Barley Wine (noob questions)

[Pyg]

Been looking to make a barley wine for a while.
In laws bought me "Homebrewing Handbook" by Dave Law & Beshlie Grimes.
Recipe is below followed by questions:

9.25# maris otter
1.75# crystal 60
6.5# light dme
1.25# light brown sugar
.75# dark brown sugar

Hops
1.5 oz Northdown 90 min
.5 oz U.K. Golding 10 min

British ale yeast
90 min boil!

Questions
90 min boil? Really?
How long will this take in the bottle to be ready?
Looking to have this for holiday time, should I brew during summer?
Is this something that will take years to get better?

Is Barely Wine a tough style to brew?
Especially to get right?

Any recommended tweaks? Yeast? Malt? Hop additions? Etc?

 

[cshamilton]

Not a fan of Brown sugar in beers.

Check this out: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/beer-recipe-of-the-week-big-ass-barleywine/

The 90 min+ boil is often needed since you usually have a bigger mash volume and need to boil it down longer to get to the proper volume. Barleywines usually need time to condition and carbonate. 6 months total would be good, but it really depends some are good earlier others need age.

I'd recommend scaling it down to 3 gallons for your first go.

 

[Brickman]

Yeast health is crucial with a barleywine. You need to use an alcohol tolerant stain and make sure you oxygenate well and use yeast nutrient. You also want to watch fermentation temperatures and pitch enough yeast. For a 1.122 barleywine I pitched 5 packets of dry yeast. There was some lag to get going.

It will also take time to be ready. A lot of the nuances of a barleywine take time to develop so patience pays off.

Mark

 

[Sadu]

My first go at a barleywine was pretty good after 2 months.

Suggest keeping it under 10% initially as that much grain is a lot different to what your system is used to. The 90 min boil means you have a bit more spatge water to work with, which you do need. I wouldn't skimp on this. Keep the amount of crystal in check as you don't want to finish too sweet.
Nottingham yeast worked well for me.

 

[Robbienev]

Yes, boil for 90 minutes - it's a drop in the ocean to the 6 months (plus) of patience you'll exhibit before drinking it

 

[Pyg]

Yeast health is crucial with a barleywine. You need to use an alcohol tolerant stain and make sure you oxygenate well and use yeast nutrient. You also want to watch fermentation temperatures and pitch enough yeast. For a 1.122 barleywine I pitched 5 packets of dry yeast. There was some lag to get going.

It will also take time to be ready. A lot of the nuances of a barleywine take time to develop so patience pays off.

Mark

5 packs of dry?
Would it behove me to make a starter with 1 or 2 of them?

 

[RM-MN]

5 packs of dry?
Would it behove me to make a starter with 1 or 2 of them?

Making a starter from dry yeast may be counterproductive. Dry yeast has the nutrients it needs for ferment and making a starter can deplete these, leaving you with fewer yeast cells than you started with.

Yeast cells will multiply in the wort if you give them the tools they need. The first one is easy, free amino nitrogen. The wort you use for beer contains all the yeast needs. The second one is oxygen. When you boil the wort you drive out nearly all the oxygen so you need to add it back. That can be done in several ways. Shaking the fermenter after the wort is added is the easiest and least effective. Pouring the wort between the pot and fermenter is better as each time you do so you add oxygen (to a point, there is a limit to how much oxygen you can add this way). Using a pump and air stone is easier and perhaps faster than pouring but faces the same limitation on the amount of oxygen that can be dissolved into the wort as the pouring can. Finally, adding pure oxygen can get you the most dissolved oxygen but at a higher cost. It may be more effective to add another packet of yeast than pay for the oxygenation system unless you are regularly making barleywines.

I find that I make acceptable good beer with way less yeast than the calculators suggest. I've done beers up to 1.072 with a single packet of yeast and got full attenuation and good flavor. For your barleywine I'd probably use 3 packet and follow the directions to hydrate the yeast so that I would get the maximum survival of the yeast I pitched. Expect some lag time as the yeast multiply.

 

[Steveruch]

5 packs of dry?
Would it behove me to make a starter with 1 or 2 of them?

Use one to brew a batch of best bitter and use the yeast cake for the barleywine.
Be sure to make it last, time is your friend with barleywine. The last one that I made was dinged in a competition for being too bitter and got a score in the mid 30s. I entered another one into the same competition the next year and got second in show with a score of 43.