I Hate My Barleywine

I brewed the recipe below on 6/6 of this year. Primary for 61 days, 67 in secondary with whiskey soaked oak spirals and vanilla beans...Even threw in some home grown centennial..Bottled on 10/12.

Tried one today, and it's not good, not really drinkable. There is a lot going on here, I know. I used waay too much molasses.

Is there any chance this becomes drinkable after some serious aging? I did I over do it?



HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: CutThroat Barleywine
Author: KR

Brew Method: Extract
Style Name: American Barleywine
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 6.25 gallons
Efficiency: 70% (steeping grains only)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.126
Final Gravity: 1.031
ABV (standard): 12.36%
IBU (tinseth): 167.72
SRM (morey): 38.91

FERMENTABLES:
7 lb - Dry Malt Extract - Light (45.2%)
6 lb - Dry Malt Extract - Dark - (late addition) (38.7%)
1 lb - Molasses - (late addition) (6.5%)

STEEPING GRAINS:
1 lb - Caramel / Crystal 120L (6.5%)
0.25 lb - Carafa I (1.6%)
0.25 lb - Chocolate (1.6%)

HOPS:
2 oz - Magnum (AA 15) for 60 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil
1 oz - Chinook (AA 13) for 20 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil
1 oz - Columbus (AA 15) for 10 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil
2 oz - Fuggles (AA 4.5) for 5 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil
1 oz - Columbus (AA 15) for 0 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Aroma
1 oz - Chinook (AA 13) for 0 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Aroma
0.25 oz - Centennial (AA 10) for 12 days, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Dry Hop

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
1 each - Whirfloc, Time: 10 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil

YEAST:
White Labs - Dry English Ale Yeast WLP007
Starter: Yes
Form: Liquid
Attenuation (avg): 75%
Flocculation: Med-High
Optimum Temperature: 65 F - 70 F

NOTES:
Big Starter: 67 oz water + 7oz DME

2 vials WLP007

Brew Day:

-Steep grains @ 155 for 30 mins

-7 lbs LDME + 2oz Magnum @ 60

-1oz Chinook @ 20

-6 lbs DDME + 1 lb Molasses @ 15

-1oz Columbus + 1 tab Whirfloc @ 10

-2oz Fuggles @ 5

-1oz Chinook + 1oz Columbus @ 0

describe the taste(s) that you don't like.

Well, fermented molasses tastes pretty bad to me. But some people use a little bit and like it. I don't like brown sugar fermented either- it has a molasses flavor but without the sweetness and it's really unpleasant to me. You did use a lot. I think a couple of ounces is pushing it so a whole pound will take a while to fade.

Put it away for at least 6 months, and maybe it will fade and meld into something drinkable.

I made a few barley wines when I was starting out. They tasted pretty rough 12 months after brewing (when I tasted the first samples), but were pretty good after 2 - 3 years.

-a.

The only time I used molasses was 4 ounces in a 2.5 gallon batch. It tasted like the bark of the molasses tree when it was done. Never again.

Billy-Klubb said:

describe the taste(s) that you don't like.

Click to expand...

Syrupy sweet, strong alcohol (10% ABV), this bottle had zero carbonation.

Gave me a headache...lol

MrEggSandwich said:

Syrupy sweet, strong alcohol (10% ABV), this bottle had zero carbonation.

Gave me a headache...lol

Click to expand...

Lets see...

Syrupy sweet: FG of 1.031 -- check
Strong alcohol: well, yeah at 12.7% (use this site to get your actual numbers).
No carbonation: At just over 6 weeks in bottles, I'm not at all surprised. I also wouldn't be surprised if it took 6 months (or more) to bottle carbonate (if kept at 70F). Did you at least chill the bottle for 5-7 days (or more) before opening/pouring it??

I say set it aside for a year and then see what it's like. Chill a bottle for a month before you pour any at that point.

Wow, some 8-9% barelywines I made still took at least 4-6 mo after bottle before I even began to like those. I would say thats some heavy molassis that may take a fair amount of time to mild out some,if it does. Molassis is some strong stuff. A little goes far. I would have used a higher attenuating yeast or some the better known high abv tolerant yeast for that big of a beer. Personally I havent had luck using Malt extract for stong beers or barleywines either but maybe I did something else wrong also,like not pitch enough yeast,I used dried yeast though,didnt finish that high but I still thought mine was too high.

Big beers tend to take a long time to age. I brewed a Tripple one time with honey in it. It came out at about 11%. It took that beer about a year after bottling before it was good. But man was it good after a year!

Give it a year. My first big barley too 3 months to carb up and didn't taste good at all for 6 months. I'm at a year now and it's very different, nice strong flavor. I'm excited to see what it is another year from now.. if I have any left. I try and trick myself a bit and store it in the bottom box of my cases, hard to dig out.

Started my first barleywine last month. Not going to even think about moving it to serving keg for at least a year (it's going to move to an aging vessel once the yeast is done with it, which it's not yet). It's going slow due to the lower temperatures I'm fermenting it at. I emailed White Labs about the temperatures it is at to find out what to expect. With WLP099 at lower temperatures, other than a longer ferment time, I should get a much better flavor profile. Especially compared with what others have posted about it. I'm on target for just over 15% too. Will be interesting to see how it is once it's moved to serving kegs. Planning on using small kegs for this. Most likely my two 2.5 gallon and one of my 1 gallon kegs. No carbonation worries there. :rockin:

my biggest BW to date is 14.22%. I started brewing at least one batch (not all that strong & with differences) since my son was born in '07. gonna keep up the tradition.