I brewed a boring Barleywine...

I brewed a barleywine 2 weeks ago and just transferred it to secondary. I tried some, and I have to say its really.... boring tasting. Just lots of sweet one-dimensional malt with muted alcohol. I deliberately kept the hops low (30IBU) as I wanted a maltier barleywine, but they're completely missing from the flavor.

Is there anything I can do to improve it? I was thinking of doing extract additions to bring up the ABV (and repitching with Champagne yeast); could I boild hops in those to add more bitterness?

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Recipe was something like 25 lbs of Maris Otter, 2lb munich, 1lb crystal 10. Mashed at 150 (meant to be higher but I had trouble) til converted, collected 10 gallons of wort and boiled for 3.5 hours down to 5. I boiled 1 gallon separately for an hour, very hard, to increase caramelization. I can't remember my hopping schedule but it was predicted around 30IBU.

Pitched a 2l starter of Wyeast Scottish ale.

OG 1.127, currently at 1.028 with zero activity, which puts it just under 13%.

It is a barley wine. You should leave it alone for a long time. I would have left in on primary for at least 4 months and then secondary/bulk storage for a minimum of 2 more months. A lot of barley wines don't get their wings until they are a year old.

Yes there is something you can do...wait 6 months.

My last Russian Imperial Stout tasted like crap when I put it in the secondary. It was really good in 6 months, great in a year, and now, at 19 months, it is spectacular.

hoppymonkey said:

A lot of barley wines don't get their wings until they are a year old.

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Or in my case 5 years.

And FWIW, that looks like a dynamite recipe.

JonM said:

And FWIW, that looks like a dynamite recipe.

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I agree, it looks great. Just give it time.

hoppymonkey said:

It is a barley wine. You should leave it alone for a long time. I would have left in on primary for at least 4 months and then secondary/bulk storage for a minimum of 2 more months. A lot of barley wines don't get their wings until they are a year old.

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I was transferring from my better bottle to a keg and I tried to get as much yeast as I could in there, since I know it needs it. I just wanted it into stainless as early as possible. Still saving up for a stainless primary.... =)

If you can restrain yourself from drinking all of them, it's really cool to do a side-by-side comparison of several year's worth of barleywines. Like previous posters, I typically go a couple of months in primary, then rack to a cornelius and let the beer age for 6-9 more months. When I walk by the keg, I like to give it a shake to 'rouse' the yeast.

Revvy said:

Or in my case 5 years.

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5 years! Want to send a pint my way? :cross:

mcpusc said:

I was transferring from my better bottle to a keg and I tried to get as much yeast as I could in there, since I know it needs it. I just wanted it into stainless as early as possible. Still saving up for a stainless primary.... =)

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What's your rationale for that exactly? Leaving it in the better bottle wouldn't harm it in any way, and moving during active fermentation could risk stalling it or oxidizing.

I have purposely hopped barleywine at normal or slightly more just to account for the extended aging. Theory being that the hops will lessen over time with the alcohol nose and balances the sweet maltiness better (unless you like a real sweet barleywine...)

So it's been aging for a year and I just blew out the trub & tried some. I brewed up some hop tea last year and added and there's a tiny bit of hop bitterness, but it's incredibly malty sweet - the alcohol is pretty well hidden by the sweetness. It finished around 1.020 (starting at 1.127) so I don't think it's going to go any further - honestly I'm really happy with this beer even with the strong sweetness!

Next time more hops to start with though =)

A 14% barleywine? Nice. That's not atypical or anything, but damn. Enjoy getting drunk off that beer.

what sort of yeast would get a beer to 14%?