Residual Sugars

[zenmaster298]

Hi All,

I made a barleywine for my fourth batch ever. It is a "partial-mash" that ended up about 10.5% abv. I am getting A LOT of residual sugars when I pour it out of the bottle and not a lot of carbonation. It has been in the bottles 2 months now and I was expecting it to be much more carbonated. My guess is the yeast did not do their job when I added the priming sugar?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[gelatin]

What do you mean you see a lot of residual sugars? Barleywines are supposed to be big malt bombs with a lot of sweetness.

10.5% is pushing it for a lot of yeast, meaning they can barely work at that level of alcohol. You might do well to turn the bottles over once a day to rouse the yeast and make sure they're at 70-75 degrees and check again in a couple of weeks. You can also just wait long-term, meaning months. If all else fails, you can boil some water and re-pitch tiny amounts of yeast into each bottle and then re-cap, but this can be dangerous if too much fermentable sugar is left.

 

[zenmaster298]

What I mean is, I see a lot of sugars on the glass, as opposed to a clean lacing with alcohol legs. Most barleywines I have had, are very smooth in appearance, mine looks like I mixed a teaspoon of sugar with a glass of iced tea.

Will definitely rouse the yeast, thanks for the advice. I'd rather drink flat beer than re-pitch yeast. Its delicious just not the way I wanted it to look.

 

[gelatin]

Oh wow, I've never heard of that happening. I didn't know that sugar could re-crystalize after a boil unless it was super-concentrated. Maybe it's other stuff - how long has it been sitting after bottling and what was your carbonation sugar type/amount?

 

[zenmaster298]

Its been about 2 months since bottling. Used 3/4 cup of corn sugar(5 gallon batch) and its been sitting at 72 degrees. I've used the same amount/technique for a scotch ale and it turned out perfect. Has to be the yeast right?

 

[gelatin]

I'd think it would be something other than the sugars, yeah. Dextrose is really soluble - did you mix it in boiling water before adding? If not, maybe I could see it falling out of solution.

Maybe yeast or protein clumps, but after a couple of months that should have fallen out. Do you have a picture perhaps?

 

[zenmaster298]

Dissolved in boiling water, cooled so it wouldn't killed the yeast. I'll try and get a picture of the next bottle I open. Just imagine Iced Tea with undissolved sugar. That's the best way I can describe it. Maybe high alcohol killed the yeast?

 

[gelatin]

The yeast may or may not be dead, but the sugar should still have stayed in solution unless your FG was ridiculously high.

 

[woozy]

Wild guessing here. Could they be tartrate crystals? Those are common in wine but I've never heard of them in beer but if the beer is high gravity... why not?

--edit--
although storage at 72 kind of refutes it...

 

[zenmaster298]

Wild guessing here. Could they be tartrate crystals? Those are common in wine but I've never heard of them in beer but if the beer is high gravity... why not?

--edit--
although storage at 72 kind of refutes it...

Looks very similar although nothing in the bottom of the glass. I'll just wait a few more months til I crack another one. Thanks Guys

 

[zenmaster298]

Update: Brew is full carbed, nice and smooth. Although it's got more lace than ace. Thanks for the input ya'll.