Conditioning a barleywine

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jgourd

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I plan to brew a barleywine (1.105 OG) tomorrow. With the second runnings, I'll make some sort of APA/IPA/Brown Ale. In any event, I plan to dry hop my barleywine after aging and then carbonating in the keg. I have several alternative plans; which would you recommend (after primary fermentation):

(1) Rack to secondary glass carboy to let age for a year or more, then dry hop right in there prior to racking to a keg and carbonating.
(2) Rack to secondary glass carboy to let age for a year or more, rack to a bucket and dry hop, then rack to a keg and carbonate.
(3) Rack to a keg to let age for a year or more, then dry hop right in there using a mesh bag (I'd just leave the hops in there during carbonation and until the keg is empty).
(4) Other?

Danke!
 
I'd think it woul depend wether it is easier for you to store a carboy or a keg. For me I would probably go with the keg, but I really don't know. I'm curious to see what sort of answers you get.
 
Any of them would be fine and I doubt any will give you better results than the others. It all depends on whether you need that carboy/bucket/keg while the BW is conditioning. How long do you plan on having the dry hops in there?
 
I would dry hop at the end of fermentation so that any O2 introduced from the hops gets absorbed by the active yeast and doesn't oxidize the beer early on. Then crash cool and transfer to a keg and age to your hearts content.
 
Aging it a year would defeat the purpose of dry hoping, wouldn't it?
 
Any of them would be fine and I doubt any will give you better results than the others. It all depends on whether you need that carboy/bucket/keg while the BW is conditioning. How long do you plan on having the dry hops in there?

I could spare a keg, but it may be best to go with the carboy since I may let it age for more than a year. I'm considering this my 40th birthday barleywine. I'll be 40 in 3.5 years. As far as the dry hops go, I'll probably only leave them in for a week.
 
Aging it a year would defeat the purpose of dry hoping, wouldn't it?

I agree. That's why I plan to dry hop right before I consume. I figure I dry hop for a week, carb for a week, and enjoy. I don't tend to drink barleywine very quickly, so it will be interesting to get a feel for a freshly dry hopped version and then a less hoppy version 6 months or more later.
 
(4) Keg it, ship it to me and I will age it in my belly.

Kidding, personally I would rack to a secondary carboy after primary fermentation. There is a lot of yeast that will still settle in the year of aging and I wouldn't want all of that in my keg. You could then dry hop directly in the secondary for your desired length of time then finally rack to the keg when you're ready to enjoy it.
 
Aging it a year would defeat the purpose of dry hoping, wouldn't it?

Not if you age it, and THEN dry hop it :D which I'm pretty sure is what the OP is planning.

To the OP, I've seen people use a water filter full of hops and put that in the line between the keg and the tap so then you can change out the hops as needed and every pint would be freshly "dry hopped", though I imagine you would lose some beer when you open the filter to replace the hops.

However if you are planning on drinking it all within a month or 2, you could just dry hop in secondary for a week and then keg. However, this is a barley wine, which is very strong so I don't know how quickly you'd empty that keg.
 
I'm following a Papazian recipe that calls for that-dry hopping and then aging for one year.

That's interesting. After aging, I can't see how much of the dry hop aroma will remain. But I'll get a chance to try that since I will dry hop *after* aging, but consuming the beer will probably take 6 months to a year.
 
That's interesting. After aging, I can't see how much of the dry hop aroma will remain. But I'll get a chance to try that since I will dry hop *after* aging, but consuming the beer will probably take 6 months to a year.

I'm no expert. But, seems to me the aroma doesn't have any place to go. It can't soak back into the beer, can it?

Anyhow, I'm just following the recipe. Papazian knows a hell of a lot more than I do about beer!
 
I'm no expert. But, seems to me the aroma doesn't have any place to go. It can't soak back into the beer, can it?

Anyhow, I'm just following the recipe. Papazian knows a hell of a lot more than I do about beer!
I don't know where the aroma goes, but I do know that the effects of dry hopping fade quickly.

Try not to just blindly follow a recipe because a recipe is just a recipe, but its the brewer who puts everything together and makes the beer.
 
(4) Keg it, ship it to me and I will age it in my belly.

Kidding, personally I would rack to a secondary carboy after primary fermentation. There is a lot of yeast that will still settle in the year of aging and I wouldn't want all of that in my keg. You could then dry hop directly in the secondary for your desired length of time then finally rack to the keg when you're ready to enjoy it.

I feel like keeping it in a keg for a long period of time is a bit safer than a carboy (Perfectly sealed, wont break, easier size to store somewhere). Maybe to a avoid the yeast in your keg, you could secondary in a carboy for a month and then transfer to a keg for aging. I know some people don't like to transfer beer from vessel to vessel like that, but I've never had a problem with it.
 
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