big barley wine

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uglygoat

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this weekend will be our first crack at a big beer that we're gonna sit on for a year.

10 lbs pale malt
4 lbs cara-vienna
6 lbs honey in the boil

single temp infusion mash around 156 for 90 minutes
sparge to collect 7 gallons or so

90-120 minute boil
2 oz columbus full boil
1 oz cascade at 45 min
.5 oz cascade at 30 min
.5 oz cascade at 15 min

oh yeah, my bro is all jacked up about irish moss, so i guess that's going in the beer too... ;)

the estimated og is 1.102
ibu about 60 so i might fiddle with the hops somemore


it's getting racked atop a batch of wyeast 1084 irish ale yeast, which the manufacturer says is more tolerant of high gravity/alcohol beers... i'll prolly need some champagne yeast in the long secondary...

hopefully the gravity will get down low enough to net about 11.5 % alcohol.

we are also in the process of finding an old wine barell to age it in for a year.
 
t1master said:
this weekend will be our first crack at a big beer that we're gonna sit on for a year.

Interesting!

I ran it through Promash and saved it....might be something for the future! I'm considering doing a barleywine on Jan 8th to commemorate 1 year of brewing! :)

Thanks for the recipe...
 
t1master said:
this weekend will be our first crack at a big beer that we're gonna sit on for a year.

10 lbs pale malt
4 lbs cara-vienna
6 lbs honey in the boil

single temp infusion mash around 156 for 90 minutes
sparge to collect 7 gallons or so

90-120 minute boil
2 oz columbus full boil
1 oz cascade at 45 min
.5 oz cascade at 30 min
.5 oz cascade at 15 min

oh yeah, my bro is all jacked up about irish moss, so i guess that's going in the beer too... ;)

the estimated og is 1.102
ibu about 60 so i might fiddle with the hops somemore


it's getting racked atop a batch of wyeast 1084 irish ale yeast, which the manufacturer says is more tolerant of high gravity/alcohol beers... i'll prolly need some champagne yeast in the long secondary...

hopefully the gravity will get down low enough to net about 11.5 % alcohol.

we are also in the process of finding an old wine barell to age it in for a year.

Allot goes into a wine barrel beside the preperation, as it sits for a year, will need to be topped up periodically, because the beer will actually evaporate out of the staves. There is an easier way if you would want to try it. Go ahead and use the carboy's as aging vessels and throw in oak chips, blocks, not dust. This will give that oak wine barrel taste without the hassel. Just a suggestion, but sounds like a good brew though
 
i can't find a five gallon barrel online for less than 139 bucks.... so it's looking like it will get to age in the glass carboy. :D
 
we added a few more lbs of caramel malt 60l and my brother went all nutso with hop additions, basically chinnok, centenial and cascade.

the gravity after the honey addition was 1.096...

it is currently blowing foam all over the basement :D
 
With putting this beer on a 1084 yeast cake you don't need to add any champagne yeast.
1084 is one of several yeasts that can easily handle up to 12-13%.
 
I'm doing my first Barleywine today, an extract kit from Listermann.

1 lb 60L
.5 lb caramunich
12 pounds of canadian light LME
3 oz Nugget (60m)
2 oz Cascade (15m)
1 oz Centennial (dry)

Planning on letting it sit in a 5 gal secondary for 4 weeks minimum... should I let it go longer??

Getting ready to dump the LME in there... gotta go!
 
we were/are aiming for a minimum six months in the secondary, but i was curious if it would do better for a month in the secondary, then bottle it and let it age for a duration... i'm a bit leary about what will/can happen to it in the carboy for that long....

also, i've never seen a beer of mine ferment so vigorously for so long... two days later and it's still a viiolent swirling torrent of yummy fermentation :D
 
yep - I hear ya. My barleywine fermentation has been a show!

Only about 8 hours after I pitched the yeast, the Krausen was about an inch from the top. I didn't have a 1" blow-off tube, so I had to use what I had... I stuck one of those rubber two-hole caps on there and attached a siphon hose to one side. That worked fine for many hours... the foam was a continuous glorious stream.

Well..... as some of you can probably imagine....

sometime in the night the krausen started falling, which caused the blow-off to dry and clog, and then BOOOOOOM!!! Not sure when it happened, but when I got up this morning, the blow off tube was across the room and the top of the carboy was a big ball of thick foam. And yes- there is a nice patch of hoppy dried krausen on the ceiling!!

Looks like the foaming is done so I put the airlock on there and it's chuggin away like any strong fermentation would.... yipee!!!
 
ok an update...

two weeks in the primary and she's still bubbling away to the tune of about 5-6 per minute.... still some activity, swirling of yeasties and other hops that didn't quite get left in the kettle.

a question...

how long would you guys keep it in the primary before racking... two weeks is the longest i've ever left a beer in primary containers... i'm not too worried about getting alot of off flavors do to the gravity and activity, and am thinking maybe a month in there, then into the secondary.

i could take a gravity reading and then decide, but i'm hesitant to open it up just yet.
 
t1master said:
ok an update...

two weeks in the primary and she's still bubbling away to the tune of about 5-6 per minute.... still some activity, swirling of yeasties and other hops that didn't quite get left in the kettle.

a question...

how long would you guys keep it in the primary before racking... two weeks is the longest i've ever left a beer in primary containers... i'm not too worried about getting alot of off flavors do to the gravity and activity, and am thinking maybe a month in there, then into the secondary.

i could take a gravity reading and then decide, but i'm hesitant to open it up just yet.

I think I'd go no more than 3 weeks for it. This of course depending on how much trub it is sitting on.

At any rate it won't hurt to rack it. Were you planning on pitching more yeast to help it along?
 
I was reading a thread on another board the other day where some guy was talking about keeping high gravity beers like barleywines in the primary for months. I don't know if I'd go that far, but I wouldn't worry about it at all before 4-5 weeks, IMHO.
 
it wasn't a usmcruz thread/advice was it ;)

but i'm gonna give it a week and take a reading when we bottle the stout and see where i'm at. as much as i have not wanted to be bothered with hydro readings, i'm glad me brother is into taking them. :cross:
 
t1master said:
it wasn't a usmcruz thread/advice was it ;)
No, I think we traumatized the poor guy...he hasn't been posting anywhere that I've found...to be honest I don't think he was really a marine anyway. I'm pretty sure he was a 13 year old marine wannabe, and his mommy found out what he'd been up to and whacked his pee-pee. :D
 
i racked it last night, despite wanting to wait. the gravity was down to 1.038, from it's original 1.096... i'm thinking about champaign yeast in the secondary now, but perhaps i'll wait a week or two and see how it pans out.

it tasted pretty sweet, but very alcoholic, a possible winner recipe for duplication. :)
 
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