I've got my Barley Wine kicking along in the primary. I brewed this beer 2 weeks ago and the O.G. was 1.098. It had a good bit of DME in it. See this thread for details.
Here is my question. I took a gravity reading last night and it is at 1.040. The yeast is still working at a somewhat steady pace, but I'm concerned it won't get the gravity down far enough. Should I be prepared to pitch more yeast if it slows down a good bit or just let the original pitch do what it can? I'm afraid to pitch another yeast pack because I don't want it to finish too dry. I pitched about 800ML of slury from the APA club brew on April 12th. It was a healthy yeast cake that only worked through about 2.5-3 gallons of a 1.050 beer.
Any thoughts?
sounds good. its great your
sounds good. its great your putting it on oak. i have never tried this and am wondering how it comes out. i cant wait for a sample.
glenn how is barley wine
glenn how is barley wine doing now? is it through fermenting?
Man, I don't know if it will
Man, I don't know if it will really fall into the barley wine category all said and done but this is a good beer. It finally worked down to about 1.022 before settling out. I tasted the sample and was really happy. The color is really light for a barley wine though. I just moved it to secondary and racked onto 1.5 oz of oak cubes. They smelled great. I'll leave them on the cubes for about 8 weeks and see where it is. I think the oak will round out the flavor. I was surprised the alcohol wasn't overpowering. It comes in around 10%. I'm looking forward to following it over the next 6-12 months.
I have, in the past, set
I have, in the past, set aside some extra wort to make a second starter on high gravity beers. Or, you could could make a small starter with DME and add some of the wort from your brew to it, then add it back to the brew after a couple of days. That keeps the same yeast strain working, just boosts the activity level a bit.