Style Of The Week 23/8/06 - English Barleywine

[InCider]

At the risk of being booted out back to my sign-up date, is it possible to make BW from kit and kilo gear?

I know that several years ago the manager of the Country Brewer at Penrith entered a barley wine into the Bathurst comp that apparently used 6 tins of Brewiser Pilsner as the base... It came first! He had the plaque on proud display on the wall of the shop.

Cheers,
TSD

Fantastic - I shall begin rounding up the supplies for this special brew and take some time to get it right.

I think my brewing fridge will have to be used for the fermentation to keep the temp correct, so I had better take the tallies out and drink them.

Keeping it real - thanks for the tip on the crown seals - have noticed when I have bought bulk ones from the HBS they are not usually as good as the ones from the supermarket - and I have shedloads of XXXX & Coopers crown seals.

InCider.

 

[drsmurto]

Thread resurrection time.

I've read the Barleywine article in the latest BYO magazine. Twice.

Inspired? Trying to get rid of some hops? A little of both?

Been wondering for a while what to do with the Newport hops i bought a while back. According to Craftbrewer, a barleywine.

Big Bertha

Type: All Grain
Date: 18/12/2008
Batch Size: 20.00 L
Brewer: DrSmurto
Boil Size: 27.63 L Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 120 min Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00

7.75 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (5.9 EBC) Grain 84.24 %
0.40 kg Amber Malt (43.3 EBC) Grain 4.35 %
0.40 kg Crystal Malt, Medium (Bairds) (170.0 EBC) Grain 4.35 %
50.00 gm Newport [11.00 %] (60 min) Hops 50.2 IBU
40.00 gm Newport [11.00 %] (10 min) Hops 14.6 IBU
30.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
0.65 kg Brown Sugar, Light (15.8 EBC) Sugar 7.07 %
1 Pkgs London Ale (Wyeast Labs #1028) [Starter 4000 ml] Yeast-Ale

Est Original Gravity: 1.099
Est Final Gravity: 1.023
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 10.02 %
Bitterness: 64.8 IBU
Est Color: 30.2 EBC

Single infusion at 65C.

Is there any point in the late hops in a beer that needs to be conditioned for months/years? More?

Has anyone played around with kegging a barleywine, force carbing it (low) and then bottling it?

Plan is to bottle it in time for the comp season.

Cheers and beers wine
DrSmurto

 

[Stuster]

Looks good, good doctor, though I think you could up the bitterness a bit if you're planning on keeping it for years. I think it'd be good to use some late hops as you are. For one thing, you can see how they drop off for yourself as it ages (I certainly think it's good to try them from early on just to see what happens). I wonder about the light dark sugar. You should have plenty of other flavours going on there and personally I'd just stick with white sugar.

I'll post up my American barleywine which one best strong ale at Castle Hill comp. I've drunk most of the batch already, the best thing to do with hoppy ones IMO. But I've tucked a few away to keep and see what happens.



Batch Size: 16.00 L
Boil Size: 21.93 L
Estimated OG: 1.106 SG
Estimated Color: 26.8 EBC
Estimated IBU: 116.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 120 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (5.Grain 72.46 %
1.00 kg Munich I (Weyermann) (14.0 EBC) Grain 14.49 %
0.25 kg Amber Malt (43.3 EBC) Grain 3.62 %
0.10 kg Crystal, Dark (Joe White) (216.7 EBC) Grain 1.45 %
0.05 kg Caraaroma (Weyermann) (350.7 EBC) Grain 0.72 %
65.00 gm Chinook [12.40 %] (60 min) Hops 90.5 IBU
25.00 gm Centennial [9.50 %] (15 min) Hops 13.2 IBU
25.00 gm Amarillo [9.50 %] (15 min) Hops 13.2 IBU
25.00 gm Centennial [9.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
25.00 gm Amarillo [9.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.50 kg Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (2.0 EBC) Sugar 7.25 %
1 Pkgs Safale American Ale (Fermentis #US-05) Yeast-Ale

Actually slurry from an earlier batch was used, and I added some 2112 yeast at bottling. Carbed up slightly slowly but fine. FG was 1022, giving 80% attenuation and an 11% beer. :icon_drunk:

 

[drsmurto]

I do have a yeast cake of US05 in the fridge.

