Need help with an American Barleywine recipe.

Hey guys, so I have been wanting to work on a Barleywine for a while now, but the aging requirements have kept me from doing so, UNTIL NOW! I am trying to put together a recipe similar to Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot Barleywine. Just looking for a well-hopped, malty yet not too sweet Barleywine in the American tradition. This is what I have come up with off the top of my head, being totally uneducated/inexperienced with brewing barleywines. Any insight on how to make a great American Barleywine would be very much appreciated!

American Barleywine
Batch Size: 6 gallons
Efficiency: 70%

Ingredients
19 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 84.4 %
2 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 8.9 %
1 lbs 4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.6 %
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 4 1.1 %
1.50 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 43.2 IBUs
1.50 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 6 30.8 IBUs
1.50 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min Hop 7 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min Hop 8 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 9 -
2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs

Mash @ 152 for 60 minutes.

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.095
Est Final Gravity: 1.020
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 9.9 %
Bitterness: 74.0 IBUs
Est Color: 13.3 SRM

Overall I think the recipe looks good. I would be in favor if reducing the amount if crystal malt a bit, and perhaps increasing boil time to add complexity and color. Also how long do you plan to age this? You may want to increase overall IBUs and consider whether or not dry hoping and late aroma hop additions will be worth it as those attributes fade with aging. What yeast are you planning on?

Thanks for your input BishopGary, so I guess I will consider making it just 1 lb of crystal 60L plus the 4 oz of 120L, or do you think that i should even maybe reduce the crystal malts to just 1 lb all together? Also, was planning on a 90 minute boil, should I go for a full 2 hour boil, or is that not completely necessary? I may need to step down the batch size if 2 hour boil is needed since my kettle capacity is 8 gallons. Additionally, I am unsure as to how long I would need to age a beer like this, but i was figuring a 4-6 month minimum until I crack my first bottle. How long would you suggest aging a beer like this and also what sort of fermentation schedule would you suggest? I do not secondary at the moment, will I need to for a beer like this?

Depending on how long you plan on aging it I may or may not eliminate any aroma steep additions. Especially if planning a dryhope before keggin/bottling. If it's going to age for a year (which it could) it would just be a waste.

I personally would age four to six months and then dryhop right before bottling. For any extended aging I still use a secondary vessel.

How does moving the aroma hops addition to maybe 10 minutes sound? it could boost ibus and still leave some flavor. Good call on the dryhop right before bottling. ALSO if I wanted to keep this at a 6 gallon batch, assuming it would be about 5.5 gallons going into secondary what sort of vessel would I need to use for that? Will I need to scale the recipe to 5 gallons so that it will fit in a 5 gal carboy? All I have is 6.5 gal carboys at the moment.

Do you typically get greater than 70% efficiency? Your efficiency will likely be much less with the larger grainbill.

@daksin, I usually get about 75-80% on batches with more standard gravities, and recently got 70% on a batch that was at 1.083 OG. Do you think I should maybe scale it down to 65%?

Bisco_Ben said:

@daksin, I usually get about 75-80% on batches with more standard gravities, and recently got 70% on a batch that was at 1.083 OG. Do you think I should maybe scale it down to 65%?

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I definitely would. I did a barleywine that really stretched the extreme limits of my system and got 55% when I normally get 80 on moderate-high gravity beers.

Even with a longer boil, you could top off some after the boil to get you back up to 6 gal. I do this with almost every beer to hit my volume exactly.

Scale down to 60-65% and then you'll more then likely hit your numbers or maybe overshoot.

OK guys, so after doing some reading and playing around with the recipe a bit, this is what I have come up with so far. Changed the base malt to UK pale malt and upped the IBU's/gravity a bit as well. Also increased the boil time to 120 minutes and decreased the efficiency to 62%. Please let me know what you guys think, I really want this beer to come out great as it will require a lot of time, money and labor. Your insight is very much appreciated!! (ALSO, when I change the boil from 90-120 minutes in beersmith it messed with the IBU's, I now have it set to 120.)

