Barley Wine with 40g ale yeast, fermenting for 4 weeks but is it done?

[Richard_H]

Afternoon fellow brewers

I started the Beerworks English Barley Wine kit 4 weeks ago today fully expecting today to bottle it but a quick gravity check revealed it has dropped a point in a few days and has dropped by 2 points since last Friday.

Normally i would just go ahead and bottle as 4 weeks is a long time but this kit is huge, 6kg of liquid malt and 40g of ale yeast! i had a starting gravity of 1.086 on the 2nd then 1.026 on the 10th, but the 16th it was 1.022,21st 1.021 and today 1.020. The whole time it has been at a steady 19 or 18 degrees due to the weather.

Am i just being paranoid or is this still very slowly fermenting away? 8.6% is plenty so im not trying to up the strength just never done a kit so big with so much yeast before and ultimately would not want bombs or gushers

 

[Poochops]

Have you considered bulk aging it at all? I've got a Belgian triple going that went from 1.110 to 1.020 over about three weeks or more and I was ready to bottle about a fortnight ago, but it was quite hot with alcohol flavours. Someone mentioned bulk aging to help it mellow which I'm now doing in a sealed bin (no hole in the lid for an airlock) and what is abundantly clear is it's still going despite giving me the same 1.020 reading over the week before I racked it. There's about 6cm headspace and the lid firms up like a drumskin over 3-4 days, so I crack it open and let it go again. Going to leave it for at least a few months and then add fresh yeast to prime when I bottle it.

 

[jceg316]

This is taking some time but sometimes that happens. For strong beers, it's better to ferment them at those temperatures (as opposed to 20-22C) as there's less chance of alcoholic flavours developing, which can easily happen in high gravity beers. The longer it has to sit the nicer it will be as well. It would be best to leave it another week or so before checking.

 

[Richard_H]

thanks guys, unfortunately bulk aging is out the question as it would tie up my bottling but for a few months. I guess another week is what i will do but that will be 5 weeks in the FV(primary) i did read somewhere that 6 weeks or longer will start to produce bad flavours from the yeast cake etc or is that not the case?

 

[Zephyr259]

If you have the space it's definitely worth investing in a carboy for bulk storage. Not only is it a good way to condition big beers but it also means you don't have to worry about it not being completely done fermenting. I've got two 11.4 L and one 23 L, aged a belgian in one of the smaller carboys for 5 months (after 3 weeks in the fermenter) then bottled and the bottles were good as soon as they were carbonated. Added benefit of very little yeast in the bottles as it drops clear while aging and just needs a small amount of yeast at bottling to carbonate. I've got a barley wine conditioning the same way now, due to being offshore it got 5 weeks in the fermenter and will sit in the carboy for at least 6 months.

 

[Dutto]

For such a high OG, five weeks is not a terribly long time.

I started an Oatmeal Stout on the 14th December last year with an OG of 1.060. On 1st January the SG was 1.024 so I roused the yeast and on 25th January (+/- six weeks after starting) the FG was at 1.011; so I transferred the brew to a Wilco Keg with 50g of Brewing Sugar and it is now conditioning okay.

Personally, in your case, I would give it another week before looking at the brew again. At that time:

1. If the SG has fallen to where it should be I would bottle it.
2. If the SG is still way too high I would transfer it to a new FV (*), add some Yeast Nutrient, sprinkle in a packet of Wilco Ale Yeast, fit an Air-Lock, control the temperature at 20*C and then leave it for at least two weeks in the hope that fermentation would re-start.

(*) There should be no need to aerate the wort as transferring the brew between FV's will probably do the job.

Hope this helps. :thumb:

 

[jceg316]

thanks guys, unfortunately bulk aging is out the question as it would tie up my bottling but for a few months. I guess another week is what i will do but that will be 5 weeks in the FV(primary) i did read somewhere that 6 weeks or longer will start to produce bad flavours from the yeast cake etc or is that not the case?

6 weeks or longer on the yeast doesn't produce bad flavours. I've left beer on yeast 6 weeks + and it's been fine. Recently I bottled a beer which had been in primary for a year, just left there, and it was great. I think autolysis is an issue for commercial brewers, but not so much home brewers.

+1 for long terms storage if you have the space. I have a glass carboy and a FastFerment, both used for secondary. I too have a Belgian tripel resting in the latter, and a gose conditioning in the former.

 

[Richard_H]

thanks for all the replies guys, bottled this afternoon after it stayed at 1.020 for another week. Think its time for me to invest in a few demijohns for beers like this so i can bulk age them for 6-12 months

 

[jceg316]

Let us know how it comes out!