20+ Year Old Barley Wine

[newguy]

SJW: you're right about the physics - I guess the bottle wouldn't leak.

RetsamHsam: I'd also advise against putting all the hops in at 15 min or less. Nevermind the beer's stability/longevity, consider how much hops you'll need @ 15 min or less to hit 100 IBU! I've never made an all late-hopped beer, but I've tasted beers that friends have made with all late hopping and to be honest they don't really stand up favourably against traditionally hopped beers (those with a bittering addition). Keep your recipe as is but add a dry hop addition - about 60g for 20l beer - and you'll have plenty of aroma.

That aside, I don't see a problem with your grist, as I think that 30% munich malt will add a nice dimension. I made a Belgian pale ale with 70/30 pale/munich and it was to die for. I think the munich will add a solid malt backbone to support the aggressive hopping.

 

[RetsamHsam]

Just had a thought, I might rack to a keg for secondary, this way I can purge the oxygen with CO2, and then maybe in a year or two by the time secondary is complete I might have a CPBF to fill my bottles with..

Only problem is I would need to remember to release the excess pressure every now and then..

 

[newguy]

[snip]...and then maybe in a year or two by the time secondary is complete I might have a CPBF to fill my bottles with..

No need for a CPBF. I just bottled an american BW to replace the flat batch I had to pour out without a CPBF, and I've bottled quite a few other beers using this same method. I have a liquid out fitting attached to a standard beer line with no tap. I also have a surgical clamp, courtesy of a former neighbour who worked in a hospital.

My procedure is to force carbonate in a keg, but only lightly for beers like BWs, RISs, etc. Then, with the keg pressurised I will fill the line with beer & clamp it. Then I elevate the keg and bleed all the pressure in it. I have just a gas in fitting with no line attached to it for the purpose. I attach it to the keg and simply fill my bottles via siphon power. When the bottle is nearly full, I deliberately restrict the flow to foam the beer a bit so that I can directly on foam. I still have carbonated beer but without a CPBF. I currently have a 2 year old RIS that's simply majestic that was bottled with this method. My BW, I expect, will age just as gracefully.

 

[RetsamHsam]

I will have to try and get my hands on a surgical clamp then...


I hadn't given any thought to yeast up until this point. I have some WLP007, Wyeast 1968, and a cake of US-05 hangin around. I don't really want to go with US-05 as I think the beer will end up too one dimensional.

Can anyone offer any other suggestions??

 

[newguy]

The WLP007 Dry English Ale should do fine. Wyeast 1968 is so flocculant that you'd have trouble getting your BW to attenuate.

 

[RetsamHsam]

I brewed this on saturday.. I ended up changing the recipe and went with an English Style Barley Wine. Recipe Below

Amount Item Type % or IBU
0.50 kg Rice Hulls (0.0 EBC) Adjunct 4.1 %
4.50 kg Weyermann Pilsener (3.9 EBC) Grain 36.6 %
3.50 kg TF Marris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 28.5 %
3.50 kg Weyermann Munich I (17.0 EBC) Grain 28.5 %
0.20 kg Brown Malt (128.1 EBC) Grain 1.6 %
0.10 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC) Grain 0.8 %
50.00 gm Pilgrim [8.10%] (180 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 53.4 IBU
40.00 gm Challenger [3.70%] (180 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 19.5 IBU
20.00 gm Challenger [4.90%] (15 min) Hops 5.3 IBU
30.00 gm Challenger [3.70%] (10 min) Hops 4.4 IBU
30.00 gm Challenger [3.70%] (5 min) Hops 2.4 IBU
30.00 gm Challenger [3.70%] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops

I boiled for four hours, and ended up with about 19L at 1.115 OG. I currently have an English Mild fermenting on Wyeast 1026 British Cask Ale, and I am planning on dumping the Barley Wine on to the yeast cake.

As a side note, my efficciency went down for this batch.. Is this normal for higher gravity beers? I am limited in space in my mash tun so the liquor to grist ratio was only 2.3L per Kilo and had no space leftover to do a mashout.. Am guessing this is the reason for the drop.

