Christmas barleywine

**Butter** · 12-16-2011, 08:39 PM

My girlfriend and I really like Old Foghorn barleywine by Anchor. We also want to make a spiced Christmas beer for next year, so I was wondering if this style would take the spices well or not? We've been trying to find a clone kit but have struck out so far. Can anybody help us?

**LexusChris** · 12-17-2011, 06:42 AM

There is a recipe posted here on HBT for 'Old Foghorn'.

As for adding spices to it, I personally like my spiced beers to be a bit lighter in body, alcohol & hops. I'd use a bittering hop, but may just let the spices to the rest. Or, just a single 15-minute add of Cascade if I thought the flavor would blend. e.g. I've used Northern English Browns and Old Ales as base recipes for my spiced beers before...

I think if you add any spices to this Old Foghorn recipe, you'll have a tough time noticing it... and by the time you've added enough to notice it .. it would be way too strong.

Good luck,
--LexusChris

**Butter** · 12-17-2011, 03:52 PM

What do you think about the 18 month secondary? How would the flavor be affected by only a 8-10 month secondary?

**LexusChris** · 12-17-2011, 06:44 PM

Well, I know there many different views on this topic... but here is where I currently stand.

I don't put my beers in a secondary. Just a good primary under temprature control, and raise the temp a few degrees after primary fermentation is over to let the yeast clean up for an extra week. So typically, I am 2 weeks in the primary, then off to the keg or bottle. (After a cold crash & gelatin)

I prefer to age my beers in the keg/bottle. High ABV beers do seem to age very well and have subtle changes to flavor profile over time. (I have a bourbon barrel aged barleywine which is at 18 months and still getting better!) Be sure to minimize oxidation during bottling (and fill them properly .. very little air left on top).

When I use spices, I won't even sample them until 6 months in storage, and I find them very tasty even 12+ months out. Lots of the 'hard edges' the spices may add to the beer flavor tend to mellow out quite a bit, blend together as it were, with 6-12 months of aging. So, planning your 2012 Christmast brew now (with spices), is a great idea.

I think it will taste really great with only 8-10 months aging.

Hows that for a long answer to a short question?

--LexusChris

**Butter** · 12-17-2011, 08:31 PM

Well I've read the threads on whether to secondary or not and I'm not even gonna go there. That's how I learned to brew so we've been doing primary only with no ill effects. Wasn't sure about an 18 month secondary vs bottle conditioning for 6+ months. I guess I could do my spice addition at bottling?

gregpio85 · 12-18-2011, 01:54 PM

You definitely want to bottle condition your barleywines for at least six months. If you can keep yours hands off of it, hang on to it for 10+ years and you'll have one of the most amazing beers of your life.

I've only done one spice beer, but we had a mix of different spices going in at different times. If I remember correctly, we added a gallon of honey to the boil for 60 minutes, orange zest at flameout, and cinnamon at bottling.

What spices are you thinking for the Foghorn? I've always wanted to take that recipe and substitute a pound of 2-row for a pound of special B malt and make it darker, more raisin-y beer.

**Butter** · 12-18-2011, 02:33 PM

I was thinking cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, maybe some Orange peel. Don't want an over-the-top spice taste, but I do want to be able to know they're there. Does that make sense?

gregpio85 · 12-18-2011, 06:06 PM

Makes sense.

You're best bet since you don't know how the spices will affect the beer might be to add a small amount of spice to a beaker of beer. You can let your spices sit in a small amount of vodka to sterilize and soak up, pour a small sample of beer, and with a pipette, add a few drops of the vodka/spice solution to your beer to test the taste, then use the number of drops in your solution to determine the number of drops to put in the rest of the batch.

See:

Adding Spices to Your Home Brew Beer

Hope this helps.

Cheers!