badmajon

Recipes 

Hi, I'm about to attempt to make my first barleywine, I'm going to be out of the country for 6 months, and I want something nice to look forward to when I get back.

Is there a normal technique mashing/sparging a barleywine? My recipe has 17 lbs of grain for a 5 gallon batch. My strike water on that much would be 4.25 gallons! Then how do I sparge this? Seems like it would require massive volumes of water and really, really long boil times.

Also, it will be sitting in a glass secondary for 6 months. What will this do to the IBUs? I know hop flavors fade after a few months, so what kind of IBU should I shoot for in a beer that will have to wait that long to be drunk?

thanks

mcaple1

Recipes 

you really need some free brewing software to be asking questions like that bud.

google brewtarget...


but seriously, barleywines really aren't that different as far as brewing process is concerned.....the big difference between regular beers and high og beers like this is yeast pitch size and viability, coupled with a long aging period.

but yeah, get yourself brewtarget...its free and will answer all your questions about sparge volume etc.....and you can get away with 60 minute boil....the intended OG really doesn't decide how long your boil should be.....mainly your boil off rate and your pre-boil volume will determine how long you wish to boil for for a specific og.....hope that makes sense. IBUs will be affected....but using brewtarget and it will estimate for you. sheesh...im outties.

Greyhound

Recipes 

It sounds like you're on the right track. I've only brewed one barleywine; it had a total grain bill of 19.25 lbs and used a total of 11 gallons of water (strike plus 2 batch sparges). I had 8.5 gallons going into the boil kettle and boiled for 3 hours.

I mashed a little thinner than you, but next time I'll use 1.0 qt/lb for my strike water & increase my sparge water volume.

You could probably reduce your water & boil times a little, but I was very happy with the results of the 3 hour boil, so I wouldn't change that.

__________________
"Give a man a beer, waste an hour. Teach a man to brew, and waste a lifetime!" -Bill Owen

mcaple1

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3 hours....WTF???? Why?

Wolfhound180

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I agree. What purpose does this serve?

Greyhound

Recipes 

Uh...because that's what the recipe said to do?

But I believe the theory is that the long boil carmelizes (or probably more accurately "maillards") the sugars to contribute flavors. I followed a BYO recipe for a SN Bigfoot clone. It won a gold medal at a small comp. I can't say it's good because of the 3 hour boil, but I'm sure it didn't hurt.

__________________
"Give a man a beer, waste an hour. Teach a man to brew, and waste a lifetime!" -Bill Owen

emetcalf

Recipes 

Longer boils give you more boil off, so you can use more sparge water and get better efficiency. It helps for high og beers.

badmajon

Recipes 

So the question is then, my brew system usually gets 70% eff. on a good day. I wish it were higher, but that's what I always seem to get. I usually do a simple infusion mash and double batch sparge. I have a 10 gal igloo cooler w/ false bottom and a keggle.

If I brew this massive beer just like any other, will I still get my 70%? If not, what other technique should I use?

Also, the recipe I am looking at now only has about 40 ibus, (1 oz nugget @ 60, 1 oz amarillo @ 20 and 1 oz EKG @ 15). Given that this beer will sit in secondary for 6 months, will that be enough or will the IBUs fade into insignificance? I've never aged a beer that long, so I don't know what will happen.

Greyhound

Recipes 

I would plan for a lower than normal mash efficiency. My target OG based on my normal efficiency was 1.097; my actual came in at 1.090.

As for IBU's, the BJCP guidelines for an American Barleywine (19C) is 50-120 IBU's. English Barleywine (19B) is 35-70 IBU. My recipe, using Rager, calculated at 254 IBU's , but I know IBU calculations aren't accurate after 70 or so.

__________________
"Give a man a beer, waste an hour. Teach a man to brew, and waste a lifetime!" -Bill Owen

mcaple1

Recipes 

It's funny b/c my best eff came from my RIS, but I am very consistent with my PA and IPA's.