 

[Boozy the clown]

Normal caps will rust. (its hard to know how you will store bottles for 20 years...)

Cork will rot.

Plastic 'corks' in champers bottles will work I reckon.

Edited in pre-reply to the following post

 

[kook]

Caps will not rust if they're stored properly. If I were brewing a big barleywine that I wanted to deliberately age, I'd still use caps, but wax dip them to seal. I've seen beers from the 70's with no rust on the cap.

I'd also keep the recipe as simple as possible. Use good, fresh ingredients and healthy yeast. Don't worry too much about the strain, just something fairly neutral that will attenuate well. What might make a complex beer when young could just result in a muddle of flavours once age comes into it. The best beers I've tried around that age have all been simple in terms of ingredients (Thomas Hardy's, various Gueuze, Kriek etc). I've tried a few strong Belgians (Chimay Blue for example) around this age and the flavours didn't seem balanced.

 

[newguy]

As a side note, my efficciency went down for this batch.. Is this normal for higher gravity beers? I am limited in space in my mash tun so the liquor to grist ratio was only 2.3L per Kilo and had no space leftover to do a mashout.. Am guessing this is the reason for the drop.

My efficiency always decreases with heavier beers. Not sure of the exact reason but I think it has to do with the amount of water I use, but I do employ a mashout.

Recipe looks nice. Challenger is a favourite of mine. :wub:

 

[RetsamHsam]

Put this in the fermenter yesterday, 20L in a 30L fermenter..

Pitched on half a yeast cake of WY1026 from a batch of mild that was just kegged. There was about an inch of 'krausen' after 5 hours when I first checked in on it.

Then at 7am this morning about 15 hours after pitching there was over 10L of 'krausen' and it was spewing out of the airlock.

I thought there would of been more lag time on such a big beer.

 

[KingPython]

Yeah I'd get a drop sheet ready for this one.

 

[raven19]

Then at 7am this morning about 15 hours after pitching there was over 10L of 'krausen' and it was spewing out of the airlock.

Wow... I shall be keeping this result in mind for my first wheat beer in a few weeks... excitable stuff wheat beer & yeast!

 

[RetsamHsam]

Wow... I shall be keeping this result in mind for my first wheat beer in a few weeks... excitable stuff wheat beer & yeast!

I have this in the fridge along with a Hefe on WY3068, The Hefe only has 3L of headspace and isn't overflowing as much as the BW..

I expected the opposite!! :blink:

 

[sinkas]

HI there I brewed the hardy clone, and mine has conked out at 1035, with alot of acetaldehyde, so I have repitched a small fermeting starter to try and clean it up, hope it migh get it down to 1030

 

[RetsamHsam]

HI there I brewed the hardy clone, and mine has conked out at 1035, with alot of acetaldehyde, so I have repitched a small fermeting starter to try and clean it up, hope it migh get it down to 1030

What yeast did you use? This is my first foray into 1.100+ beers

I read abit about attenuation with these bad boys before I put it down. Most sources say that a big starter and lots of aeration is a must from the get go. I followed this advice, did you? Just want to get a better idea about if the yeast in my barleywine is likely to crap out at some stage?

Another point of note is that some yeasts don't have a great tolerance for alcohol and go to sleep once it creeps up above a certain percentage.. What I'm getting at here is, did you pitch a starter of the same strain you used in primary or a different strain that might have a better tolerance for alcohol?

Edit: I'm hoping mine will get down to around 1.025

 

[sinkas]

I used the current Wyeast Old ale blend

3litre starter in 12 L, oxygen, and like yours mine wenbt bezerk, but then conked out, will see what the re pitch does

 

[Batz]

Nice idea
I put away a bottle of port for both my sons when they were born,28 and 30 years old now and they never saw a drop of either :chug:
Seemed like a good idea at the time but to many big nights,I don't think they lasted more than a few years.

Batz