Big Barley wine with Oak chip aging

I need help. I'm rather familiar with high gravity brewing, however, this is the fist attempt at a barley wine. I've spec'ed it out to end up right around the 19% ABV once all is done. However, i'm wanting to age it on oak to get that nice deep cognac / whiskey flavor (similar to Samual Adams Utopia).

Right now it is in the primary bubbling away. It was brewed two days ago and it is up to about 10% according to my last refractometer read. I've added maple syrup and honey as well as some Corn sugar to achieve the higher ABV. I'm using the good ol Whitelabs 099 high gravity yeast which seems to be doing a great job.

What do you all think in regards to the Oak Chips? They are soaking in some McCallen 12yr right now but i don't know how much to use and for how long. I was thinking 2oz (for the 5 gallon batch) for about 2-3 weeks. Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks all in advance.

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I am planning a BW as well and recently obtained a rum barrel to age my bw in!!

hey, im not sure how long you want to age your barleywine.. but if your looking for deep flavors form the oak like the vanilla and what have you, chips isnt the way to go, but if your looking to introduce the whiskey flavor and "oak" flavor then chips would be fine.. im aging a barleywine right now on Hungarian oak cubes for the next 3 months (4 months total) as for that i put .75oz/ 2.5 gallons

i would say if your using the chips, 2-3oz would be more than enough, and once it ages the oak flavor would mellow, prob be harsh right up front if you drank it with out aging. it really depends on what your looking for. if your just looking for a suttle taste i would say 1-2 oz, and if your want oak in your face i would say 2-3 oz but im not definite of all this

this is all my opinion and i have been playing around with oak a few times so far this year.

HopHead24 said:

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I am planning a BW as well and recently obtained a rum barrel to age my bw in!!

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me too. looking into barrels as well..

Thanks rustbucket. That makes a lot of sense. Chips obviously have a lot more surface area for the beer to extract the flavors from. What I might end up doing is to add two ounces for about two weeks, try a taste to see how harsh it is and the make a decision from there. Maybe buy cubes to back it up with.

I'm thinking it is getting close to fully fermented. It's bubbling at around every 3-4 seconds an it has a very alcoholic smell to it. I'll keep you all updated.

Thanks all

i have a barleywine fermenting now and it will sit in a 5 gallon barrel for over two months if that's any help. every beer i've ever oaked could have always used more oak. (i ain't putting in oak to not get oak influence)

chips are sketchy tho; hard to figure it out - but i'd sample once a week just to check it out. 19% tho? whoa... that's barleyliquor.

Jtakacs, i was thinking of buying a 5 gal barrel to age this one in but i couldn't justify the cost. How many times can you reuse them with beer? I know there are winemakers here in the napa valley that refuse to reuse "spent" barrels. I'll stick with the oak chips this time and if it comes out amazing, then i might consider barreling a few batches.

As for the beer, i took a hydro read thursday and the gravity was down to 1.010, giving a mean ABV of 19.9%. So close to the 20's. oh well. next time. The beer is very cloudy still, but the taste is pretty good. Seems stripped down and raw still since there isn't any oak flavors to it, but you can definitely tell there is a bunch of alcohol in it.

Thanks all.

i've used staves before (readily available where you and i live and just more predictable calculating the oak influence) but the barrel didn't cost me anything - it was a tasting barrel from a wine buddy of mine and had zin in it - which was perfect considering i wasn't looking for "oak" so much, as just a reused barrel... digging the idea of barleywine right now, mine's projected to be 9.5%, nowhere near 19.9%!! (awesome btw)

i plan on reusing the barrel for as long as it holds beer - the first beer was a stout that was in it for 8 days (barely any oak, but definite flavors from the wine) - the barleywine is next and it'll be in there for two months if i can hold off that long.

i'd wait an extra couple of days if i were you just to get it to 1.009 and 20%... lol.

Jtakacs,

good idea. i might have to wait it out. though, it will have plenty of time in the next 2-3 months to get that extra 0.001 for 20%.

I threw in the oak chips yesterday. i went with 2 oz and threw them directly into the fermenting bucket. i'm hoping that they will help clear the liquid up a little when i decide to rack in two weeks time. I'll taste at that point to see if i need more oak or not.

More to come. I'll repost when something happens.

keep us posted - i'm interested in BWs right now... decided to check my barleywine today and it dropped from 99 to 22 in three days (pitched on a yeast cake from my rye pale ale - kudos to those that preach proper pitching levels!)

it'll go on oak very early.. i was going to let it primary for four weeks, but considering how quick it dropped to my desired gravity, no point - it goes on oak on tuesday for a long rest.

flavor was super-bright. cherries, ton of malt, and virtually no hops which surprised the hell out of me considering it's sittin at 110 plus IBU.

keep us posted...

Jtakacs,

i tasted today (i know, only a week) and the oak chips don't seem to be doing their job. You said you had a friend who was in the wine business here in the area who might have some kegs for sale? i looked at Napa valley fermentation and they are asking for $214 for a 5 gallon medium toast. Do you have any options for me?

Thanks

i'll ask around for sure, but i could likely only find a used one if i can find one at all... stay tuned... and yeah, i've noticed that oak needs more time than what i've read, at least for my tastes...

quick update on the barley wine. i racked it to the secondary after 2oz of oak was sitting for two weeks. I kept a small bottle for a party we had and the tasting went over very well. However, a lot of people mentioned that they didn't taste the oak in it at all. I've now thrown 3oz of oak chips into the secondary and plan to keep it sitting for another 3 weeks to see what that will do. More to come in 3 weeks.

Pete762 said:

quick update on the barley wine. i racked it to the secondary after 2oz of oak was sitting for two weeks. I kept a small bottle for a party we had and the tasting went over very well. However, a lot of people mentioned that they didn't taste the oak in it at all. I've now thrown 3oz of oak chips into the secondary and plan to keep it sitting for another 3 weeks to see what that will do. More to come in 3 weeks.

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So what ever happened to your BW? I am planning to brew a big oaked BW as well but I'm not sure what type of oak to use (I have american med toast cubes and French chips).