English Barleywine Recipe

Hey there, first post on HBT!

A couple friends and I just brewed an English Barleywine this weekend (it's off to a wild fermentation!) and I thought I'd post the recipe here for some feedback.

Batch Size: 4.25 gallons
Boil Length: 120 minutes
Mash Efficiency: 60%
Yeast: Safale S-04 (two packets)

Malt Bill
9 lbs Maris Otter 3L (51%)
2 lbs Light DME 4L (22%)
4 lbs Vienna 4L (21%)
12 oz Crystal 40L (4%)
6 oz Special B 180L (2%)

Hops
2 oz Northern Brewer 10.6% AA 90 minutes
1.5 oz Goldings 5.5% AA 20 minutes
1.5 oz Goldings 5.5% AA 0 minutes

OG: 1.100
(Expected) FG: 1.025
(Expected) ABV: 9.7%
IBU: 100
SRM: 18

*I use my own equations in an excel worksheet to generate stats, so it might be a bit off what other programs say

-Mash for 75 minutes @ 150 degrees F with 1.7 qt/lb
-Mash-out at 165 degrees F
-Added the DME with 15 minutes left in the boil

We were going for a more-balanced barleywine, but our initial impressions were that we overdid it on the hops and that it tasted too bitter. We're hoping the bitterness mellows out over time, planning on aging this guy for a while. Also, we're planning on adding about 1 ounce of untoasted American oak (all our LHBS had) in the secondary for a week or two.

Let me know what you think!

if you are going to age it for a while the 1.5oz of goldings at 0 is a waste. that amount of aroma hops will just be lost in the aging process. For aroma and flavor hops in a aged beer it is ether "go big or go home". Ether have massive aroma and flavor additions planing for allot of it to age out, or just forget it all together and dry hop it later if you want... also I'm not a hop head so I would scale down the IBUs especially for a English barley wine

Yeah that recipe looks pretty great to me! I wouldn't say the 0 min addition is a waste though. I'm sure a lot of it will fade with age but it is still going to add something to the beer, and it will be a different beer then if you didn't add it.

I agree that you might have overdone the IBU's, 100 is a lot for an English BW. That's more typical of an American BW. But I'm sure the bitterness will fade over time, and it will still be a delicious beer.

Everything else looks great, though I probably would have used a more attenuative yeast like Nottingham. With an OG that high and the use of DME it may be hard to get the FG low enough with S-04. You mashed pretty low though, so I think it will probably be just fine.

Also, oak aging sounds perfect for a beer like this. I bet this is going to be a great brew! Enjoy!

100 IBU is insane for an ENGLISH BarleyWine. MAX IBU for the style is 70 (35-70 is the range). 100 is within range for an American BarleyWine though (rnage is 50-120 there).

If you're planning to age this for any extended time, the 0 minute hop addition will seriously fade away. Depending on how long you let it go, it can disappear. With 100 IBU's, you'll be aging it for an extended period in order to soften those to the point where it can be considered in range for the style.

BTW, I would age it for several months before adding any oak to the batch. I would also go with a medium toast oak over untoasted. IME, medium toast offers more to a brew/recipe.

I brewed up an English BW on 10/27 that has about 54 IBU's. With mine almost done fermenting, I plan to age it for several more months (close to a year in fact) before keggin it up. I might age it for more time in keg, before it's actually ready for drinking. I only did a 60 minute and 15 minute hop addition in my batch. Knowing, full well, that any aroma hops will be pretty much gone by the time it goes to glass. I'll think about dry hoping the batch when it's time, but I probably won't do it.

Thanks guys for the feedback on the hops. I'll make sure to dial-up any aroma hops in the future for any brews I plan to age (or just skip them). Not sure if I'd say that we're all hop heads, but I think that this will be drinkable within a few months (though like I said, we're going to age most of it in the bottle for longer). I think we'll do a month in primary and 2 months in secondary with oak for the last couple weeks.

peterrj, I was thinking about using Nottingham yeast. But I read that it can get up to 90% attenuation. Especially since we're going for a hoppier Barleywine, I didn't want anything that dry.

Eh, even if it is more American than English in the hop department, I bet it'll be good. Sierra Nevada had a black barleywine that was very bitter, but very tasty at teh same time.

The only thing I'd add is, expect this to take a whole to carb up. I did a 1.100 wee heavy last year and, at 5-6 months, it was barely carbed. It improved and turned into an awesome beer at 8 or 9 months or so.

JonM said:

The only thing I'd add is, expect this to take a whole to carb up. I did a 1.100 wee heavy last year and, at 5-6 months, it was barely carbed. It improved and turned into an awesome beer at 8 or 9 months or so.

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I was thinking about adding another packet of yeast about a week before bottling to help with carbonation. Hopefully it works!

The-Baron-of-Charnwood said:

I was thinking about adding another packet of yeast about a week before bottling to help with carbonation. Hopefully it works!

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Just be careful there with which yeast you pitch. I would also add that yeast no more than a day or two ahead, if not as the beer is flowing into the bottling bucket (once the priming solution is chilled to a safe temp).

I've not looked up for the tolerance of S-04, but unless you're at the edge of it's tolerance, you can get away without adding any more yeast. People have had beers sitting around for 6 months and bottled without adding more yeast.

Personally, I prefer to not have to worry about yeast carbonating it at all. Using CO2 in kegs takes all the guesswork, and waiting for x months, out of the mix. Especially with bigger beers. My 12.5% wee heavy (used Wyeast 1728) is sitting on gas right now. It was almost a year from boil to going to keg (sat aging on wood for several months). I have no concerns about it carbonating.

Update: After a month in the primary, we transferred this to the secondary and added an ounce of untoasted American oak. The gravity is at 1.024, putting the ABV just under 10%. I would say that it definitely is not too hoppy. The hop bitterness is there, but it's not aggressive and it balances the malty sweetness (of which there is plenty) really well.

I think we'll give this about a month in the secondary on the oak. Probably tasting it every week or so.

The-Baron-of-Charnwood said:

Update: After a month in the primary, we transferred this to the secondary and added an ounce of untoasted American oak. The gravity is at 1.024, putting the ABV just under 10%. I would say that it definitely is not too hoppy. The hop bitterness is there, but it's not aggressive and it balances the malty sweetness (of which there is plenty) really well.

I think we'll give this about a month in the secondary on the oak. Probably tasting it every week or so.

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Depending on the oak type, and toast level, I'd just give it a month and then sample it. If you're concerned about getting too much oak into it, use a smaller amount initially. I'd also go with cubes (or anything other than chips) for the oak. 1-2 ounces for a month shouldn't be too much at all. You might find you want more oak after a month. I'd also aim for more oak than you think you'll want when it's finally going to glass. Basically, it will fade a bit with aging, so go a bit more when it's young, so that it will be closer to your goal/target after it's properly aged.

Golddiggie said:

With 100 IBU's, you'll be aging it for an extended period in order to soften those to the point where it can be considered in range for the style.

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You have any idea how long that would take? I brewed an English barleywine with about that many IBUs, assuming that it would settle into the right range with enough time. I just have no idea how much time that would be.

kingwood-kid said:

You have any idea how long that would take? I brewed an English barleywine with about that many IBUs, assuming that it would settle into the right range with enough time. I just have no idea how much time that would be.

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I don't brew anything with that many IBUs in it. I would say let it age a year and then sample. If it's still too bitter, then give it another 3-12 months before you sample again.

My 15.3% English barleywine has 55-60 IBUs in it. I'm planning on letting it age at least 1-2 years before I start sampling it. I'll be transferring it to aging vessel soon. I'll take a gravity sample from that.