is 6 months conditioning, and it's worth it.

Only a half dozen....that probably makes you an expert. Or at least someone with a fairly good amount of experience.

 

[moparx12]

What did you use? Isinglass? Gelatin? Polyclar? These can strip out the yeast.

Polyclar