A group of us in the local homebrew club are brewing separate 5 gallon batches of barley wine, all using the same recipe, to be aged in a 55 gallon whiskey barrel.
I brewed three weeks ago starting with an O.G. of 1.119, and pitched WLP-007 from an active 2.1 liter starter in an oxygenated (2 lpm for 2 min) 64 degree wort.
I saw active fermentation in about 6 hours, turning to an almost violent fermentation within 18 hours. After two days of controlled fermentation at 64F, I let the wort self-rise to 68F and held until fermentation slowed (about 11 days), removed the blow-off tube and put in an "S" type air-lock.
I checked the S.G. this morning (22 days of fermentation) and I am at 1.040, which is roughly 10.3% ABV.
I looked at the White Labs website and they give an alcohol tolerance of 8 to 12% for WLP007, while other websites list the tolerance at 10%.
I would like to dry-out by adding a second pitch of Montrachet wine yeast. Theoretically, with a good fermentation, it would take the work down to 1.012 S.G., which is fine with me.
I have never brewed a barley wine before. My concern is that the wine yeast could restart fermentation in the larger 55 gallon barrel batch, once it all combined together, start an active fermentation and/or dry out the overall batch.
Do any of you have had experience with a second pitch and/or the effects of wine yeast in a combined batch? If so, please... your input and thoughts are welcome.
I brewed three weeks ago starting with an O.G. of 1.119, and pitched WLP-007 from an active 2.1 liter starter in an oxygenated (2 lpm for 2 min) 64 degree wort.
I saw active fermentation in about 6 hours, turning to an almost violent fermentation within 18 hours. After two days of controlled fermentation at 64F, I let the wort self-rise to 68F and held until fermentation slowed (about 11 days), removed the blow-off tube and put in an "S" type air-lock.
I checked the S.G. this morning (22 days of fermentation) and I am at 1.040, which is roughly 10.3% ABV.
I looked at the White Labs website and they give an alcohol tolerance of 8 to 12% for WLP007, while other websites list the tolerance at 10%.
I would like to dry-out by adding a second pitch of Montrachet wine yeast. Theoretically, with a good fermentation, it would take the work down to 1.012 S.G., which is fine with me.
I have never brewed a barley wine before. My concern is that the wine yeast could restart fermentation in the larger 55 gallon barrel batch, once it all combined together, start an active fermentation and/or dry out the overall batch.
Do any of you have had experience with a second pitch and/or the effects of wine yeast in a combined batch? If so, please... your input and thoughts are welcome.