American Barleywine
Batch Size (fermenter): 6.00 gal
Boil Time: 120 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 62.00 %

Ingredients
20 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 83.3 %
2 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 8.3 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.1 %
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 4 1.0 %
1 lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 5 4.2 %
2.00 oz Magnum [14.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 64.6 IBUs
1.50 oz Chinook [11.10 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 28.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [9.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 4.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Chinook [11.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 9 4.9 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 10 -
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs

Mash @ 149 for 60 minutes

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.093
Est Final Gravity: 1.014
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 10.5 %
Bitterness: 101.6 IBUs
Est Color: 12.8 SRM

Bisco_Ben said:

Ingredients
20 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 83.3 %
2 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 8.3 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.1 %
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 4 1.0 %
1 lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 5 4.2 %
2.00 oz Magnum [14.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 64.6 IBUs
1.50 oz Chinook [11.10 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 28.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [9.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 4.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Chinook [11.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 9 4.9 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 10 -
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs

Mash @ 149 for 60 minutes

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.093
Est Final Gravity: 1.014
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 10.5 %
Bitterness: 101.6 IBUs
Est Color: 12.8 SRM

Click to expand...

Looks good.

How long are you planning on aging this for?

I am not truly sure since i have yet to make a barleywine, or any beer of this gravity for that matter. I have no problem aging this batch for as long as it needs until it becomes a great beer since my pipeline is always full. How long would you think a recipe like this would need until it was ready?

ALSO, I only have 6.5 gallon carboys at the moment and assume that I will need to bulk age this beer in a secondary, so I am planning to buy a new smaller carboy for this very purpose. I like to make more than 5 gallons at a time for a batch like this, so is there a sized carboy that I could effectively bulk-age 5.25-6 gallons of beer in? I am thinking about getting a 6 gallon carboy but I feel like that may leave too much headspace for a beer like this at 5.25-5.5 gallons. I have also yet to use a secondary at all, so if someone could chime in here I would greatly appreciate it!

I aged my last Barleywine for about a year, and then it aged in a serving keg for another 6-8 months.

I would get a 5-gallon glass carboy for the bulk aging. Then I would bottle the remaining amount into 12oz bottles with a bit of priming sugar. That way you can take tastes along the way without opening the bulk aging beer.

It won't be 100% like the bulk aged beer, but it should be relatively close. And you won't have to worry about extra head-space.

I was hoping to be able to drink this within a year. Is that not likely? also, should I scale it down to 5.5 gallons by subtracting base malt so that it will all just fit into one 5 gallon carboy?

You can drink it sooner than I did with mine. I just wanted to let it age that long.

When I tasted it early on it was great too.

If you don't want any extra then I would scale it back to fit the aging vessel.

Hey guys, so I decided to scale down the recipe to 5.5 gallons so that I will be able to fit the whole batch into a 5 gallon carboy for bulk aging. I did so by subtracting some 2-row and took a little away from the 60 minute bittering addition, in order to keep the gravity and ibus where i wanted them. Let me know how this looks after these slight changes. Appreciate any insight!

American Barleywine
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Boil Time: 120 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 62.00 %

Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
18 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 81.8 %
2 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 9.1 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.4 %
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 4 1.1 %
1 lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 5 4.5 %
1.75 oz Magnum [14.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 61.3 IBUs
1.50 oz Chinook [11.10 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 30.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [9.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 4.4 IBUs
1.00 oz Chinook [11.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 9 5.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 10 -
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs

Mash @ 150 for 60 minutes

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.093 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 10.4 %
Bitterness: 101.5 IBUs
Est Color: 13.1 SRM

Looks good to me.

Did you brew this? I am curious to know how it turned out, if you tried a sample yet. I am going to brew my first barleywine in about three weeks and was thinking about trying your recipe. Did you do a two hour boil?

Thanks.

I have not been able to brew this up yet unfortunately. Now that you mention it though, I think I should get to it sooner than later. Will report back when I make some progress.