Barleywine Fermentation

[David R]

I'm brewing my first barleywine at the moment, recipe below, and I've read a lot about the time it takes for such strong beers to ferment and how under-attenuation can be an issue. Well, I checked it this morning 10 days after pitching the yeast, and the second-generation Wyeast 1968 (pitched the cake from an ESB) has chewed it down from 1.096 to 1.018 already! I'm planning on bottling it so I can age it, but I'm wondering what needs to be done in the mean time;

A: just give it another week or two in the primary then bottle-condition for a few months.
B: rack to secondary and condition for another month or so and then bottle.
C: rack it to a keg now, give it some time to condition then bottle.

Also, is it better to carbonate it in the keg and fill bottles from there, or prime and allow it to carbonate in the bottle? I'm wary of over-carbonating with high-FG beers like this, and I'm also concerned about how much yeast will be left to eat the priming sugar as I've had bad results with a Dubbel that had a long secondary fermentation. I'm a big fan of the KISS philosophy, but at the same time I've got high hopes for this beer and I'd like to do whats best for it.

Batch Size: 20.00 l
Boil Size: 28.00 l
Boil Time: 120 min
Equipment: Grainfather
Efficiency: 62.00 %

Ingredients

Amt	Name	Type	#	%/IBU
8.00 kg	Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)	Grain	1	82.9 %
0.70 kg	Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)	Grain	2	7.3 %
0.25 kg	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM)	Grain	3	2.6 %
0.05 kg	Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM)	Grain	4	0.5 %
0.65 kg	Dememera Sugar (2.0 SRM)	Sugar	5	6.7 %
70.00 g	East Kent Goldings (EKG) [5.00 %] - Boil 90.0 min	Hop	6	30.7 IBUs
25.00 g	East Kent Goldings (EKG) [5.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min	Hop	7	7.9 IBUs
25.00 g	East Kent Goldings (EKG) [5.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min	Hop	8	2.0 IBUs
2.0 pkg*	London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) [124.21 ml]	Yeast	9	-

Original Gravity: 1.096 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.019 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 10.3 %
Bitterness: 40.6 IBUs
Est Color: 13.4 SRM

Measured Original Gravity: 1.096 SG

*instead of 2 packs I pitched the cake from an ESB made with 1968.

[Grant R Baker]

First up I am surpirsed 1968 didn't die getting it down to 1.018, I didn't think it had the legs for that.

I think you have the issues about right.. high ABV brews may kill off the yeast when bottle conditioning the brew or might eat extra long-strain sugars and turn you beer into a party trick.

Keg carb'ing is the easiest way to avoid, your option C sounds the best to me, I have a couple of beers keg conditioning (without added gas) for a few months so far, I just purge off the excess gas every so often (reads when I remember). Some even add priming sugar to the keg (about a 1/4 of what bottle use) but why bother when you can carb it later.

[David R]

I know Wyeast only say 1968 is good for 9% ABV, but from what I read when researching yeast strains for this beer people have taken it far further, some claiming it is good for over 12%! I mashed low and added the sugar after a few days as the initial ferment was slowing down, so I guess that helped. (just realised I forgot to post the recipe, will edit the original post now)

I'm certainly leaning towards Option C, I bought a few more kegs recently so I can afford to have one tied up with conditioning.