Help with my Barleywine

I think if the wort is diluted to 1.040 or less or if it started at that or less you would be fine and actually increase the viable yeast.
Like I said earlier I made a starter using US-05 and it went nuts, and it worked really well, but I wont do it again.

 

Rehydrating with 1.040 wort is not going to increase the amount of viable yeast. I imagine 1.040 is better that 1.060, but you're still killing a large percentage of the yeast.

http://koehlerbeer.wordpress.com/2008/06/07/rehydrating-dry-yeast-with-dr-clayton-cone/

 

The article says nothing about wort killing cells it just says they don't recommend it unless it is very diluted.
It also says 95-105 degrees is typical rehydrate temp, where Fermentis says 80 deg for US-05, and since ive done both and had optimal results ill take the article with a grain of salt.

 

The article mentions sugar, a major component of wort, killing cells. I wouldn't call 1.040 very diluted wort. I'm not saying you can't make great beer without rehydrating, but if you calculate a pitch rate, then kill half your cells, you're not pitching what you think.

 

Yeah I have four buckets that I use all the time and I've never not once seen my airlock bubble. The leaks are OK though because of the CO2 pushing out. When I use my better bottles I always have lots of airlock activity. Enjoy your beer.

 

That's great, but rehydrating dry yeast in wort still kills half of it, and therefore is not a good way to increase yeast cell count/viability.

 

But did you win because you rehydrated in wort, or in spite of it? It's hard to imagine that there is some advantage to killing about 1/2 the cells. If there is, I'd like to hear the theory behind it.

 

I see what you did there.

 

I don't believe there is an advantage to killing half the cells. But, given that a single packet of dry yeast contains waaaaaay more cells than you need, there's no clear advantage to not killing them. Experience seems to support that opinion. If the round-trip to work takes 2 gallons of gas, having 5 in the tank will not get you there any faster or more efficiently than 3. It only buys you peace of mind.

 

This. I've had this happen before and I changed the airlock and the new airlock bubbled away. Threw away the bad airlock. If no activity soon, I'd try switching out the airlock.

 

Be patient, man, be patient! You're still getting good bubbling activity, so there is no need to be taking a gravity reading at this point. Your 'killer beer' may get sick. I think you're going to need to wait up to two weeks before your next gravity reading as long as those bubbles keep burping.

 

Proof Brewing?

 

Paitience Grass Hopper! There is no reason to rush a big beer. I am not a fan of drinking big beers before they have a year of age on them. ( Even though I have been guilty of sneeking a few!)

 

You actually sat there and counted the bubbles in a minute?

I'd let a big beer sit around atleast 4 weeks. You want it to ferment completely out.