Giving Barleywine a try

I'm fairly new to brewing and have had good luck doing all grain. I use ProMash to track and create recipes. I was hoping you guys could give your thoughts on this... i.e. will it come out all right? Second question...If a pull a recipe out of my rear-end, how bad can it be if you follow the BJCP standards and the ingredient amounts are reasonable?

My Barleywine (no name yet)

GRAINS
Pale Malt (2-row).................10 lbs
Crystal 40L...........................3 lbs
Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt.........10 lbs

Mash schedule: Single Infusion.... 155*F for 120 min. Sparge at 170*F

HOPS
Centennial............. 1.25 OZ.......60 min
Northern Brewer.... 1.25 OZ.......60 min
Cascade................. 0.5 OZ.........30 min
Goldings..................1.0 OZ.........0 min

Yeast.... WYeast, American Ale II, #1272


ProMash's thoughts...... Total IBU's 92.7 with an SG of 1.103. I'm assuming an efficiency of 65%

Also, any comments on aging would be welcomed.

You shouldn't need any dextrine malt. The huge grain bill is going to give it enough body, mouth feel, residual sweetness and all of that. I'd go just 20 lbs. of Pale Malt and the Crystal. Also, mash at a lower temperature. Mashing high will only increase the amount of unfermentable sugars adding to the above list. I'd mash at 150. What style are you making, American or English? If you're going American I'd also add more hops within the last 15 minutes and possibly dry hopping. Other than that the hop schedule looks fine.

Pitch that sucker on a yeast cake frm a previous brew if you can, or just make a huge starter, building it up several times. Primary fermentation could take over 2 weeks, and you could put in the secondary for over a month. I'd let it age in bottles for at least 6 months if not a full year before trying them.

I had the Rogue Barleywine...it was pretty tasty. Good luck on this recipe!


Dan

I would cut the dextrine malt to 1-2 pounds and increase the pale. Dextrine adds very little beyond mouthfeel and 10 pounds would make your batch feel like karo. Personally, I like darker more complex barleywines, so I use 80L-120L crystal, some rye and munich. A couple ounces of peat smoked malt is a nice touch. The high mash temperature makes sense with a barleywine, more unfermetables are a plus. They age well. I'd boost the first hop add to 2 oz. and drop the 0 minute. Hop aroma doesn't age well, so I'd dry hop after 3-4 months in the secondary.

A better choice for yeast might be 1728 Scottish Ale, it can handle higher gravities than 1272. Make a big starter and ferment between 60-65F. Plan on a month in the primary.

I'd echo david's sentiments about the malt and I'd make the cascades a full oz at 15 minutes. 92 IBU's might already seem high, but it's more about the ratio to the SG. I'd also mash a bit lower, somewhere in the 150-152 range. For learning more about designing great beers, you would be hard pressed to find a better book than Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels.

I agree that you don't want that much dextrine malt, if any. 18 lbs pale, 3 lbs crystal would be better, and you could use another couple of pounds of amber malt, which would work out nicely. I like using White Labs' Dry English Ale yeast, since it's quick and it has good attenuation. The bigger the starter the better your results will be, and use pure oxygen to pump up your yeast for the big job that's ahead of them.

I just brewed my 2nd barleywine 10 days ago. It was a little bigger than yours---1.125---and the IBU's were massive, but that's how I likes it. Anyway, I'll echo the other thoughts: not so much carapils. Try some special B, or some roasty malts like victory.

And here's a secret that I'm loathe to post in public, but I will, for your benefit: there are three things you can add that will make your barleywine really stand out:

-4 oz. of Scottish Peated malt
-Two to four Star Anise seed pods (in the boil)
-A couple ounces of crushed juniper berries (in the boil)

The anise will really surprise you. It really does go perfectly with the huge alcohol/hops/malt character. Unless you really hate licorice, I highly recommend this. Just be careful...anything more than a few seed pods will turn it into all licorice.

If you like your final gravity to be 1.040 or higher, brew the recipe as is. You will probably find it to be undrinkable. Lose the carapils entirely. Use about 3 pounds of Munich, cut the crystal to about 1.5-2.0 lbs, and do your mash at no higher than 150°. Adjust your 2-row to get your gravity. Remember your mash efficiency will drop with these high gravity worts, so be sure to allow for that.

Don't worry if the amount of hops seems high. Hop utilization in high gravity worts is less than in "normal" gravity worts. Also your final gravity will be higher than your regular brews (expect 1.025-1.030 with my suggested changes above). You need a higher hopping rate to balance out those residual sugars. Your BU:GU ratio (Bittering Unit to Gravity Unit) should be right at 1.0. This means that if your OG is 1.090, you should have 90 IBU's. If the OG is 1.100, the you need 100 IBU, etc. It sounds high, but if you don't do it, the end product will taste like alcoholic malt syrup.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

I think, if you are leaning more towards the English style (And it seems you are, maybe?) I might replace the Cascade with Target, and as mentioned before, use the English Dry Ale Yeast.

Thoughts?