Barley WIne Mash temp

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

I'm going to make this barley wine next week if I get some chocolate malt in.


Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 76.2 %
2.00 kg Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 19.0 %
0.50 kg Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.8 %
100.00 gm Pride of Ringwood [9.00%] (60 min) Hops 68.7 IBU
100.00 gm Williamette [5.50%] (15 min) Hops 20.8 IBU
0.50 oz Oak Powder (Primary 7.0 days) Misc

Might ad a bit of Roast malt too.

Trying to decide a mash temp. Any suggestions?

 

[Steve973]

I assume that this is going to be for a five gallon batch. At ten and a half pounds of grain, I don't know if this'll be actually "barley wine" style, and with the chocolate (and possibly something else roasty added to it), it'll be kinda dark. I'm not saying that it'll be a bad beer, but possibly not true to style. A single infusion mash at 152-154 will work quite well, but a lower mash temperature will lend more to fermentability. You could go as low as 146, but your mash time will increase.

 

[david_42]

I'd cut the chocolate to 4 oz (no roast) and mash at 158F for sweeter & higher body.

 

[BitterRat]

Guys, it's not 10.5 lbs of grain, its 10.5 kg or 23.15 lbs of grain!! Quite a bit of difference!! With that amount of grain, I would not mash at 158ºF, but more like 1149-151ºF. The amount of grain should give you plenty of body in that beer. But I would cut back on the choc as others have mentioned, also, I'd cut back on the amount of honey malt too, maybe use 1 lb or .5 kg, everything you cut back, replace it with pale malt too.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Yes, 5 gallons but the weights are in KILOS. (2.2 pounds per kilo)

I don't particularily belive in the BJCP's definition for barley wine since old fashioned Barely wines were very dark. In fact I find the BJCP's style guide to be fairly "modern" in most, if not all, of it's listed styles.

That said, yeah, I'll cut back the chocolate malt. Probably 150 grams.

Not sure on a yeast. Was thinking Rogue, but I want fruity esters so may go with something else then pitch 1118 after the first 4 days.

I had an accidentally high amount of chocolate malt in a barley wine once and found it to taste great. Made it a very dark amberish color, though that was back in the extract/seep days, so adding chocolate malt to the match will likely result in a higher extraction than seeping so cutting down to a 150 grams will likely hit what I'm looking for.

Trying to decide whether to add crystal 60 (and lower the honey malt) and mash low like 148-150 or not add crystal and mash around 152. or ???

 

[Steve973]

Sounds good. Sorry about the unit mismatch there. So, what is your estimated OG? Perhaps you will want to do a step mash to get more fermentables without too much cloying sweetness?

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

With the reduction of the choco malt to 150 grams:

Est Original Gravity: 1.114 SG
Est. FG: 1.026 (???)
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 11.3 %
Bitterness: 91.6 IBU
Est Color: 22.7 SRM
Calories: 90 cal/l


Yeah, last time I made a barley wine was in the ol' extract days. Maybe I should go for a more fermentable mash or step. Not sure what times on the steps though for this brew.