Thinking up a barleywine recipie...opinions?

A few weeks ago I started a thread (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=55515) about some ideas I had concerning "jazzing up" a barleywine kit from NB. Since then though, they increased the prices of their kits, and my LHBS (which I was planning to use to supply some of the extra hops I wanted to use) is now out of exactly those hops I was interested in So, in light of all this, I think I am just going to start from scratch and make my own recipie. I did some thinking today, and some looking around to see what hops are available where, and came up with a new plan. Luckily, Austin HB still has a halfway decent selection of hops...

I've had a few beers lately that had a lot of American "C" hops in them which I've really enjoyed, so I think I'm going to shoot for an American barleywine (maybe a little less hoppy than some, but in the same spirt. Citrusy and floral.)

Here's what I'm thinking of so far:


Goblin Rocket Fuel- American Barleywine

Steeping Grains:
1 lb Crystal 60
1/2 lb Special B

Fermentables:
13 lbs Munich LME (described as 20% Munich, 80% two-row)
2 lbs Turbinado sugar

Hops:
1/2 oz Nugget (60min)
1 oz Columbus (60 min)
2 oz Amarillo (20 and 5 min)
1 oz Cascade (20 min)

Yeast:
2 packages S-05, additional yeast added at bottling


Steep grains in 2 gallons of 160F water for 30 minutes, sparge with 1/2 gallon of water of the same temp. Add 3 lbs of LME, and bring to a boil. Once a boil is achieved, add the .5oz of Nugget, and 1 oz of Columbus. 40 minutes later, add 1 oz of Amarillo and 1 oz of Cascade. 5 minutes after that, add the rest of the LME (10 lbs) and bring back to a boil. Add 1 oz of Amarillo with 5 minutes left in the boil. Chill, add water up to 4.5 gallons, and pitch yeast. A few days later (just as fermentation is starting to slow,) bring 1/2 gallon of water to a boil, and dissolve the 2 lbs of Turbinado sugar into it. Chill, and add to the primary fermenter. Let it ferment in the primary for 3-4 weeks, then transfer to secondary for a few months of bulk aging. Bottle with fresh yeast (probably more S-05) in the bottling bucket.

If anyone is wondering about the seemingly funky addition of Nugget, I just happen to have a half ounce of it sitting around, and I'd like to use it I'm also using the late extract method to increase hop utilization- color is secondary, as barleywines are supposed to be a little dark. I'm guessing this one will turn out to be a very dark red/brown color. I've also put the wort "step up" in the plan to avoid having a really high OG, as I'm worried that so many fermentables would just choke the yeast. I'm not entirely sure if I need to do this, but it makes sense to me anyways.

Thoughts?

It looks like a pretty good recipe to me, but I might split up the 2 oz. of Amarillo to 30 minutes and 5 minutes and move the cascade to 15 minutes. I think Nugget will work well in this beer.

I was actually thinking if I should move one of my hop additions to 30 minutes myself...hmm, I may do that instead. Thanks for the feedback.

Well, the ingredients have been ordered!

Also, on a whim today, I decided that I'm going to brew up another "session" ale to drink while my two big brews age. It's going to be a fairly simply American Amber ale (6lbs light DME, 1lb Crystal 60, 0.5lb Carapils, 2oz Cascade, and S-05 yeast.) Note the yeast choice- I'm going to use this beer to make a nice, big, yeast cake for my barleywine to be racked onto I'll probably start the Amber this weekend, rack it to secondary next weekend, and then start the barleywine then. With that much yeast, I really may not have to worry about incremental feeding...I can probably just put all of my malt and sugars in at once I would think. Am I right?

The big starter...I mean, the amber ale was brewed today After a string of malty and/or lightly hopped beers, I'm actually kind of looking forwards to something with some hop flavor and aroma. Funny, because I didn't like that sort of beer not all that long ago...

Question from a novice. In your recipe are you adding yeast to the fermenter right before the bottling instead of priming sugar? Just had my first barleywine the other day (Sierra Nevada Bigfoot). I live in Alabama and as you may or may not know we are currently trying to change our ABV laws. Our current limit is 6% ABV which means I can't get a lot of decent beer without driving to Georgia. I was thinking of brewing a barleywine and found your recipe, which I may use as a guideline to construct my own. Just a bunch of background info but ya I was just wondering if that yeast was replacing the priming sugar and what do you think your final ABV will be with this recipe?

