Unique Barleywine - input appreciated

Hi everyone, I'm considering making my first barley wine this weekend and I have a few questions and I definitely would like some feedback. Here's the basic idea:

Mash and sparge as usual. During the boil, forgo the addition of all hops and just add irish moss (and any other seasonings). Chill and put into a glass carboy for primary. Immediately after adding to primary, I'm thinking about adding a balanced (not too dry or not too sweet) Zinfandel wine -- I'm not sure how much wine to actually add without introducing a high degree of tannins into the batch. After a week of primary, I was thinking about racking to secondary in a bucket for dry hopping.

Dry hop list and schedule:

• Chinook 1oz immediately racking to secondary
• Cluster 1oz immediately racking to secondary
• Challenger 1oz immediately racking to secondary
• Cascade 1oz the third week of fermentation

My questions are as follows:

1. Will neglecting to add hops during the boil destroy the flavor?
2. Has anyone else brewed with wine before? Will the tannins ruin the flavor?
3. Has anyone else exclusively dry hopped before?
4. If this idea isn't too insane, what other seasonings could be added during the boil?

My apologies in advance for any ignorant language/concepts!

So how are you going to balance the insane amount of sweetness of all the malt of a barleywine.... this is close to zero ibus. I assume your barleywine is going to start at 1.100 and finish at around 1.020-24 or so. Thats a ton of residual sugars/dextrins. Not to mention stability problems.

What is the purpose/what are you going for by adding wine?

Im not trying to be snooty here, but I think the fellow is unfamiliar with the name and the product. A barleywine is just a name created by distributors, much in the same way malt liquor isnt distilled, barleywine has nothing to do with fermented grape juice. +1 on this recioe creati g a overly sweet and boozy beverage. I recommend making a barleywine from a recipe first, as it is a tremendously difficult style to make in the firdt place, then ket your idea come to fruition.

Yes, you need bittering from somewhere. A barleywine I made in Jan was calculated 140 IBUs and started out balanced (not bitter) and has faded to too sweet for my taste by now. Your dry hopping will fade in a matter of weeks in a beer that is supposed to age for months. Put the hops in the boil, preferably not too late so they stick around for a bit. The wine I think would not be a good fit.

youreanimpulse said:

Yes, you need bittering from somewhere. A barleywine I made in Jan was calculated 140 IBUs and started out balanced (not bitter) and has faded to too sweet for my taste by now. Your dry hopping will fade in a matter of weeks in a beer that is supposed to age for months. Put the hops in the boil, preferably not too late so they stick around for a bit. The wine I think would not be a good fit.

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Thanks the constructive feedback. I was a reluctant to dry hop the entire batch so I'll add some hops during the boil. The purpose of the wine is to give it a different flavor. It serves the same purpose as bourbon might in a recipe that warrants bourbon (e.g. bourbon stout). To summarize, the point of adding wine is to create a different flavor. It's like when brewers age their beer in wine casks or bourbon casks -- Russian River.

giraffe said:

So how are you going to balance the insane amount of sweetness of all the malt of a barleywine.... this is close to zero ibus. I assume your barleywine is going to start at 1.100 and finish at around 1.020-24 or so. Thats a ton of residual sugars/dextrins. Not to mention stability problems.

What is the purpose/what are you going for by adding wine?

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Point taken, sir/madame.
Please read above. I appreciate any feedback!

Before you go through all the trouble of making a barleywine, which as les2point0 mentions above is not the easiest beer to make, buy a commercial BW and mix it in the glass with a Zinfandel. I have never mixed a beer and wine before so I can't comment on the taste but this will at least give you a point of reference.

Also note that in your example above, Russian River, aging a beer in a wine barrel is extremely different than mixing wine and beer.

Fathand said:

Before you go through all the trouble of making a barleywine, which as les2point0 mentions above is not the easiest beer to make, buy a commercial BW and mix it in the glass with a Zinfandel. I have never mixed a beer and wine before so I can't comment on the taste but this will at least give you a point of reference.

Also note that in your example above, Russian River, aging a beer in a wine barrel is extremely different than mixing wine and beer.

Click to expand...

Great info, I'll do that. Thanks!