I tried a barleywine for the first time tonight.

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Beardedterror

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I wanted to get an idea of how it tastes before I decide to brew one and age it for a year. It was an Olde Suffolk English Ale.

A little piece of me went to heaven and then came back to earth and round-house kicked some orphans.

This will be my next batch, although I'm a little nervous about committing so many resources to something that might not be good.

After tasting this, I have to give it a go. It's my moral obligation.
 
I made my first (and only) about 3 years ago. After a few weeks of fermenting, and a taste, I considered it an abysmal failure. It was horrible. I'm a "quick dumper", and it almost hit the grass. But I bottled it in some 22oz bottles that I didn't want anyway, no loss there.

2 years later, I pulled one of those bottles out and entered in a competition and won. 1st place.

Last week I drank one of them. Mmmm. Sublime.

See?
 
For my first BW I did only a 3 gal. batch (27 bottles) last New Years Eve. I have yet to try a one. I am waiting for maybe this New Years to give it a go and then maybe a couple every New Years after. I am hoping I won't be disappointed.

So I say do it!
 
I just transferred my latest into secondary. I call the recipe "Cromulent Embiggenment". The sample I tasted from the hydrometer jar was awesome. I am going to let this settle in secondary for a couple weeks and then bottle and set it aside for a year as a Christmas Present to myself for 2012, assuming, of course, that the Mayan calendar is mistaken.
 
Brewed my first a few months ago. Tastes great. I took a clone recipe of Arrogant Bastard and boosted it, and changed the hops a little, adding some Centennial to the Chinook. 1.100 down to 1.010 (11.8% abv). Bottled 30 bottles as-is, plus 12 with added Burbon, 12 with added rum, and 12 with added Brandy, the ones with liquor being 13%. Seven gallons in all.

They have been 6 weeks in the bottle, and still need more time carbing (tried one last night). The only thing that is going to stop me drinking this too soon is that I'll get too drunk drinking it.

I have put a case of it away in the crawl space in the hopes that I will forget about it until at least next Christmas.
 
My opinion on barleywines is try not to finish too high, and use an ass load of hops/yeast.
 
I made a barleywine partygyle last December. Just started drinking some now and it would actually be a very nice quad IPA in my book!. I added a boat load of hops so the flavor would remain for it's hibernation. When I first tasted in in the primary after fermenting, it was so incredebly bitter it was unreal. I bet another year or two and it will be a very nice barleywine. However, it's tough to fight drinking it now being an IPA lover!
tom
 
I made a 14% barleywine about 6 months ago (why? because I can). I went more English style on it and kept the hops restrained. I have no intention of even opening the first bottle until it's a year old.
 
Our local brewery has a beer called Foggy Notion...It says it is a "Barley Wine Style Ale". Does this mean it isn't a true Barley Wine? I really like it and would like to make something like it. I just know I want to make a TRUE barley wine when I do.
 
Sounds like it. They list marris otter, biscuit, brown, c90 on website. It's bittered a little low @ 44ibu but as long as the body and flavor are high I would say yes. I remember my first barleywine...I thought man that is different. Old gaurdian 2009.
 
My first barelywine was earlier this year when I bought Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot. I loved it and went out and bought a six pack to store in the cellar.

I can't wait to crack one open earlier next year!
 
Our local brewery has a beer called Foggy Notion...It says it is a "Barley Wine Style Ale". Does this mean it isn't a true Barley Wine? I really like it and would like to make something like it. I just know I want to make a TRUE barley wine when I do.

The reason it is labeled as such has to do with Federal (and potentially even state) liquor laws. There are lots of odd wordings on labels because of such restrictions. But for Barley wines because it isn't a traditional wine you can't call it a wine without also indicating that it is a beer of some sort. Fun stuff. Dealing with regulations when it comes to labeling packaged beer is a pain in the butt.
 
Isn't Old Suffolk technically an old ale?

Martyn Cornell has been quoted as saying "no historically meaningful difference exists between barley wines and old ales." He later clarified, "I don’t believe there is actually any such meaningful style as 'barley wine'".[6]

The reason it is labeled as such has to do with Federal (and potentially even state) liquor laws. There are lots of odd wordings on labels because of such restrictions. But for Barley wines because it isn't a traditional wine you can't call it a wine without also indicating that it is a beer of some sort. Fun stuff. Dealing with regulations when it comes to labeling packaged beer is a pain in the butt.

Interestingly enough, I think most Barelwines are labeled such. I just was doing a google looking to see with there was an disticntion between Barleywines and Barleywine style ales, and saw that even bigfoot is called that.

sierra-nevada-2010-bigfoot-barleywine-style-ale-21351643.jpg


stone_old_gaurdian_barleywine.gif


flying-dog-horn-dog-barley-wine.jpg
 
Thanks guys, that is a ridiculous regulation. I would like to say I'm surprised though. Any other Barley wine "style ales" you would recommend I try before I head into that world?
 
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