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Author Topic: choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine  (Read 9455 times)

Offline Al Equihua

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choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine
« on: December 10, 2011, 11:56:31 am »
Well, finally im considering making my first  English barleywine style , im aiming to a FG 1.095 something around an ABV 11.0%, and looking for WL yeast i dont know if WLP007 will be an option, but i heard that WLP champagne yeast will be just fine due the alcohol tolerance, has anyone use this one with good results? im a little concern with attenuation ..
Al Equihua

Offline denny

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Re: choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2011, 11:59:18 am »
I really don't care for the results of using champagne (or wine) yeast for beer.  I've had perfectly good luck using WY1056 (also 1272 and 1450) up to 12% ABV.  I assume White 001 would do the same.  Make sure you use a large amount of healthy yeast.  One approach would be to make something like a 1.050ish pale ale first, then use the entire slurry from that for the BW.
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Offline Al Equihua

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Re: choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2011, 12:09:20 pm »
thanks for the comment Denny, ill  really apreciate from very experience brewer like you,
by the way heres what im planning to do:


14 lbs     Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 81.2 %
1 lbs       Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.8 %
8.0 oz     Brown Sugar, Light (8.0 SRM) Sugar 6 2.9 %
12.0 oz   Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.3 %
1 lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 5 5.8 %

1.50 oz    Challenger [7.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 28.1 IBUs
1.50 oz    Progress [6.25 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 23.4 IBUs
1.00 oz     Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 9 5.0 IBUs
1.00 oz.   Sazz 0.0 min

mash 149 sparge @ 172 boil 90 min
Al Equihua

Offline denny

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Re: choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2011, 12:43:42 pm »
That's an interesting approach to  BW with all the sugar and the hops you plan to use.
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Offline morticaixavier

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Re: choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2011, 01:20:46 pm »
I have used sugar in BW just to ensure not to thick a body but I think of that more as an american BW thing. My English BW is 100% munich mashed at 148 for 2 hours and boiled for 2 hours with hops at 120 and 30. I used WYeast 1098 for that one and it's awesome. Pitched a cake from a 1.032 ordinary.
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Offline denny

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Re: choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2011, 01:55:22 pm »
I have used sugar in BW just to ensure not to thick a body but I think of that more as an american BW thing. My English BW is 100% munich mashed at 148 for 2 hours and boiled for 2 hours with hops at 120 and 30. I used WYeast 1098 for that one and it's awesome. Pitched a cake from a 1.032 ordinary.

Maybe it just my preference, but to me an AM. BW should have a fair amount of body.  IMO, the main difference between an IIPA and Am. BW is that the IIPA uses sugar.
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Offline majorvices

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Re: choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2011, 06:23:46 pm »
If you do not plan on making a small beer to grow yeast for this beer then I would suggest using 2 or 3 packs of US-05. My favorite strain for an english style B-wine is WLP007, but you will want to be sure to have plenty of yeast. See the pitching calc at www.mrmalty.com to get an idea how much yeast you will need. Using champagne yeast is the wrong idea. Wine yeast has evolved to eat fructose, not maltose. Aside from odd flavors you may also find it is actually less attenuative than ale yeast.

As far as your recipe, if you are going for an English Barley Wine drop the special B. The sugar doesn't bother me, but your hops do. Go all Kent Goldings or Fuggle or Willamette or something English (or based on English lineage) hops rather than Sazz, which is a German or Czech hop. Challenger is a great english hop and you could go all challenger or Challenger and EKG.

If it were my beer I would go something like 95% Marris Otter malt and 5% dark crystal, maybe crystal 80L or even 120L. If you want to sub in a little sugar that's fine, but keep it restrained because as Denny mentioned you want to be sure the beer has plenty of body.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2011, 06:26:34 pm by majorvices »

Offline Joe Sr.

