Barleywine Ideas

jmcnamara

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I've been wanting to brew one of these to commemorate my new son. The idea would be to brew it every year around his birthday. Then share it with him once he's 21. An epic vertical flight.
The only one of these I brewed was when I first started, so I'm sure I was going for more abv than flavor.
Anyone have some good ideas? I'd think some crystal 120 or special b would be in the grain bill somewhere
 
I've been a big fan of Belgian Candi Syrup , D-90 especially. super tasty.
 
I've been wanting to brew one of these to commemorate my new son. The idea would be to brew it every year around his birthday. Then share it with him once he's 21. An epic vertical flight.
The only one of these I brewed was when I first started, so I'm sure I was going for more abv than flavor.
Anyone have some good ideas? I'd think some crystal 120 or special b would be in the grain bill somewhere
Your son will be spoilt for choice on some vintage barley wine' there J McNamara! I ain't Brewer one yet but I'm guessing some additional supplemented sugars be it DME or Candi sugar will be needed as a back up for SG numbers :D.
 
A barleywine is kinda like a Baltic Porter made with Ale yeast.

I would mix some Marris Otter/Pale with some Vienna and Munich I ( light ) as base malt.

English Dark Crystal 90 L 3%, Caravienne 3% and some Special B 2%. Flaked wheat or flaked barley added for head retention. ( 5% maybe )

A 90-120 minutes boil and a fairly clean yeast. I would say US-05 is a direct choice, as recommended by everyone for everything, but I would find an English yeast, fairly attenuating and flocculating. Maybe Wyeast 1968/1318/Scottish or Irish Yeast. US-05 is too bland in my opinion.
 
Thanks everyone. I do like Maris otter and Vienna, will probably use them for most of the grist.

thehaze brings up a good point. Not sure if I want to go English or American on this, so the hops are up for debate. Based on my hazy recollection I think I tend to the English side for this style.

But, was thinking wlp099 was a go to for this. An article I just read suggested to use 4 different strains, which seemed way overkill and expensive for an already costly brew for the volume brewed.

I'll noodle it some more before I post a recipe
 
Also will definitely need to add some sugar, candi syrup, and/or DME to this. My 5 gallon kettle/mash tun can only handle so much:eek:
 
Barleywine's pretty malt-forward - I don't know that the hops selection is that vital to the style. I think crystal has a place in this beer. In a Brulosophy ExBeeriment at our homebrew club meeting next Sunday, we found that blending Crystal malts to get the color desired made a better beer than just using, say Crystal 60 alone. Just thinking about the (few) barleywines I've liked, it's all malt. BTW, go with candi syrup on this one. It's easy enough to make without spending the kids' inheritance on the stuff in the store (sugar, a bit of acid, water). There are plenty of instructions out there on the Interwebs....
 
Your idea is similar to the one I had about filling a 5 gallon oak barrel and tapping it as a birthday gift 21 years later.

When I do barleywine style I don't add sugar, I mash very heavy. You get darker wort when boiling highly concentrated. No dark or crystal malts needed for color. Because ABV is high, hops as a preservative are not necessary. Most of the hop flavor will be long gone by the time you open the bottles. The hops are mostly for hot break. You're basically looking at a Burton Ale (the predecessor to barleywine) which were often 12-13% alcohol and could be aged for decades. Those were well regarded mostly because of water chemistry, so think about shooting for a Burton-on-Trent water profile.

You don't necessarily need extract either. Split a heavy grain bill in two and do a reiterated mash. I'll get 12-16lbs of grain through a 3 gallon pot that way.
 
Barley wine is available here still but not as much as it used to be.Always sold in small bottles at a high ABV.
Here is a typical British version.
23 litre batch. abv 9.6%. IBU 50 .90 minute boil
7.2 kilo(16lb) Pale malt-------------------------------------------------Could sub some extract if grain bill too heavy
300 grm(10.5 oz) Dark crystal
800 grm(1.75lb) Carapils
Northdown hops(8%) 71grm(2.5 oz) start of boil
500 grm(1lb-2oz) Honey 15 minutes
EKG/Goldings (5.5%) 14 grm(1/2 oz) flame out
Target ( 10.5%) 14 grm(1/2oz) flame out
Wyeast 1028 english ale.Ferment at 22c condition for 14 weeks.
 
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all righty, here's what i have so far. probably won't be able to make invert sugar in time, so just going with some brown sugar. I've got about 14 g of Magnum in the freezer, so I'd like to use that all up. I don't like saving partial bags of hops, so I was trying to fit in the entire oz of Target, but couldn't quite do it in a way that didn't skyrocket the IBUs or go to far into the aroma / flavor side of things. any ideas?

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/edit/527545
 
JC, you need to make the recipe public but the first thing that comes to mind is leave the 14 g of Magnum in the freezer (or use just as much of it as you need). You're no worse off that way....
 
all righty, here's what i have so far. probably won't be able to make invert sugar in time, so just going with some brown sugar. I've got about 14 g of Magnum in the freezer, so I'd like to use that all up. I don't like saving partial bags of hops, so I was trying to fit in the entire oz of Target, but couldn't quite do it in a way that didn't skyrocket the IBUs or go to far into the aroma / flavor side of things. any ideas?

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/edit/527545
Just get yourself some molasses and some golden syrup,link here,it's quite easy-
Making Brewers Invert | half a cat
 
I just had some sneeky tastes of my chock coffee stout bittered with Magnum to 41.8 IBU alcohol 6 ish % and I think it needs more bitterness. But I suppose hops aren't a big player in this style just my 2c that your 50 ish IBU may not even be conceivable against all that malty goodness so don't stress the ibu. I also added 3:1 sulphate to chloride in that brew so would expect hop bitterness to shine through but as stated not so much. Looks like a yummie brew sad to think have to wait so long to get final flavour but some things are worth waiting for.

Maybe give that keg to the mother in Law to hold onto that way you know you ain't gunna sneek Taste it empty lol:p!
 
Haha, no way is she getting It!
By my math, I only need to make about 3 gallons each year. I just need to save at least one bottle from each year, so plenty of time for sampling along the way

I was thinking of upping the IBU a little given its gonna sit for a long time. Heading to brew store today, so gotta think quick on it
 
Haha, no way is she getting It!
By my math, I only need to make about 3 gallons each year. I just need to save at least one bottle from each year, so plenty of time for sampling along the way

I was thinking of upping the IBU a little given its gonna sit for a long time. Heading to brew store today, so gotta think quick on it
Mate you've got more brew experience than me and you know you've gotta exceed IBUs on this one!!! Think of all that malty sugar if you don't balance it out with bitterness it'll be even sweeter plus get the cheapest high contributing AA it won't matter much in a year lol:p. But I know a lot is riding on this brew but we all got you on this. As in if I'm fooling myself let J Mac know about it ha ha :).
 
Looks like an awesome recipe. How was brewday?!
pretty good. it was a spur of the moment brew, after we had been out for lunch and beers with a friend. we came back to our place and started mashing around 8 or 9 pm. a few beers later (and for some ungodly reason, a few swigs of malt liquor), it was cooling in the sink. it was a bit late and a small batch, or else I would have lugged it downstairs and used my immersion chiller.
i've had one or two since i bottled it, and it's tasting good so far...i'll have to try real hard to keep them around to see how they age
 
that sounds like an evening well spent! does the alcohol influence your brewing method/ efficiency? man.. i don't think I could make decent brew with hard liquor in my body hehe.

so the recipe has already proven itself huh? maybe ill "borrow" it for my next brew. :) did you give it a name?
 

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