[bmweigel]

I brewed a barley wine at the beginning of September with an OG of 1.134 and a 1.5h boil. Beersmith calculated my ABV to be 14.5%. I made a yeast starter with wyeast labs 1098 (british ale yeast) two days before. when I pitched the starter and also threw in a second pack of the 1098 and a pack of wine yeast, to hopefully finish the fermentation up to 15% ABV once the alcohol was to high for the ale yeast. I fermented in primary for 14 days starting at 18C for 4 days then moving up to 21C until the end (I think that is 64F and 70F). I then transferred to secondary for two months at 20C. I did not check my gravity before going to secondary. I have never checked gravity before going from primary to secondary due to increasing risk of contamination (I contaminated a batch of wine once, so I prefer minimal touching). I usually leave the brew in primary for 7 days and secondary for 2 weeks. I have never had a problem of not reaching my FG before kegging/bottling time (including lagars).

I went to bottle the barley wine and tested my FG, only to find that the gravity was still at 1.06 (after 2 months)! I believed that not checking my gravity before switching from primary to secondary had finally caught me. My ABV calculations at this point, using brewers friend webpage, is currently at 10%. I pitched another 2 packs of wine yeast on Sunday, to hopefully restart fermentation. I checked on the beer after 4 days and I don't see any bubbling or obvious signs of fermentation.

How can I start fermentation again?
Suggestions (or is this beer ruined)?

[denny]

How do you know there's anything left to restart?  You may be done no matter how much yeast you pitch.  First step is a forced fermentation test to find out if there's anything left to ferment.  If there is, then you can worry about how to restart it.

[Stevie]

How are you measuring the final gravity? Hydrometer?

[majorvices]

Be careful when blending wine yeast with beer yeast. Some yeasts are known to actually kill each other. Also, wine yeast may have a higher alcohol tolerance but they have been naturally selected to convert fructose not maltose so you may not get a higher attenuation from them in actuality.

You may want to look at getting a big pitch of active slurry from a local brewery but, as denny said, you also actually may just be done.

The other option that "might" work is to pitch a big starter of Belle Saison yeast. I swear that yeast is incredible and can literally tolerate just about anything you can put on it.

In reality though, super high gravity beers like this take some finessing. I personally don't think there are many beers over 10% ABV that are worth drinking, but once you get 15% and up you will be better off doing incremental feeding of sugars.

[brewinhard]

Be careful when blending wine yeast with beer yeast. Some yeasts are known to actually kill each other. Also, wine yeast may have a higher alcohol tolerance but they have been naturally selected to convert fructose not maltose so you may not get a higher attenuation from them in actuality.

You may want to look at getting a big pitch of active slurry from a local brewery but, as denny said, you also actually may just be done.

The other option that "might" work is to pitch a big starter of Belle Saison yeast. I swear that yeast is incredible and can literally tolerate just about anything you can put on it.

In reality though, super high gravity beers like this take some finessing. I personally don't think there are many beers over 10% ABV that are worth drinking, but once you get 15% and up you will be better off doing incremental feeding of sugars.

This^^^^^. Be wary of the killer wine strains.

[MJK]

Denny has the right plan of action.
Forced Fermentation

Pull a sample of your wort, being extra careful with your sanitation measure the gravity and place it in a sterile container.
Inoculate your sample with a very high cell count of yeast. (Use the Belle Saison as advised by majorvices. Its a killer yeast)
Place the container on a stir plate or rouse the yeast often by shaking.
Keep the container warm until fermentation has ceased.
After 36-48 hours, measure the terminal gravity of the wort. That should be as far as it will go.

Could be anything. Might have only non-fermentables left