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Re: choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2011, 07:05:48 pm »
I made my last old ale, which you could probably consider a barley wine, with Danstar Windsor dry yeast.  I pitched it on a cake from an ESB, but you could just as easily do a couple packets of the dry yeast.

It worked remarkably well.  The old ale (which I just finished sippin' on) has plenty of body and is upwards of 10% ABV.

I certainly wouldn't use champagne yeast.  I did this many years ago and didn't care for the results.

A good pitch of regular ale yeast should do you just fine.
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Offline tom

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Re: choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2011, 08:58:09 pm »
I love 007 for English Old Ales and barleywines.

For big beers you'll need lots of yeast, oxygen and temperature control.

I usually do a "5 gallon" yeast starter.
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Offline euge

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Re: choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine
« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2011, 11:18:24 pm »
Do you need all that Special B in there? I'd cut that way back. Just about any ale yeast will be able to tackle that gravity. I like the Windsor or Nottingham for this since you're doing "English." One properly hydrated pack could handle it but why not hydrate two cause it's cheap and easy?

It'll ferment out pretty quick. And fresh it'll taste good at about a month. Then it changes and needs conditioning- which will likely be at least a year but YMMV.
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Offline Al Equihua

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Re: choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine
« Reply #10 on: December 12, 2011, 05:10:01 pm »
thanks to all for your comments, heres what i decided after reading:

i will substitute the hops, i'll eliminate the sugars to make it thicker (i love full body ales), replace Special B for Munich
and the importante thing: i have a AIPA in the primary right now with WLP001 and how about to pitch the entire cake after the end of the fermentation? i hope that doesn't affect the flavor with a very high gravity BW.... i thinks this is gonna work for shure!

feliz navidad amigos!
a la salud...!
Al Equihua

Offline 1vertical

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Re: choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine
« Reply #11 on: December 13, 2011, 08:20:17 am »
thanks to all for your comments, heres what i decided after reading:

i will substitute the hops, i'll eliminate the sugars to make it thicker (i love full body ales), replace Special B for Munich
and the importante thing: i have a AIPA in the primary right now with WLP001 and how about to pitch the entire cake after the end of the fermentation? i hope that doesn't affect the flavor with a very high gravity BW.... i thinks this is gonna work for shure!

feliz navidad amigos!
a la salud...!
I Wondered what the gravity (O.G.) of the AIPA you made was?  How much sugar did those yeasties have to digest?
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Offline majorvices

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Re: choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine
« Reply #12 on: December 13, 2011, 09:42:14 am »
It's not ideal, but a cake from an IPA will work. Ideally you want the OG of the starter beer to be under 1.060, but it's not essential. That said, if you want an English BW I'd recommend using an English yeast.

Offline Al Equihua

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Re: choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine
« Reply #13 on: December 13, 2011, 09:44:14 am »
thanks to all for your comments, heres what i decided after reading:

i will substitute the hops, i'll eliminate the sugars to make it thicker (i love full body ales), replace Special B for Munich
and the importante thing: i have a AIPA in the primary right now with WLP001 and how about to pitch the entire cake after the end of the fermentation? i hope that doesn't affect the flavor with a very high gravity BW.... i thinks this is gonna work for shure!

feliz navidad amigos!
a la salud...!
I Wondered what the gravity (O.G.) of the AIPA you made was?  How much sugar did those yeasties have to digest?

sorry, i forgot to mentioned, it was 1.060... by the way our wheather is chilly these days and  im having i little bit trouble with temps below 60F.. something around 55-57 F, i'll find the way to increase the temp in this second week.
« Last Edit: December 13, 2011, 09:46:44 am by Al Equihua »
Al Equihua

Offline 1vertical

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Re: choosing a yeast for my first Barleywine
« Reply #14 on: December 13, 2011, 09:56:29 am »
Ah senior~ that looks to be a good plan then. I imagine the AIPA hop residual will be a
good contributor to the planned BW hop bill.  Since the change with the Special B...
I forsee a good beer in your BW future.
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