Balrey wine for me and the new kid

So First and foremost I want to brew a barley wine Ive been smoking meats and everything else so next week I am going to smoke 5lbs of 2 row. I want to make a smokey malty barley wine. I have no idea where to start for a recipe.
I love stone brewing barley wines, actually I've loved most all of the one's ive had and my favorite has been the one in front of me at the time.

Second I would love to brew something I can age and drink one a year till the kid turn 21 So it has to age or be possible to age 20 years but If it's so bitter and undrinkable for more than a year I will be dissapointed.

Wife has been after me to brew a batch for our 4 week old and I just now have the time to get back to it.

Help me create Aarons Barleywine Of course I will post pics and update the thread with how the beer ages every year.

ok well with the overwhelming response I received I found this recipe posted by foremoler

American Barleywine




Pre-Boil Amounts

Pre-Boil Wort Size: 6.47 Gal
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.117 SG (27.40 Plato)


Fermentables/Adjuncts
% Amount Name

70.2 20 lb Pale Malt(2-row)
10.5 3.00 lb Munich Malt
3.5 1.00 lb Crystal 90L
1.8 0.50 lb Crystal 60L
3.5 1.00 lb Victory Malt
1.8 0.50 lb Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt
1.8 0.50 lb Flaked Soft White Wheat
7.0 2.00 lb Dark Brown Sugar Generic



Hops
Amount Name Boil Time

1.00 oz. Columbus 60 min.
1.00 oz. Fuggle 30 min.
1.00 oz. Northern Brewer 60 min.


I know I need to boost the hops to give me the higher Alpha acids to make this beer keep. I also smoked some of my own two row that will be adding I was thinking about 5 lbs. I really want the smokey flavor to at least last a couple years.

Help Please?

What temp are you mashing at and what is your expected FG?

Are you planning on kegging or bottling this beer?

Planning on kegging to carb then bottling from there to 22 oz bottles

MASH AT 154F
with exspected initall volume of about 6.74 gallons final volume of 5.5 gallons

I would maybe naturally carb in the bottle. When you use a beergun, assuming you are, a beer won't last 5 months with the oxygen introduction no matter what strength. If it lasts longer than 5 months, it won't last 20 years. I've had a beer last about a year. Cold bottles, low and slow fill, blast of co2 on top, cap quick.

i read the title of this and thought to myself "he want to have a barley wine with his new kid? shouldn't he start off with something lighter, like an APA or a bitter?"

i second the bottle conditioning. better chances of longevity. also, spend a few extra pennies on oxygen-absorbing caps.

WEll it's official aarons brew day has started. I decided on doibling all the hop additions to bring up the AA's this still keeps me in the style guidelines according to beersmith so hopefully it's some what drinkable in six months.

After reading some of the post regarding barley wines carbonating I am a little worried so I am going to bottle 3/4 of the bath with priming sugar and force carb/ bottle the rest SO I can let the rest sit.

All finished up, I was worried the us-04 yeast couldnt handle the 1.116 but a huge starter and it's bubbling away 3 hours after it was put in. To the point im almost worried to go to sleep. the second running were used to brew a pale ale with similar hop schedule as the barlwywine.

I don't want all the sugar to ferment our so where should I stop this thing to keep some of the sugars and have a balanced flavor? pics will be posted tomorrow.

ggoodman said:

All finished up, I was worried the us-04 yeast couldnt handle the 1.116 but a huge starter and it's bubbling away 3 hours after it was put in. To the point im almost worried to go to sleep. the second running were used to brew a pale ale with similar hop schedule as the barlwywine.

I don't want all the sugar to ferment our so where should I stop this thing to keep some of the sugars and have a balanced flavor? pics will be posted tomorrow.

Click to expand...

With that high of an OG, you're going to have more trouble with the yeast fermenting enough of the sugars to keep it from being cloyingly sweet than the other way around. This is especially true for S-04. It's my favorite yeast, but I personally don't use it for super high gravity beers because it doesn't have great attenuation.

Worst case I'll let it run it's course then rack it onto the 05 the pale ale second running are on now. Same hops just a lot less so shouldn't muck with the flavor much.


here it is now 10:44 my time


Picture of my ghetto brew day

You probably know this but you're going to want to put a blowoff tube on that fermenter.

I see we have the same use for those big boxes of diapers. They are great for jacking things up for gravity feeding your system! Plus when empty those boxes are good for storing all kinds of brewday junk.

Gduck said:

I see we have the same use for those big boxes of diapers. They are great for jacking things up for gravity feeding your system! Plus when empty those boxes are good for storing all kinds of brewday junk.

Click to expand...

Those would be wipes we cloth Diaper all the way but the boxes are handy.

well at 2 am I moved it to the tub, thank god at 2:30am @ 65F it blew the airlock out and crap went all over the shower. It's now 11 am and I still cant keep an airlock on it, but threr's a foamy mess covering the top so im not to worried. Guess the large mason jar starter did it's job.

Yup blow off tube is on the list of things to get today.





after I cleaned it up a bit and changed the water in the tub. Carbot temp is between 64 and 65F

after 2.5 days it looks like the monster is slowing down instead of a stream of bubbles there's only 1-2 per second, the pale ale however is gearing up with a nice krust on top forming.

Good idea! I'm actually doing the same thing. Check out https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/beer-unborn-kid-340921/. Mine is in the secondary where I'll let it age until next year before bottling and naturally carbing.

I'm late, but I would have suggested my award-winning smoked barleywine recipe https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f74/fireside-barleywine-141062/.

Good luck!

SO this was racked to a us05 cake that brought it down to 1016 by my calcs it's 13.1%abv I added about a 1.5cups of burbon soaked in chared oak chips for about 2 weeks and bottles it. first taste was not that bad.... it is hot, hoppy, sweet, and roast in that order..... should be awesome as it ages as all three flavors are very strong and very independent.