Need help

[vikingbrewer70]

Hey folks heres a recipe for a barley wine its my first tell me what you think...



13lbs. light LME

1 lb honey



12oz flaked Barley

8oz caramel crystal 20L

8oz Honey Malt



1oz Brewer's Gold 60 min

1oz Cascade 60 min

1 oz cascade 45 min

1 oz EKG 55 MIN

1 OZ CHALLENGER 55

WYEAST 1056

OG 1.099

FG 1.025

ABV 9.7%

IBU 26.82

SRM 9.21

would appreciate some feedback


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Teromous]

Everyone has their preferences, so take mine with a grain of salt. If it were my decision, I would:

- Remove the honey
- Remove the honey malt
- Increase the SRM (adjust specialty malt types and quantities)
- Increase the IBU's
- Add flavor hops
- Add aroma hops

 

[vikingbrewer70]

Could you explain what's wrong with my recipe as written?
Just learning so I guess need explain action of why each thing you listed was wrong in my recipe... These are not meant to be nasty just would like to know why what I came up with was wrong?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Teromous]

Could you explain what's wrong with my recipe as written?
Just learning so I guess need explain action of why each thing you listed was wrong in my recipe... These are not meant to be nasty just would like to know why what I came up with was wrong?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

It's not necessarily wrong, it's just that you asked what I thought. It looks like you are gearing more for a light colored or golden barleywine and the darker ones are my my preferred aesthetic. The same goes for the IBU's; I prefer to age barleywines and the bitterness goes down over the months and years. Having increased bitterness in anticipation for this, as well as to counter-balance the increased malt sweetness of a barleywine, is why I also choose this. I like to have a lot of hop flavor and aroma (mid and late hop additions, as well as dry-hopping) because I also enjoy fresh barleywines. This isn't required, again it's a preference thing.

I could be wrong, but looking at your recipe it looks like you wanted to add honey to impart some honey flavor as well as boost the ABV. Fermenting out the honey would rid the beer of a lot of sweet honey characteristics so this could be why you chose to add honey malt which would add some of the sweetness back. Having strong flavor and aroma hops could overpower the delicate honey flavor and aroma, so that could be why you chose not to add the hops (again I don't know this, just a guess). In my opinion these all work against the core beer (barleywine) which is why I would make the changes I recommended.

Also, are you sure your quote of 26.82 IBU's are correct? It didn't look right to me so I through some of the ingredient's on the BMW website to check the IBU's and I got around 68.6 for:

1oz Brewer's Gold 60 min
1oz Cascade 60 min
1 oz cascade 45 min
1 oz EKG 55 MIN
1 OZ CHALLENGER 55

 

[vikingbrewer70]

It's not necessarily wrong, it's just that you asked what I thought. It looks like you are gearing more for a light colored or golden barleywine and the darker ones are my my preferred aesthetic. The same goes for the IBU's; I prefer to age barleywines and the bitterness goes down over the months and years. Having increased bitterness in anticipation for this, as well as to counter-balance the increased malt sweetness of a barleywine, is why I also choose this. I like to have a lot of hop flavor and aroma (mid and late hop additions, as well as dry-hopping) because I also enjoy fresh barleywines. This isn't required, again it's a preference thing.

I could be wrong, but looking at your recipe it looks like you wanted to add honey to impart some honey flavor as well as boost the ABV. Fermenting out the honey would rid the beer of a lot of sweet honey characteristics so this could be why you chose to add honey malt which would add some of the sweetness back. Having strong flavor and aroma hops could overpower the delicate honey flavor and aroma, so that could be why you chose not to add the hops (again I don't know this, just a guess). In my opinion these all work against the core beer (barleywine) which is why I would make the changes I recommended.

Also, are you sure your quote of 26.82 IBU's are correct? It didn't look right to me so I through some of the ingredient's on the BMW website to check the IBU's and I got around 68.6 for:

1oz Brewer's Gold 60 min
1oz Cascade 60 min
1 oz cascade 45 min
1 oz EKG 55 MIN
1 OZ CHALLENGER 55

thank you... first off i see some mistakes i made in writing the recipe down... im sure you have already figured out
the 45 min cascade was to be 15 min before the end of the boil.
the EKG @ 55 MIN was to be 5 minutes before the end of the boil.
your hunches were right.I want a lighter colored one first then move on to the darker with what i explained about the hops make more sense? where do you have the IBU's set on your barleywines? i very well could have made a mistake and will check it out.
i appreciate your time and help

 

[Teromous]

From what I can see, those two corrections to your hops would work well. Is your intention to make more of an English style barleywine or an American style? Also is there a particular brand of barleywine that you like?

 

[vikingbrewer70]

I'm thinking it's more of an English barley wine


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[vikingbrewer70]

No.... I don't drink much and have never tried a barley wine. This fact usually weirds people out but they get over it when they taste my beer and they like it any recommendations


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Teromous]

Yeah I figured it was geared more to an English style barleywine because the numbers fell more into that range, but hopping schedule and selection seemed a bit more like it was leaning to an American style. A hybrid if you will. I haven't had too many English style barleywines, mostly American styles. If you have access to Bigfoot from Sierra Nevada that is a very good American style. The same goes for Old Guardian by Stone. These two are probably the easiest to get that I can think of, because of their wide distribution. There's plenty of really amazing ones out there though. Where do you live?

 

[vikingbrewer70]

I live in the Detroit area will be looking for those....a hybrid is good I hope


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Teromous]

I know both Bell's and Founders are popular Michigan breweries. Bell's has Third Coast Old Ale and Founders has Bolt Cutter. I haven't tried either of these but they appear to be rated highly. This gets a bit into the weeds, but Third Coast Old Ale is listed as a barleywine on rating sites and is a self-titled old ale...I think you'll get the gist of it though.

 

[vikingbrewer70]

i will have to try those out. one of my buddies loves bells thank for the assist