Time for my first Barleywine

So now that I have some kegs to bulk age in I can make some of these bigger beers I've been wanting to. First on the list is a Barleywine. Here's what I've come up with so far, I'm planning for 70% efficiency, my normal is about 82%.

18.5lbs American Two Row
.5lb Special B
.5lb Honey Malt
.5lb Flaked Barley

Mash at 150 for 90 mins, Boil for 60 mins, this Hop Schedule comes in at 79 IBU's

1oz Chinook at 60mins
2oz Saaz at 30
1.5oz Chinook at 15
2oz Saaz at 10
1oz Saaz at 5
.5oz Chinook at 2

Not sure about yeast yet S-05 would probably be best, but I'm really liking Wyeast 1084 lately, just not sure if it can attentuate enough. I'm definitely going to Oak this as well, I was thinking i would add Oak chips 30 days before botting. I'm looking at having it in Primary for a month, Secondary for 4-6 months, then in the bottle for Two more months, & adding a little S-05 at bottling time to ensure good carbonation.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

Is this a 5 gallon batch? What's the OG? Mine came in around 1.098 with 65 IBU. I wasn't going for something high hopped and came in close to Mad River's John Barleycorn. If that grain bill is for a 5 gallon batch your IBU may be a little low.

I used 1098 yeast from a Cream Stout cake and it worked really well.

If you secondary for 4-6 months you also may have to repitch. I think I did 2 weeks in primary then 2 months in secondary, then I bottle aged for 6 months. I'd say keg and prime after 2-3 months then bulk age in the keg.

Edit: Actually if you expect 70% efficiency your IBU is probably just fine. I should plug the number into BeerSmith BEFORE I post.

GroovePuppy said:

Is this a 5 gallon batch? What's the OG? Mine came in around 1.098 with 65 IBU. I wasn't going for something high hopped and came in close to Mad River's John Barleycorn. If that grain bill is for a 5 gallon batch your IBU may be a little low.

I used 1098 yeast from a Cream Stout cake and it worked really well.

If you secondary for 4-6 months you also may have to repitch. I think I did 2 weeks in primary then 2 months in secondary, then I bottle aged for 6 months. I'd say keg and prime after 2-3 months then bulk age in the keg.

Edit: Actually if you expect 70% efficiency your IBU is probably just fine. I should plug the number into BeerSmith BEFORE I post.

Click to expand...

Thanks. It will be a 5 Gallon batch, with a Target OG of 1.105, I'm looking for something in the ballpark of Mirror,Mirror.

So I sent Deschutes an email about Mirror,Mirror asking specifically about the IBU's which is stated to be at 30, which seems really low. They sent me a basic clone recipe, which I thought was super cool. One thing that stood out to me is that they do a 3 hour boil....

Why would that be necessary?

Also they use some form of an English Ale yeast.

Yankeehillbrewer said:

So I sent Deschutes an email about Mirror,Mirror asking specifically about the IBU's which is stated to be at 30, which seems really low. They sent me a basic clone recipe, which I thought was super cool. One thing that stood out to me is that they do a 3 hour boil....

Why would that be necessary?

Also they use some form of an English Ale yeast.

Click to expand...

Three hour boil will give you a ton of melanoidins. Basically, they're caramelizing the wort.

It will also increase your efficiency quite a bit due to more sparging. I'd boil for 90 or 120.

Yankeehillbrewer said:

So I sent Deschutes an email about Mirror,Mirror asking specifically about the IBU's which is stated to be at 30, which seems really low. They sent me a basic clone recipe, which I thought was super cool.

Click to expand...

Any chance you could post it? 30 seems low even for an English style BW.

GroovePuppy said:

Any chance you could post it? 30 seems low even for an English style BW.

Click to expand...

Sure, they didn't give many specifics, but here it is....

2 Row
Maris Otter
Crystal 70-80
Carapils
Victory

Cascade

OG 1.110 FG 1.025

3 hour Boil
Ferment@ 65
Enlish Ale Yeast

The note on the recipe says.....

"Temps,Times,& Weights are the challenge. Happy Brewing"

The lady I emailed said she was going to ask the Asst. Brewer for clarification on the IBU's.

Since it's a beefed up Mirror pond, I'd guess their recipe is something like:
9.5# each 2-row/MO
1# C80
0.5# carapils
0.5# victory
1oz cascade (60,15,10,5,flameout) - given its really only 30ibu
S-04 yeast

definitely let us know if you find anything more out

I just did my first barley wine, and things went well. Pitch a ton of yeast! I used nottingham at 67 degrees and it took 1.095 OG to 1.023 FG in 5 days or so. I mashed at 154 and added 1.7 pounds of amber candi sugar to the fermenter after 3 days of fermentation to help dry it out and get my ABV in the %9+ range. I just tasted a sample after a week...couldn't help myself. TASTY! Caremel, toffee, roasty toasty..a little rough around the edges though!

Since you are not including in caramel malts in your recipe, make sure you go for a lengthy boil to get that delicious kettle carmelization. I did a 90 minute boil...120 would be better

My recipe was this

15 pound two row
3 pound munich
1 pound caramel 60
.60 pound wheat
.25 pound american chocolate
1.7# amber candi sugar to primary after 3 days...dissolve in hot water and cool
1 oz summit at 90
1 oz summit at 15
1 oz summit at 1

puts my IBU's in the 60....I didn't want an over the top hop/bitterness profile. I wanted the malts to be forward, but balanced. I think the dryness will help. I am hoping it finishes at 1.020 and I think it will.

I thought Special B & Honey Malt were caramel malts. According to Palmer they are anyway.

So I think I will go with a 120 minute boil. I imagine I will get some color from that, so should I replace the Special B with a lighter Caramel Malt?

That will also double my boil off rate, so would it be better to do a third sparge or stick with two sparges of bigger volume? I suppose it doesn't really matter.

Sorry for all the questions but I want to get this one right with all the time I will have invested in it.

Thanks

Yankeehillbrewer said:

I thought Special B & Honey Malt were caramel malts. According to Palmer they are anyway.

So I think I will go with a 120 minute boil. I imagine I will get some color from that, so should I replace the Special B with a lighter Caramel Malt?

That will also double my boil off rate, so would it be better to do a third sparge or stick with two sparges of bigger volume? I suppose it doesn't really matter.

Sorry for all the questions but I want to get this one right with all the time I will have invested in it.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Those are specialty grains, not caramel malts. Crystal/Caramel are what i was referring too...doesn't matter. In a barley wine the base grain and yeast do most of the talking.

I did a third sparge on mine to get up to the appropriate volume to support the long boil.

Special B is definitely a crystal malt.
A specialty grain is any grain that is not a base malt, this includes crystal malts.

maskednegator said:

Special B is definitely a crystal malt.
A specialty grain is any grain that is not a base malt, this includes crystal malts.

Click to expand...

You are correct, that was my mistake. It is a variety of caramel malt, but not named as such. I would now almost think that any of the non roasted specialty malts could be considered a caremel malt