Where to age a Barley Wine?

Just finished a 5 gal barley wine. Had a great OG (1.092) I've never brewed one and was just wondering where you guys age your BW's. Do you leave it in primary? Secondary? Chill and leave in the fridge? Thanks a lot!

I'm here looking for answers....I'd like to do a barleywine and put it away a long while, and I've got a glass carboy waiting for it. I imagine I'd just leave it in the primary until it's acceptably attenuated, then put it into the secondary and forget about it for 6 months.

I plan to brew my first B.W. this week or next. My intentions are to let it sit in the primary for 3-4 weeks then rack to a secondary (don't usually) and bulk age it . Ideally I would like to find a 10 or 20 liter oak cask and age it in that.

I am also interested in the answer to this question.

I would personally leave it in the primary for about a month then rack it to secondary and let it age for 6 months or longer. This is what I'm doing with the barleywine I recently brewed.

I'd either age in the secondary for a few months, then bottle. Or, if you are a kegger you could use the keg as a secondary and age it in there.

I brewed up a 10 gallon batch back in February. I primaried mine for 6 weeks, now it's in secondary...one in a 5g carboy, one in a corny keg. I plan to let them sit for at least until October (10 months from brew date). I will soak some oak chips in bourbon and then toss that into the keg, then carb and serve. The 5g in the carboy is just going to be bottled, unless I can convince a friend to go in on a small oak cask for it to age another 6 months in.

I had mine in the primary for two weeks and then racked it to a secondary I left in a dark corner in an unheated basement room for seven months prior to bottling. It's been in the refrigerator for the past couple of months.

Paraops said:

Just finished a 5 gal barley wine. Had a great OG (1.092) I've never brewed one and was just wondering where you guys age your BW's. Do you leave it in primary? Secondary? Chill and leave in the fridge? Thanks a lot!

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It all depends on your situation; If you have the space and temperature controls to keep it in your "secondary" to smooth out then I would do that; if you are space limited and need to brew more you could keg it and put it in your keezer - but that will just elongate the time needed for it to achieve greatness (things go slower in the cold) or you could keg and leave it at room temperature if your room is no hotter than 75F or so....

With an OG of 1.092 it will taste horrid at first but over time will mellow into a delicious treat.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

I've had mine in a secondary for the past few months. Just keep adding vodka to the airlock now and then. Just about time to bottle (I need the carboy...)

hayabusa said:

It all depends on your situation; If you have the space and temperature controls to keep it in your "secondary" to smooth out then I would do that; if you are space limited and need to brew more you could keg it and put it in your keezer - but that will just elongate the time needed for it to achieve greatness (things go slower in the cold) or you could keg and leave it at room temperature if your room is no hotter than 75F or so....

With an OG of 1.092 it will taste horrid at first but over time will mellow into a delicious treat.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

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Thanks man....room's not an issue so I'll probably rack to secondary and forget about it. as far as length of aging.....what do you guys suggest? I keg, so I'd rather keg and carb when it's ready to serve instead of kegging and carbing pre-maturely just to sample it as time passes.

Paraops said:

Thanks man....room's not an issue so I'll probably rack to secondary and forget about it. as far as length of aging.....what do you guys suggest? I keg, so I'd rather keg and carb when it's ready to serve instead of kegging and carbing pre-maturely just to sample it as time passes.

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I am using a keg to secondary in, but just keeping it at fermentation temps (or lower) and not carbing. I plan to leave it alone until October, which will be 8 months from brew-date. At that point, if I like how it tastes I'll chill, carb and start serving in November. IMHO, minimum time for a Barleywine is 6 months. I plan to kill one keg of this through the holiday season. The other I'm going to bottle and put on the shelf for quite some time...maybe another 1-2 years.

i am prepareing for my first barley wine, and I just got an extra carboy from a seller on craigslist for 4 bucks!!!!! so I can keep brewing while it ages. Im planning on giving it about 2 weeks in primary then racking to secondary for 6 months before bottling and allowing to age a little more in the bottles. I was also thining about taking 1 gallon and making an ice beer. just saw the podcast from basic brewing radio and it looked amazing.

I know Im bringing back an old thread but it doesnt matter.

The reason is it shows up at the top of a google search for "rack time barleywine" and I notice not a single post provides any actual experience with this topic. Everyone just friggin plans to rack for 6+ months or whatever they seem to think is right.

