Given that spare time is a luxury I no longer have, I made a quicky extract batch of barleywine on February 15th. Two ounces of Warrior were used for bittering. Four ounces of Cascade were added in the last twenty minutes and two ounces of Amarillo were added at flameout. I've been having good success lately with my pseudo-"hop burst" technique providing strong hop flavor. The boil was 2.5 hours long. OG on the (just shy of) 5 gallon batch was 1.133. 94 IBUs.
On 03/01/09, the yeast I used for primary fermentation (US-05) were absolutely pooped out. Gravity reading at the time was 1.040. So out came the champage yeast. I dissolved half a pound of brown sugar into a cup and a half of water, added yeast nutrient and pitched that and the champagne yeast into the primary fermenter. Last night (03/05/09), now that bubbling has again slowed, I took another gravity reading. 1.035. I'm hoping with more time that another couple of points will drop off. I'll rouse the yeast daily and keep at 68 degrees for another week or two. Probably should have added the champagne yeast earlier but didn't know if it would be necessary...
Right now the barleywine is 13% ABV and wonderfully hoppy. There's no harshness as I kept the ambient temps at 61-63 (fermentation temps 64-65) throughout the majority of primary. The hops will most certainly fade with aging and I expect it to turn out pretty decent in the end. Waiting will be the hardest part.
But at least I'll have time to come up with a clever name. Which as everyone knows is the most important thing...
Oh, and sorry to crowbar this in, but my cream ale received a high score of 43 from one judge in the 2009 QUAFF AFC. It's the highest score any beer I've brewed has ever received. The other judge gave it a 40 for an average score of 41.5 (the highest score any beer received in the category).
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I would highly doubt you'll get the FG under 1.020 but you could try raising the temps to 68-71 to re-energize your fermentation. The majority of your flavor component from a cooler ferment is locked in. I believe champagne yeast works better closer to 70F.
ReplyDeleteYou haven't seen the recipe, but given that in addition to the extract I also steeped crystal and caramunich, I would be stoked if I can get it to 1.030. That's probably too optimistic.
ReplyDeleteI'm just glad that it currently doesn't taste like syrup.
:)
Oh, and the strain of champagne yeast I used supposedly has a temp range from 55-75.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wyeastlab.com/hw_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=38