Dry hopping a Barleywine...how long?

I brewed a barleywine and have been dry hopping it. I know some posts I have read says to leave it in secondary upwards to 3 - 6 months. Is this how long you would dry hop it as well or will dry hopping it this long cause issues by imparting off flavors to the beer?

I think most people let it age without dry hops and then dry hop it the last few weeks before packaging

yep

That’s my procedure. I age it for at least 8-12 months, then dry hop it for 14 days or so.

I think the problem was that I didn’t realize I should let it age so long in secondary so I added the hops with the idea I would bottle two weeks later. Then I read some others posts and found it would be 3-6 months of aging (minimum) in secondary. Maybe I should transfer it to another secondary to get the hops out of it and let it sit for the next several months. Then throw some more hops in before bottling.

You can age it 3-6 months, but you don’t have to. You can go ahead and bottle and let it age there.

I think its done like it is since you want some age yet you don’t want to age out the dry hop flavor/aroma. I didn’t realize this was a typical procedure, I’m glad the OP asked and that you guys shared this.

Followup question, when you rack to secondary do you bring any yeast over? Or do you try to get it as clean as possible?

This past weekend I decided to transfer the barleywine from the secondary where it was dry hopping to another secondary without hops to let it age. I will let it age now for a good four months (about 6 months total), dry hop it again for about two weeks before bottling.

“Followup question, when you rack to secondary do you bring any yeast over? Or do you try to get it as clean as possible?”

Most of the yeast has fallen to the bottom forming the yeast cake; however, there is always enough yeast suspended in the beer that carries over. My process usually consists of two weeks fermentation in primary, two weeks in secondary, and then the final week in secondary I use gelatin and cold crash my beers before I bottle them. This clears up the beer perfectly, but even after all of that there is still plenty of yeast suspended in the beer to break down the sugar.

If you’re asking whether there is enough yeast in barleywine or another beer that has aged for a long period of time I have gathered from this post and reading others that adding a packet of S-05 to a beer before bottling is a good idea because the original yeast has gone dorment and/or died out due to the high alcohol levels and length of aging. Adding the yeast won’t affect the taste of the beer so there’s no harm in it.