Swap EKG with Cascade plugs, up IBU to 95-100 and its now an american barley wine.

Cheers for that
DrSmurto

p.s. if i win anything with it I'll be sure to acknowledge you!

 

[drsmurto]

I ended up using 3 plugs of styrian goldings at FO and upping the IBU to 80.

Also used 1kg of munich to boost the JW trad.

Its been in secondary for 2 weeks now. How long do you normally let this sit bulk conditioning before bottling it? Was thinking of ccing it for a few days and hitting it with gelatine before racking it to a keg and letting it sit under low CO2 till the spring brewing comp season and then bottling from the keg.........

Tasted extremely bitter when i racked it, way beyond my uneducated tastebuds threshold. But i guess this is something that takes time for the flavours etc to mesh.

 

[Tim F]

I'm brewing a half batch of English barleywine as I type.

I'm aiming for 16L at around 1.080. The plan is to put 9L in the fermenter and get that going. In the mean time I will boil down the other 7L to bout 2L, boil it in fowlers jars, then add it back in once I have vigorous fermentation. Was thinking that might help encourage the yeast to ferment it out properly. That should give me an effective OG of 1.113 so if the S-04 gets 75%AA I'll have about 11.5% abv. Maybe a little low?

The grain bill is 95% ale malt 5% dark crystal - it's what I had. I also added 150g treacle and 300ml dark candi syrup, just because.

The hops are a little funny maybe but I wanted to use them up - a mix of hallertau and goldings to 57IBU, first wort hopped and additions at 45, 30, 15 leaning towards more goldings later in the boil.

I was thinking of starting fermentation at 18C then raising to 20 after a few days when I add the rest of the wort - does that make sense? Should I aerate again when I add the reduced wort?

 

[Tim F]

Wow now thats a vigorous fermentation... I have 10L of wort and 10L of krausen right now. It's active enough to be keeping itself warm - held 20C overnight in a cold room. I was all set to heat it but now I'm think I might need to cool it instead.

 

[Tim F]

Does anyone think dry hopping is inapropriate for this style? It's tasting ridiculously malty out of the fermenter even though I bittered to 70 IBU in the end. Getting lots of pear from the S-04 as well, which is making it a little bit cloying.

 

[fcmcg]

Does anyone think dry hopping is inapropriate for this style? It's tasting ridiculously malty out of the fermenter even though I bittered to 70 IBU in the end. Getting lots of pear from the S-04 as well, which is making it a little bit cloying.

I did type a reply...dunno where it went...
DON"T DO IT !!!!
Let the bloody thing age before you touch it !!!
Inapropriate for an English style...
Cheers
Ferg

 

[fcmcg]

Does anyone think dry hopping is inapropriate for this style? It's tasting ridiculously malty out of the fermenter even though I bittered to 70 IBU in the end. Getting lots of pear from the S-04 as well, which is making it a little bit cloying.

If you were doing an American barley wine as opposed to an English Barleywine...dry hopping inappropriate for the English style ..also..put it away and don't drink any for 12 months ( okay maybe one bottle lol )
The English one I made in march had an og of 1.108 and a fg of 1.014...I had a try of a stubby last month and I'm really looking forward to opening a few on my 40th in Aug next year !
Don't dry hop it !
Cheers
Ferg

 

[drsmurto]

I wouldnt dry hop and english barleywine as Ferg has already pointed out.

My barleywine is now 2 years old and is tasting amazing.

Took out 1st place in the strong ale section in SABSOSA last year. :icon_cheers:

 

[Tim F]

Cheers guys! I will let it do its thing. I realised it's still at 1.040 so should finish up a fair bit drier anyway.

 

[Tim F]

OK next question - my barleywine has been stuck at 1.037 for the last 6 days. What's the next step to get it going? It's been sitting at 20C for most of that time, getting as low as 18 overnight. I just tried stirring the yeast back up - it had formed a nice compact layer on the bottom. No carbonation in the hydro sample any more. I'm using S-04. If stirring doesn't get things happening again, what's the next step? Use a higher gravity yeast, champagne yeast etc to finish it off? Transfer to secondary with a bit of the slurry included to see if that rouses it up?