No problem, I'm not too far past novice-dom yet myself as I started brewing last October...however, I read A LOT

The extra yeast will be added in addition to the priming sugar when I bottle- the idea is, that after fermenting such a big beer, the yeast will be pretty worn out and won't be able to carbonate the beer in the bottle. So, you add some fresh yeast along with the priming sugar into the bottling bucket.

I don't have brewing software yet, so I can't really say how strong it will be, but I can pretty safely say it's going to be 10% or more. I saw recently someone who brewed a barleywine with a similar recipe (same amount of fermentables- 13lb LME, and 2 lb of dextrose,) and he got just over 13%.


On a side note, after finally getting to try SN Bigfoot myself last week (and finding it to be a bit heavy on the bitter side, and lighter on the flavor/aroma side,) I'm re-thinking the idea/suggestion of having a full 1oz hop addition at 30 minutes. I'm currently thinking of doing my hop schedule this way:

0.5 oz Nugget @ 60min
1 oz Colubus @ 60 min
0.5 oz Amarillo @ 30 min
0.5 oz Amarillo @ 20 min
1 oz Cascade @ 15 min
1 oz Amarillo @ 5 min

I'm thinking that will still leave me with a good level of bitterness to go with the huge amount of malt I'm using, but balance more towards hop aroma/flavor. Sort of like my experience with Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA- I liked how it had a ton of hop flavor/aroma, but not as much raw bitterness as I've tasted in other IPA's (and, as I said, that I tasted in SN Bigfoot.)

how long are you going to age this beer in secondary, and then in the bottle.

i personally would forgo any hop additions after 30 min, especially in these jacked up hop times, but i let my bw age at least a year before i start drinking them. most of the hop flavor/aroma is well gone by then.

I'm planning to age it for at least 2 months in the secondary (most likely,) and then the majority of it (aside from "samples" ) will be aged until December. I'm planning on having this available at my New Years Eve party, and whatever doesn't get drunken then (which will probably be a lot of it,) will continue to age for an indeterminate amount of time- aka, until it all gets drinken

I'm open to any sort of feedback on my hopping schedule or aging time that you, or anyone else, may have.

well friend, I believe now that April has arrived and I have new income I'm going to go ahead and start this recipe myself as well. I may change a few things as far as hops because I do enjoy a bitter beer, but its good to get the gist from ya... I have been reading a lot as well, I'm reading Papazian's book right now, and I joined this forum to learn as much as I can and come to find that I do in fact have a LOT to learn! Speaking of which, I have been trying to search for anything to do with the "yeast cake" you spoke of earlier so I wouldn't have to bother you with explaining it to me, but I couldn't find anything and it seems to be some sort of important technique. Let me know what you can if you will Thanks!

TouchOfGrey said:

I have been reading a lot as well, I'm reading Papazian's book right now, and I joined this forum to learn as much as I can and come to find that I do in fact have a LOT to learn! Speaking of which, I have been trying to search for anything to do with the "yeast cake" you spoke of earlier so I wouldn't have to bother you with explaining it to me, but I couldn't find anything and it seems to be some sort of important technique. Let me know what you can if you will Thanks!

Click to expand...

One relatively recent example thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=55223&highlight=yeastcake

That thread describes it pretty well. It's as easy as racking the fermented beer off the yeast, and pouring new wort onto the old yeast still in the fermenter I've done it once before, and was thinking "theres no way this will work right..." Suffice to say, I made a good beer by doing so!

I hope to start my "Goblin Rocket Fuel" this weekend

I took a sample of my amber "starter" ale today, it is down to 1.014 (from 1.058,) so I think it's ready to go into the secondary. Man, does it taste/smell good! Tons of fruity and citrus flavor/aroma. I'll probably be racking it tomorrow, and brewing up the barleywine to go onto the yeast cake.

Oh yeah, if anyone is curious about my Amber Ale, this is the recipe I used (taken from my brew log):


It Came From the Basement Amber Ale

Method- 5 gallon extract/steeping grains
Genre- American Amber Ale
Date Brewed- March 23rd, 2008
Date Bottled-
Original Gravity- 1.058 @ 70F
Final Gravity-
ABV-
Ingredients-

•1 lb Crystal 60- steeped for 30 minutes @ 160F
•½ lb Cara-Pils- steeped for 30 minutes @ 160F
•6 lbs Briess Pilsen Light DME
•2 oz Cascade (1oz @ 60min, 0.5 @ 30min, 0.25 @ 15 min, 0.25 @ 5 min)
•1 package US-05 yeast

The fuel is in the primary...

