Maturing a Barley Wine

[booldawg]

I guess now is the time to brew a BW if you want to sup it in time for Christmas. I've seen a recipe I like on the Durden Park site and was wondering about the correct way to mature it.

Dave Lines book recommends transfering to new demijohns every 3 months. I'm guessing this is to cut down on sediment as 2 full sachets of yeast will be used for 15L.

I'm thinking along the lines of fermenting for 14 days and then transferring to 5L demijohns. I may siphon to new demijohns after 4 months and bottle 2 months before Christmas, would this be OK? Would I need to add a couple of grains of yeast per 500ml bottle with the priming sugar or would the yeast still be good 6 months after primary?

*edit* whoops, sorry wrong category

[mysterio]

Sedimentation is more to do with the strain of yeast you select. If you used Nottingham, which I think would be a good choice for a BW, it should sediment out pretty easily taking away the need to transfer the beer several times and risk oxidation.

If I was doing it I would probably allow two weeks for the fermentation to finish, transfer to a secondary FV and leave under airlock for several months before bottling with some fresh yeast and minimal priming sugars.

From what I read on here, the yeasts available in DL's day were the more attenuative, powdery yeasts which could be why he advocates the method you describe.

[booldawg]

Thanks mysterio. The book dates back from 1985 or thereabouts, guess things have changed alot since then!

[BarryNL]

I'd be a bit cautious about transferring it too many times. Oxygenation is one of the easiest ways to kill a beer. I made a BW back at Xmas and went straight from primary to bottling bucket after 18 days - it's doing fine so far.

[monk]

Just want to agree with the previous opinions. I would not transfer it any more than once. I made a strong belgian about a year and half ago that was only transfered once and it turned out very nicely. I let it sit in primary for three weeks, then transferred very carefully to secondary and let it sit for a month. Then I bottled and just finished drinking them about 6 months ago. Very nice, no oxidation that I could tell. The OG was 1.086

[booldawg]

Well its in the garage in demi-johns now. I will bottle aug/sept time. Will be my first time using a siphon tube. I may practise with a demi-john full of water to try and get a smooth action. Oxidisation is my main fear!