BIG barleywine recommendations?

I’m looking for a BIG barleywine to drink for my 5th wedding anniversary Nov 27th, 2014, so I’d like one that isn’t reaching its peak at 1yr, but instead will reach it in 18-24mo. I saw Northern brewer had a barleywine kit (the recommended yeast is a blend including brett), but I don’t know how it compares to other recipes out there because this will be my first barleywine.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...orthern-no-1-limited-edition-extract-kit.html

I’d like something in the 11-14% AbV range (something that needs a LOT of aging) and I don’t want the IBU’s to be through the roof, because my wife won’t like it then. She really likes Sam Adam’s griffin’s bow and it’s only 45 IBUs.

Any recommendations or recipes I should take a look at?

For comparison purposes, I’m going to brew a Mephistopheles clone this week for our 4th anniversary.

Going to try this one. Kind of a mishmash of information from the web. May not be an exact clone but I will use it as a starting point. Should be a good barleywine nonetheless. Should hit right around 10.7%.


Recipe: Victory Old Horizontal Clone
Style: American Barleywine
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0) Not yet brewed this puppy

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 15.19 gal
Post Boil Volume: 11.44 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 10.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 10.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.101 SG
Estimated Color: 13.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 57.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 88.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
22 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 64.3 %
6 lbs 8.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 2 18.6 %
3 lbs 4.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 9.3 %
2 lbs 12.0 oz Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.9 %
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 5 14.9 IBUs
10.00 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Boil 90.0 mins Water Agent 6 -
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 5.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 8 10.7 IBUs
2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 9 9.3 IBUs
2.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 10 16.9 IBUs
2.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 5.0 mins) Fining 11 -
2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 min Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 m Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
4.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 14 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 35 lbs
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 43.75 qt of water at 163.7 F 152.0 F 90 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 3 steps (Drain mash tun, , 4.48gal, 4.48gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:
------
Took the best of the Hop Devil recipes and pumped it in to this Old Horizontal Clone

i've not done anything with your timeline, but i wonder how much impact non-bittering hops will have here. grain bill seems fine for a BW. i couldn't get 80% efficiency on a brew like this, but i'm glad to know others are!

I look at that recipe, and I have no idea what to expect when it comes to flavor since this would be my first barleywine. I'm guessing it won't be overly malty since it's mostly base malts? Also, for my brew, I'm going to forgo any steeping/aroma hops since it'll be about 22mo before I'd drink it and they won't do much for me by then.

Is sugar normally added to dry them out some?
*edit*
I found out my answer to the sugar question. Looks like sugar is rarely added and looks like it's one of the key differences between a barleywine and IPA - dryness.

I did come across a recipe that might be close to what I would be looking for - plenty of malt, and a low/moderate IBU.
http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/200/malted-bliss-wedding-barley-wine

Brewer: Fred Bonjour
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 9.31 gal
Color: 14.7 SRM
Bitterness: 45.9 IBUs
Boil Time: 180 min
Est OG: 1.137 (31.1° P)
Est FG: 1.025 SG (6.4° P)

18 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
2 lbs 8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)
2 lbs 4.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
2 lbs Munich I (Weyermann) (7.1 SRM)
1 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)
2.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)
4.0 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.1%] - Boil 60 min
2.0 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.1%] - Boil 15 min
1.0 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.1%] - Steep 0 min
1 pkgs German Ale (Wyeast Labs #1007)
1 pkgs London Ale III (Wyeast Labs #1318)

I think you're going to have a hard time hitting that FG with such a huge OG and so much crystal/dextrinous malt (almost 20%). If it were me, I would completely remove the carapils and back the Crystal 20 down to 2 pounds at most.

I think the recipe as it is now would lead to a cloyingly sweet final beer. I would also mash really low. The last barleywine I made, I mashed at 148 and I think it worked out really well. My OG was 1.095 and Nottingham took it down to 1.018. When you're using that much grain, even if you made a barleywine with only 2-row I think it would still taste pretty malty just because there is SO MUCH malted grain. You want to make the wort as fermentable as you possibly can so that it doesn't end up too sweet. With an OG that high I think it would be almost impossible to make it too dry.

Also, I would make an ENORMOUS starter! http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

I'm just curious because you listed an extract from NB and a all grain from Beersmith, do you do both? If so I would definitely do an all grain barleywine so it doesn't end up overly sweet which is a problem I've had when I was an extract brewer doing huge beers.

That said, Denny's Old Stoner has a pretty good rep.

Whatever you do I would do a few things. First mash low. Second, I would make at least a three gallon batch (if not five) of some light 1.040 beer and just pitch on the yeast cake. Bitters are perfect for this. Third, aerate the crap out of it and ferment on the low end of the spectrum to start with. Finally, it might be interesting to split the batch and either add oak, bourbon, vanilla bean, cocoa nibs or whatever just to get a little variety.

