barleywine- missed OG

Hey guys,brewed an all grain barley wine last weekend and instead of 1.100 I ended up starting at 1.071. I was planning on adding bourbon soaked oak chips (never use oak before) to this but now I am worried it won't have the gravity to stand up to the oak. Fermentation is slowing down and I'll be racking to two 3 gallon car boys soon, adding the oak to one. Should I leave it as is and proceed with my plan, skip the oak all together, add sugar to both to raise the gravity, or add sugar to the one with the oak and leave the other alone? Thanks for your input!

 

If all of your beer is in one fermenter, the answer is simple. Buy a can of light malt extract (liquid), heat the can to make it pour better, and just dump it into the fermenter. You'll then come very close to your OG. And just proceed as normal.

If you can't do that, let us know and I'm sure we can help you out.

 

I wouldn't add sugar to boost barleywine's gravity. You'd have to add a lot of sugar and you'll thin and dry the body out and a good barleywine is anything but dry.

You could add LME as KeystoneHomebrew suggest. Personally, I'd just call it an Old Ale instead. And I think an oak-bourbon Old Ale sounds pretty great.

 

Thanks for the quick replies.. the original post was from my cell phone, here is some of the other info that I left out.

The beer is still in the primary all together right now, will take a hydrometer reading this weekend. Recipe was:

15# Maris Otter
3# rye malt
3# crystal 40
12 oz chocolate

140 IBU worth of hops-
FWH Belma
Bittering Centenial
Flavor- Amarillo, Simcoe, Cascade
Flame Out- Amarillo, Cascade

Yeast- Wyeast 1728 scottish ale yeast

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Another question I have is does anybody dry hop oaked beers or do they compete too much? I was planning on dry hopping the plain half and oaking the other half, but should I dry hop both?

 

Using oak of any type is more about the amount you use and the time it soaks. You HAVE to monitor oak in your beer by tasting it. Soak the oak in bourbon or whiskey after steam sanitizing it for about a week and add it to a sanitized hops bag. One ounce of oak chips is a good place to start. Let them soak in your beer for about three to five days before you start taste testing. Use a wine thief to taste test the beer daily and remove the chips juuuust when the beer starts to taste slightly over oaked. The oak flavor will fade with time and bottle conditioning, so you want to catch it just as soon as it's starting to peak.