About 3-4 days after pitching SafAle US-05 to the initial 3 gallons of wort, I added the washed yeast cake of White Labs WLP099 Super High Gravity Ale yeast from Golem pale ale along with 1 lb. table sugar. Since adding the WLP099, I've added another pound of sugar every 2 days or so. Tonight, I took a gravity reading before adding the 4th pound of sugar. After adjusting for the water in the sugar syrup, the OG calculated to 1.123. My hydrometer read 1.013 for an estimated ABV of 14.5%! This is higher than I've ever gone before, as a previous beer (A Russian Imperial Stout) pushed just over 13% ABV. However, this barleywine has a bit further to go. This yeast is purported to tolerate up to ~25% ABV under the right conditions, so my goal is to try to push 20%. That means I'll be adding a total of around 6 lbs. of sugar. We'll see if this yeast conks out before that. I hope not, since it already tastes like bitter rocket fuel. At least one gallon of finished barleywine will get racked atop Jack Daniels bourbon barrel smoking chips. There maybe other weird and wild variations as well. Stay tuned! Who knows? Cheers!
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| Check out my gravity reading. Beersmith estimated 1.023. So much for that! |
How long do you think you'll try to age this before partaking? Or are you happy with the rocket fuel (hot) character?
ReplyDeleteNot sure. I have a hunch that some of the flavor is coming from the yeast. There's a ton of yeast in suspension right now, and it needs time to metabolize fermentation by-products. Unfortunately, WLP099 is a low flocculating yeast, so the thought of using some kind of fining had occurred to me but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I have a hard time waiting for beer to get good, so I'm thinking 3 months minimum, 6 would be better, and a year even better. If it's just a "hot" beer, then perhaps that will subside with time. I still plan to add oak though.
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