Specialty Wood-Aged Beer "Charge 7" - a Fraoch Barleywine

I started brewing a little over a year ago after getting the bug from reading the blog "Game of Brews" and trying the heather ale. That recipe scaled nicely to 23l and I was hooked on a fun hobby and a really good beer for the cottage, which I've now brewed 3 times. Two months ago I was inspired to brew it to Barleywine strength to give away as Christmas gifts. Last month I did it and bottled it a week ago.

Charge 7 - English Barleywine
All grain
Batch size 16 litres

Est bittering rating: 28.1
Est colour rating: 26.2
Predicted OG: 1.103
Predicted FG: 1.018

7.2 kg Golden Promise pale malt
0.9 kg Peat Malt
0.9 kg Honey Malt
0.45 kg special Roast
0.8 kg dried Heather tips
1.0 kg Honey

56 g Pride of Ringwood hop pellets (8.7 IBU, 10.5 AA)

1 packet Danstar Nottingham ale yeast

1 Tbsp Irish Moss

56g oak chips soaked in Highland Park whiskey

Mashed the grains with 200g of heather for 90 minutes at 71 C. I sparged with 20 l of 71C water and got 24 l of wort.

I used a 90 minute boil, adding 300g of the heather and 28g of the hops at 60minutes and again at the 10 minute mark. I added the honey and the Irish Moss at the 10 minute mark as well. This netted me about 17l of 1.074 wort (not certain what went wrong here, I think it might be that my mash tun loses heat).

I let the wort cool naturally until it reached 25C and pitched the yeast.

A week later I racked to my secondary, added the oak chips (and about 100ml of the whiskey that was left) and let it sit for 2 weeks before bottling. My final gravity reading was 1.016.

I was able to bottle all but about 1 Cup, which I sampled - it had a lovely smokey and lightly peaty aroma, and tasted like a fine Highland single malt - the heather and honey showed through without being overpowering. I intend to sample one of the 375ml bottles next month to see how it's aging and I'm hoping that it will be ready for sharing at Christmas.



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very creative- I'm jealous!

Also- only one pack of nottingham in that much beer of that high of a gravity?

Yes, I managed with only one package


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BorderReiver said:

Yes, I managed with only one package


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Nottingham never ceases to amaze me.

I shared a bottle with friends this past holiday. One friend's reaction was different than what my wife was expecting, so she was convinced he hated it and offered to get home something different. The way he explained it to her was that he was trying to place the aromas, while protecting his glass.

The aromas hare definitely Heather forward at this time and the tastes are more dry and honey forward rather than malty. The oak has definitely receded into the background.

After a few months in the bottle the peat smoked malt is definitely forward. Next time I do this recipe I'll cut the amount of peat malt in half and switch it for more pale malt.