 

[drsmurto]

OK next question - my barleywine has been stuck at 1.037 for the last 6 days. What's the next step to get it going? It's been sitting at 20C for most of that time, getting as low as 18 overnight. I just tried stirring the yeast back up - it had formed a nice compact layer on the bottom. No carbonation in the hydro sample any more. I'm using S-04. If stirring doesn't get things happening again, what's the next step? Use a higher gravity yeast, champagne yeast etc to finish it off? Transfer to secondary with a bit of the slurry included to see if that rouses it up?

Rack it.

The physical act of racking creates turbulence which stirs the yeast up. I find this a very useful way of restarting a stuck ferment.

For big beers i tend to do this once fermentation looks finished and then give them another 2-3 weeks in secondary at a few degrees higher than ferment temp.

If this doesn't work then throw in a more attenuative yeast. I'd still be using a beer yeast, nottingham comes to mind although i am not a fan of it personally it is renowned for its attenuation.

What temp did you mash at? OG?

 

[O'Henry]

I'd rack it to secondary then keep it at at least 22C, raising it to 24C after a few days.

I might even pop in 50-100g of sugar to get it going again and encourage it to drop a few more points off the 1037. I'd be resigning myself to it not getting below 1030 though. If you hit 1113 and the yeast has a 75% attenuation average, then 1028/29 is the lowest you could expect a perfect ferment to go.

Edit: beaten again!

 

[Tim F]

Cheers guys,

I mashed at 65 and OG was 1.107. I was expecting it to get down to around 1.026 so still a little to go. I did wonder though - to get to that OG I pulled out 4L of wort and reduced it down to 2L. I wondered if that might have made a difference to fermentability?

Anyway I think racking is the go, I will do that tonight! Should I let a little bit of yeast from the bottom of the fermenter come through to the secondary?

 

[drsmurto]

Cheers guys,

I mashed at 65 and OG was 1.107. I was expecting it to get down to around 1.026 so still a little to go. I did wonder though - to get to that OG I pulled out 4L of wort and reduced it down to 2L. I wondered if that might have made a difference to fermentability?

Anyway I think racking is the go, I will do that tonight! Should I let a little bit of yeast from the bottom of the fermenter come through to the secondary?

No need to bring yeast through IMO, there will be plenty still in suspension.

S-04 isn't a very good attenuator and 65C isn't a low mash temp on a beer this size so you may not get it below 1.030.

 

[haysie]

OK next question - my barleywine has been stuck at 1.037 for the last 6 days. What's the next step to get it going? It's been sitting at 20C for most of that time, getting as low as 18 overnight. I just tried stirring the yeast back up - it had formed a nice compact layer on the bottom. No carbonation in the hydro sample any more. I'm using S-04. If stirring doesn't get things happening again, what's the next step? Use a higher gravity yeast, champagne yeast etc to finish it off? Transfer to secondary with a bit of the slurry included to see if that rouses it up?

I dont think you chose the right yeast.

 

[amiddler]

I did my first Barley Wine early this year and settled for a 1.038 after a 1.120 start. I tryed everything, new yeast, different strain of yeast, secondary, warm up, and nothing worked. It tastes OK after 3 months but time will tell.

Tim, are you planning on kegging or bottling? I bottled with half the sugar I should have incase of bottle bombs and carb looks OK. I like the look of the Dr's advice, might have to settle a touch higher with the FG.

Drew

 

[Tim F]

I dont think you chose the right yeast.

Yep it wasn't my first choice, but I could only get in to Brewcraft which meant a choice of S04, Muntons or US05

Tim, are you planning on kegging or bottling? I bottled with half the sugar I should have incase of bottle bombs and carb looks OK. I like the look of the Dr's advice, might have to settle a touch higher with the FG.

Drew

I'm thinking bottling for this one - but keep it very low carbonation like you did.