@peter. Those are some good suggestions and I'll gladly go with a little less grain (crystal) than what that brewer's recipe calls for. I would be POed if I got stuck at 1.030. My plan was to use both US05 and WLP099 if the OG would >1.12

@inhouse. I've brewed extract for every batch, but my Mephistopheles stout I'll brew in a few days will be a partial mash, with 10lbs of base malt and 6lbs LME (along with other stuff). Whatever barleywine I brew will also be partial mash just because I can't BIAB 20lbs of grain... I planned on going partial mash for the reason you and peterj mention - I'll need to mash as much grain as I can, at a low temp, in order to get the percentage of fermentables up as high as possible. For normal beers (<1.100) I'll stick with extract till summer.

*edit*
Oh, that Old Stoner recipe looks pretty good and will likely suit me a little better than something with a >1.13OG

You can cut the extract with simple sugars to make your wort more fermentable. Honey, maple syrup, molasses, treacle, table, brown, corn or candi; they'll all ferment out close to 100%. You can add in the boil or at high krausen or when initial fermentation has greatly slowed. I don't have a formula for you to follow, but using a large amount of extract and sugar will make a precise mash temp fairly unimportant.

I wouldn't worry about the IBUs. Even if they were over 100 on brewday, they would be substantially reduced after 18 months. If it does end up too sweet, you can do an extended dry-hop with low-alpha hops or with oak cubes. The tannins in both will have a drying effect on the beer's taste.

This is a blend of Barleywine and ESB, high on ABV and low on IBUs

I think the FG will go well below 1.040 because of NB's high alcohol tolerant yeast strain.


8 gallons

Partial Mash

1.129~OG&#8594;1.040~FG&#8594;11.6%ABV
26 IBU
34.1°L SRM

Yeasts
Wyeast 1945 - NB NeoBritannia 2 packets

Fermentables
32 pounds

Malt - Maris Otter
34ppg, 7°L 18 pounds
56%

Malt - Amber
33ppg, 10°L 9 pounds
28%

Crystal 90L
32ppg, 90°L 2 pounds
6%

Munich (Light)
34ppg, 10°L 2 pounds
6%

Chocolate
28ppg, 350°L 1 pound
3%

Hops
6 ounces

Goldings (Styrian)
5%, Pellet 2 ounces
33%

Willamette
5%, Leaf 2 ounces
33%

Fuggles
5%, Leaf 1 ounce
17%

Magnum
14%, Pellet 1 ounce
17%

Partial
30 minutes, 3 gallons
Partial Mash 3 gallons
150°F

Boil
1 hour, 9.08 gallons

Magnum hops
14%, Pellet 1 ounce
60 minutes (+0)

Willamette hops
5%, Leaf 1.5 ounces
60 minutes (+0)

Goldings (Styrian) hops
5%, Pellet 1 ounce
15 minutes (+45)

Willamette hops
5%, Leaf 0.5 ounces
15 minutes (+45)

Goldings (Styrian) hops
5%, Pellet 1 ounce
1 minutes (+59)

Ferment
21 days @ 63°F, 11 months @ 63°F
Rack to secondary (63°F) 11 months (+21 days)
Used Whiskey Barrel

Dry hop
Fuggles hops
5%, Leaf 1 ounce
5 days (+346 days)

WarrantedFED said:

This is a blend of Barleywine and ESB, high on ABV and low on IBUs

I think the FG will go well below 1.040 because of NB's high alcohol tolerant yeast strain.


8 gallons

Partial Mash

1.129~OG&#8594;1.040~FG&#8594;11.6%ABV
26 IBU

Click to expand...

That FG looks kind'a high. Have you brewed this one?

looneybomber said:

That FG looks kind'a high. Have you brewed this one?

Click to expand...

Exactly, yes, appears high. However, it's because of my Brew Pal program; I had to manually input the yeast strain and just didn't input the alcohol tolerance properly. The yeast strain will deliver a high alcohol content, my estimation is roughly 13%. I encourage you to validate this.

I brewed it this last weekend and you could damned near stand the spoon up in the wort it was so thick. But, I will report the FG in a couple of months time. I have high hopes.

You could just take 3 lbs of amber extract and 3 lbs of MO extract out of the recipe, give that a try.

WarrantedFED said:

I brewed it this last weekend and you could damned near stand the spoon up in the wort it was so thick. But, I will report the FG in a couple of months time. I have high hopes.

You could just take 3 lbs of amber extract and 3 lbs of MO extract out of the recipe, give that a try.

Click to expand...

Any word how this fermented out? I'm going to be ordering some ingredients for my spring brews and a barleywine will be one of them. I will be brewing a sacrificial ESB (it'll get drank!) for the yeast.

looneybomber said:

Any word how this fermented out? I'm going to be ordering some ingredients for my spring brews and a barleywine will be one of them. I will be brewing a sacrificial ESB (it'll get drank!) for the yeast.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's actually still bubbling away. I had a lot of issues with this and as a result a lot of lessons learned. I actually ended up watering down to 10 gallons. It stuck at 1.040 or so and I pitched 2 massive starters of champagne yeast to finish it off, it's at about 1.030 now. Crazy town, but really great! The English chocolate malt gave an amazing coffee flavor which has since disappeared. I'm getting ready to pick up a freshly emptied whiskey barrel from Woodinvile Whiskey and transfer immediately.

The taste is amazing, a little boozy, tastes great with a splash of whiskey! I say do it!