Anyone have actual experience or science that will say that a certain time in primary or secondary will do anything?

12lbchevelle said:

I know Im bringing back an old thread but it doesnt matter.

The reason is it shows up at the top of a google search for "rack time barleywine" and I notice not a single post provides any actual experience with this topic. Everyone just friggin plans to rack for 6+ months or whatever they seem to think is right.

Anyone have actual experience or science that will say that a certain time in primary or secondary will do anything?

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This is what I noticed as well. Lots of "I plan to"
My BW is currently in the secondary waiting until i can decide what to do with it.
I just finished a Mirror Mirror which was nearrly ruined by oak. I am not sure why someone would want to do that with a thing as tasty as beer, but for this guy, it is unacceptable.

12lbchevelle said:

Anyone have actual experience or science that will say that a certain time in primary or secondary will do anything?

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I have a 4-month-old barleywine in bottles. It was in the primary for 1 month, bulk aged for 1 month (the last 2 weeks of which involved dry-hopping w/3 oz), and then bottled. I was impatient and in addition to being uncarbed it tasted absolutely disgusting after 3 weeks in bottles. I cracked one a few days ago and it was drinkable but still too flat.

Whatever you decide to do, pitch more yeast at bottling time!!! I learned that lesson the hard way. I have no clue when or if my batch will be adequately carbed.

Thanks Ouroboros thats a helpful post.

Ill make sure to add yeast at bottling. Should I do like half a teaspoon per bottle? or like 2 tablespoons to the batch and mix it up, or would that just kick up the crap on the bottom of the secondary.

I left mine in primary until it was finished the transferred to a keg. I have been aging this cold and in Nov it will be 1 year old. I will begin to drink it at the one age mark.

What about doing the majority of aging in bottles - does that work? Carboy space is a bit tight. Could I primary for a month or two and then do the long term aging in bottles? I've yet to make a barley wine but have been itching to.

Mine is bulk aging in a keg, with a CO2 blanket over it. Hoping to avoid oxidation issues that way. Reconditioned soda kegs are pretty cheap and don't take up a lot of room.

I made a barleywine in February and I left it sitting in primary for 6 weeks, then transferred to secondary for 3 months. After secondary I bottled with the addition of extra yeast for carbing.

The main issue I found was in time required for carbing. Plan your time according to when you want to first drink it. It will take a while to carb, much longer than a lower gravity beer, and work back to when you should bottle.

Mine has been in bottles since end of June and are still not completely carbed. Might be an issure of added yeast or priming sugar. If you plan on kegging, then disregard what I said.

I made a barleywine at the beginning of August and let it sit in the primary for a month, then racked it to the secondary on top of some oak chips I had soaking in whiskey the whole time it was in the primary. I tasted it twice a week until the whiskey taste was a bit too strong for me, then crash-cooled and bottled it (about 3 weeks in secondary). Even for it being flat and warm in the secondary, I think it tasted delicious. It's only been bottled for a week now, so I've got a long time to let it age, but based on the 7 weeks after brewing, it seems like it'll taste pretty awesome.

I think this discussion is easily applied to any 'big' brew that's designed to develop over time. Having said that I got so frustrated this summer I posted a thread saying I was thinking of giving up brewing because I was SO frustrated over not being able to get around to bottling a Strong Scotch Ale. At that point it had been sitting in the primary for 2 months. That bier now about 6 months old just took 2nd place in a brew competition in it's category. I mention this as just one way to skin a cat. There's nothing wrong with doing your aging in a bottle. Thus this bier got 2 months primary, then bottled.

I'll add that I've got an Am. BW in secondary right now. I've had it in secondary for about a month now, primary for 4 weeks prior to that. Tomorrow I'll be adding my dry-hop addition and bottling in 7-10 days after that. So the BW is getting 1 month primary, 6 weeks secondary, then bottled.

Finally I've got a RIS I brewed last Dec., left in primary 1 month, secondary 4 months, then bottled.

So it's been my experience that it doesn't matter so much how big biers are aged, but it simply matters that they are aged.

Schlante,
Phillip

MVKTR2: Are you pitching more yeast at bottling time? If yes, how much yeast? How long are your big beers taking to carb in the bottle?