This is the final recipe that I was/am using:


Goblin Rocket Fuel

Method- 5 gallon extract/steeping grains
Genre- American Barleywine
Date Brewed- April 6, 2008
Date Bottled-
Original Gravity- 1.126 @ 66F, and only 4.5g
Final Gravity-
ABV-
Ingredients-

- 1 lb Crystal 60- steeped @ 160F for 30 minutes
- 1/2 lb Special B- steeped @ 160F for 30 minutes
- 3 lb Munich LME- boiled for 60 minutes
-10 lb Munich LME- added @ 10 minutes
-1/2 oz Nugget @ 60 minutes
-1 oz Columbus @ 60 minutes
-1/2 oz Amarillo @ 30 minutes
-1/2 oz Amarillo @ 20 minutes
-1 oz Cascade @ 15 minutes
-1 oz Amarillo @ 5 minutes
-1 tsp. Irish Moss @ 5 minutes
-pitched onto US-05 cake @ 66F from previous batch

-2 lb Turbinado sugar- to be added as Krausen begins to fall w/ 1/2 gal water


Everything basically went as planned, and I found the LME I ordered from Austin Homebrew to be extremely fresh and flavorful (first time I ordered from them.) The OG was a little higher than I expected (1.126, as I stated above,) but I really should have expected it to be high since I was only working with 4.5 gallons of water. There was also a TON of yeast and trub from the last batch in suspension when I took the reading. I did add a little more water after I took the gravity reading- about 1/4 gallon- but in hindsight, I didn't need to. It is already vigorously bubbling (about 2.5 hours after pitching,) in fact the trub didn't even get a chance to fully settle before everything started fizzing :rockin:

I've got a blowoff set up because I fully expect this one to be explosive. Once the krausen dies down a little (aka, once it stops blowing off,) I'll boil up the Turbinado solution, cool it, and add it to the fermenter. This one is most likely going to be in the primary for a month, and bulk aged for at least 2 more in the secondary before I even think about bottling it. I'm thinking about priming with more Turbinado, but that's a good ways off.

Suffice to say, after two high-gravity ales brewed back-to-back, my next few are going to be lower gravity, faster to finish brews

Yup, an hour after I posted the one above, it was already blowing off. It sounds like a machinegun of bubbles down in my basement, with the occasional explosion of air and foam all coming out at once.

Lets hope the blowoff doesn't get clogged, otherwise I'm going to be awoken by a big BOOM tonight!

Like I suspected, I got one hell of a blow-off. The next morning, the water on my blow-off bucket was full of krausen gunk and brown water. Unfortunately, this also means that I lost a noticable amount of beer (maybe 1/2-3/4 of a gallon) to blow-off, which kind of sucks. The next time I do such a large beer with a yeast cake, I'll either do it in a larger fermenter (I used a 6 gallon BB,) or I'll try some of the anti-foaming agents I've heard good things about on here.

Anyways, last night the krausen was already dying down (aka, below the neck of the bottle,) so I'll probably be adding my Turbinado solution to the wort tonight.

Back from the dead-

I'm about to transfer this to the secondary now, it's been in the primary for a little over a month (by a couple of weeks.) It's sitting at 1.026 now, with an estimated OG (after I added some liquid, and sugar back) of 1.113, giving me an ABV of 11.6% now. Potent The taste is pretty good already, a pleasant amount of bitterness and hop flavor, and a slight alcohol burn. This one is definitely going to be an ager. I'm actually planning on adding some champagne yeast to the secondary; I want to make sure that there are not any more fermentable sugars left that could cause problems while bottling (I recently had some issues with a big stout I bottled.)

I'd let it sit for no less than 6 months in the secondary if you're concerned about bottle bombs. Besides that time will allow the beer to really mellow out nicely.


Dude - what size fermenter did you use? Seems like you lost a LOT of beer through the blow off.

I used a 6 gallon Better Bottle. I'm going to primary a beer like this in a big bucket next time...and/or use foam control drops (which I bought after the huge blowoff I had with this beer.)

I bottled this barleywine recently, after sitting in the secondary for about 4.5 months (on champagne yeast.) The sample I tried while bottling is spot-on to what I was shooting for. There is definite bitterness and hop flavor, but it doesn't overwhelm the maltiness of the beer nearly as much as some other barleywines I have tried. I didn't measure the FG, but the approximately 6oz I had left after bottling made me light headed, so...it's strong

I'm going to let my friends drink some of it at New Year's like I planned, but the majority of it is going to be cellared for a while to let it age.