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Bronco1500 · 09-20-2012, 10:49 PM

So this will be my 5th brew and first barley wine. This extract kit seems pretty straight forward but I thought Id ask if anybody had any tips or tweaks for making it as good as it can be.

If there is no tweaks Ill just be following the directions.

Thanks guys

Uconnrh11 · 09-20-2012, 11:08 PM

My suggestion would be to not leave it in secondary too long. I moved to secondary after 3 weeks. I tasted it at 4 months in secondary and it was great. I let it get to 6 months then bottled. It's just my opinion but drinking it now I wish I bottled earlier at the 4 mark. The flavors are muddled now. The fruit notes are way too light for my taste and it's taken on a slightly woody note that I'm not pleased with. Just my opinion though.

prpromin · 09-20-2012, 11:09 PM

Make a starter. I don't think the NB instructions say anything about that.

sweed · 09-20-2012, 11:47 PM

Add more dme/lme. I'm not sure how much they give you, but its prob not enough, lol. Just kidding....but seriously...think about it.

Have beers around because this ones going to need a lot of aging.

Good luck!

dcp27 · 09-21-2012, 01:31 PM

make sure to pitch plenty of yeast (see mrmalty.com) and keep your fermentation temps down. bigger beers can be even more exothermic so you really need to keep tabs on it unless you like the taste of rocket fuel. look into swamp cooler or some other method to keep those temps in check.

toss it in a secondary and forget about it for months & get started on the next beer

jcdouglas · 09-21-2012, 03:30 PM

Consider the use of a blow off tube.

Bronco1500 · 09-26-2012, 04:35 PM

So, I started a smaller beer last week (N.B. Innkeeper). Next week Ill be racking to bottles then Ill pitch the B. Wine onto the yeast cake left behind by the Innkeeper. I will be using a blow off tube and a fridge with regulator to keep the temperatures in check. Im thinking I will leave in the primary & fridge for a month, then rack to secondary for 3 months. Then bottle.

Thanks for the input guys. Any other thoughts are appreciated

inhousebrew · 09-26-2012, 05:02 PM

You could leave it in the fridge for the first week and then take it out or up the temp to help the yeast finish up their job. This is just from my experience from the one and only time I brewed this kit but it ended up sweeter than I would like with a relatively high final gravity. With that in mind I would add a bit of corn sugar to the kit if I did it again. Maybe half a pound, no more than one pound though.

What yeast are you using for the Innkeeper, if it's the Yorkshire I also would be worried it would drop out and not finish the job on a Barleywine because it has a medium/high flocculation listed. To counter this on big beers after a week or so I like to lightly swirl my carboys three times a day to keep the yeast in suspension. No splashing, just swirling. This should help them finish up.

Most of these comments are actually listed in my newest blog posting on big beer brewing which is in my signature below.

Bronco1500 · 09-27-2012, 06:06 AM

I'll be using safale us-05

**Pratzie** · 09-27-2012, 06:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bronco1500

I'll be using safale s-05

Was gonna recommend a starter and blow off tube too. Better to make sure u pitch correctly, but even with dry yeast, mr malty recommends more then one whole 11g pack because the OG is so high (Target OG from NB web site is 1.082. I'd say go with an extra pack of yeast if u don't wanna make a starter and then use some yeast for bottling as their instructions recommend that.