Barleywine - efficiency/techniques?

[brycelarson]

Hi everyone,

I'm an experienced brewer who's going to try something new. I'm planning to knock out a barleywine in the near future and I have a question about estimating efficiency.

My rig usually drops me right at 70% brewery efficiency. Should I expect a loss of efficiency just due to the lower than standard grain to water ratio? I'll be at nearly 22 pounds of grain.

Anyone have any good suggestions for dealing with 22 pounds of grain in my 10-gallon cooler? It'll fit - but like I said, I'll have a lower water to grain ratio than a normal batch.

 

[hautlle]

According to the Green Bay Rackers mash calculator Can I Mash It? 22lbs of grain @ 1.25qts/lb should only take up 8.64 gallons of space. Do you have a lot of dead space in your MT due to a false bottom? I haven't done a barleywine yet, but it seems fairly common to take a hit on efficiency when doing big beers.

 

[danielbt]

I'd plan to double-sparge and boil down to hit an decent efficiency.

 

[inhousebrew]

I've only done a handful of big beers in the ten gallon cooler setup but here's the way I think about it: drop down your efficiency about ten points. I don't think you'll go lower than that, if you do now you know. If you nail it right on the head good for you, all your numbers are good. If you go over, oh no, you big beer just got bigger! Good heavens what will you do other than get more drunk?

Another option of course is sparging more than usual and doing a longer boil. Or, sparging more and collecting some of it in a separate pot and boiling it down on the stove. Rocking a eight gallon boil kettle this is an option I've used before. Also, just in case some DME on hand is never a terrible idea.

 

[Hopper5000]

I use a 10 gallon igloo cooler as well (mines the gatorade kind). On smaller beers (about 10lb of grains) I usually get about 80% efficiency with a 1.2 q per lb ratio and just sparge to my boil volume which is 7 gal. When I do bigger beers I thicken up the mash so my ratio becomes 1.1 q per lb.

I do a version of fly sparging where I use a colander steamer pot to sprinkle water over the grain bed making sure the level stays above the grains (the best I can) and then open the valve partially and let it drain out very slowly. It usually takes me about 30 to 45min to complete this.

When I do these bigger beers my efficiency usually drops 5 or 10 % so you should expect that. I will usually do a longer boil so I can sparge a bit more and get a little higher volume and more extraction.

What techniques do you use? I would just recommend to lower your strike ration a bit and sparge really slowly. Maybe also do a 90min boil instead of 60 if that's possible.

If you usually need to top your beer off when you put it into the fermenter you could also collect this sparge water, boil it and cool it and use that to top off to kick up your gravity a bit.

Just a side note, you could do a second runnings beer with all that grain which would probably be like an english mild or something...

 

[brycelarson]

According to the Green Bay Rackers mash calculator Can I Mash It? 22lbs of grain @ 1.25qts/lb should only take up 8.64 gallons of space.

thanks, great link. I was concerned - but that helps alleviate some of that. I was just looking at 22 pounds of grain and assuming it wasn't going to fit.

When I do these bigger beers my efficiency usually drops 5 or 10 % so you should expect that.

Maybe also do a 90min boil instead of 60 if that's possible.

Just a side note, you could do a second runnings beer with all that grain which would probably be like an english mild or something...

I batch sparge in general. The 5-10% efficiency reduction on my calculations is a good suggestion - going too high obviously wouldn't be a problem.

I was thinking about doing a small beer with the second runnings - it always seems like such a waste after I've collected my wort from a big beer. I've had some hits and misses, but this is a pretty basic recipe so I should be able to make something tasty.

 

[Hopper5000]

If you did a similar version to fly sparging like I do it might increase your efficiency in general, but yeah I would drop it down to 10%just to be safe.

Good luck and happy brewing!

 

[helibrewer]

I replace some of the grain with extract. It keeps me from having to boil almost 10 gallons of water down to 6+ and with the big beers there's no impact on flavor.

 

[wiescins]

i would dropped plan efficiency 10%, if you do better its a bigger beer. You don't want to miss low on a barleywine.

 

[FATC1TY]

I just normally plan to boil a little longer. For most big beers, it doesn't really affect much. Maybe an imperial IPA or something that I want to stay somewhat lighter in SRM.

I'm brewing a 1.105 stout in the morning. I'm planning on a 90 min boil, but depending on my gravity and volume, I might boil longer and then add hops at 90 and then on.

 

[bioguy]

I'd build a second mash tun and mash about 40 lbs of 2-row plus any specialty malts you want. Take the first 8 gallons of runoff to make your barley wine. Sparge with another 16 gallons and make 10 gallons of IPA or similar gravity beer. That's what I do. I can't stand dumping all that sweet barley.

 

[FATC1TY]

I'd build a second mash tun and mash about 40 lbs of 2-row plus any specialty malts you want. Take the first 8 gallons of runoff to make your barley wine. Sparge with another 16 gallons and make 10 gallons of IPA or similar gravity beer. That's what I do. I can't stand dumping all that sweet barley.

I agree, but sometimes it's along with the price of making a larger beer.

I normally try to brew something I can sparge again and make another small beer with, or worse case, enough stuff to make starters with for the next week. I'll brew a brown ale, and get like 1.030 off the last sparge with a gallon left and make a starter with it atleast.

 

[wncbrewer]

I agree with all of this, I did a barleywine several brews ago. I mashed at 1 qt/lb in a 10 gallon cooler, double batch sparged, boiled for 120 minutes, and came up with 5.5 gallons of 1.120 wort.

Barleywines benefit from a long boil any way, it helps with carmelezation and color