I made an RIS that's ~9%. I didn't pitch more yeast when I bottled and it was carbed up within 3 weeks. It definitely needs more time for the flavors to mellow, but it gets a nice thick head when poured and is definitely drinkable.

bcgpete said:

I made an RIS that's ~9%. I didn't pitch more yeast when I bottled and it was carbed up within 3 weeks. It definitely needs more time for the flavors to mellow, but it gets a nice thick head when poured and is definitely drinkable.

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How long was it aged before it was bottled?

I plan on doing a BW soon and aging in a carboy for quite a while, maybe 6 months or more. Is repitching something that's needed more for long aged beers, rather than just high ABV?

I only let it sit in the primary for 5 weeks before I bottled it. I don't think there's much difference between bottle aging and carboy aging, but this is only a speculation, not from experience.

From my understanding adding more yeast is just to ensure that you'll get good carbonation in case the first batch of yeast is too tired from the big beer (high ABV).

MDRex said:

MVKTR2: Are you pitching more yeast at bottling time? If yes, how much yeast? How long are your big beers taking to carb in the bottle?

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On my 8.5% Strong Scotch I did not pitch more yeast & it was carbed at 5 or so weeks when I tried one. On the 9.4% RIS, I did re-pitch about a half pack. Both carbed up just fine. I chose to on the RIS because it was sitting around so long & probably needed it a lot more than the Strong Scotch. I'm planning on repitching about a half pack on my BW as well as it's 10.4% abv.

Schlante,
Phillip

bcgpete said:

I only let it sit in the primary for 5 weeks before I bottled it. I don't think there's much difference between bottle aging and carboy aging, but this is only a speculation, not from experience.

From my understanding adding more yeast is just to ensure that you'll get good carbonation in case the first batch of yeast is too tired from the big beer (high ABV).

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bcgPete, are you from Starkville MS? If so we're almost neighbors as I'm down in Kosciusko. Check out http://grou.ps/hbamm as it's my HB club's website and we have a group of folks from Starkville/Columbus who've joined. They apparently have had or are planning on getting together for brews.

Schlante,
Phillip

would the carboy do better with a solid stopper or an air lock for 6 month to a year of aging??

northernlad said:

I just finished a Mirror Mirror which was nearrly ruined by oak.

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WOW! Really? Every Mirror,Mirror I have had has been amazing, IMO the best Barleywine out there. Was it a 2010?

Yankeehillbrewer said:

WOW! Really? Every Mirror,Mirror I have had has been amazing, IMO the best Barleywine out there. Was it a 2010?

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Quite seriously. I can see how this could have been an exceptional BW, but the oak like every other oaked beer i have had, straight up ruined it for me.
Oak does not belong in beer.

MVKTR2 said:

Check out http://grou.ps/hbamm as it's my HB club's website and we have a group of folks from Starkville/Columbus who've joined. They apparently have had or are planning on getting together for brews.

Schlante,
Phillip

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<off topic> Greetings Golden Triangle Brewers. It's good to see some of y'all here. I miss my North Mississippi friends, many of whom I haven't seen since the Blind Melon days back in H'burg <end off topic>

MVKTR2 said:

On my 8.5% Strong Scotch I did not pitch more yeast & it was carbed at 5 or so weeks when I tried one. On the 9.4% RIS, I did re-pitch about a half pack. Both carbed up just fine. I chose to on the RIS because it was sitting around so long & probably needed it a lot more than the Strong Scotch. I'm planning on repitching about a half pack on my BW as well as it's 10.4% abv.

Schlante,
Phillip

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What are the negatives to pitching yeast into a BW before bottling, any more chance of bottle bombs?

Is it best to pitch a few days before bottling, or right at bottling time?

MDRex said:

What are the negatives to pitching yeast into a BW before bottling, any more chance of bottle bombs?

Is it best to pitch a few days before bottling, or right at bottling time?

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It really depends on how long the beer has been sitting and any yeast that is left will be pretty stressed. I think with an extended secondary, bottle bombs will not be an issue. I did a 4 week primary & 2 month secondary on mine then bottled, mostly because I needed my secondary. I used a 5g packet of champagne yeast and it is pretty well carbed up 10 weeks later, thought it's not really ready for drinking yet. What I did was get my priming sugar boiled and cooled then I added the yeast to that solution and let it rehydrate for about 20 minutes, poor it all in your bottling bucket and rack your beer on top of it, then bottle away.