Barleywine Advice

[doublehaul]

I am going to be brewing my biggest beer yet - a ~ 1.110 barleywine. Knowing that I will have worse efficiency, I am calculating 65% efficiency and it seems I can get this done batch sparging in my 10 gallon mash tun. Any reason that wouldn't work? The reason I ask is because I've read all these articles (like this - http://byo.com/bock/item/1750-barleywine) about just using the first wort, doing long boils, doing partial extract, and I don't see why I can't just mash like I always do (collect 1st runnings, collect second sparge, boil - 5.5 gallon batch), but maybe I am missing something? Any other advice would be appreciated also!

 

[afr0byte]

I am going to be brewing my biggest beer yet - a ~ 1.110 barleywine. Knowing that I will have worse efficiency, I am calculating 65% efficiency and it seems I can get this done batch sparging in my 10 gallon mash tun. Any reason that wouldn't work? The reason I ask is because I've read all these articles (like this - http://byo.com/bock/item/1750-barleywine) about just using the first wort, doing long boils, doing partial extract, and I don't see why I can't just mash like I always do (collect 1st runnings, collect second sparge, boil - 5.5 gallon batch), but maybe I am missing something? Any other advice would be appreciated also!

Your normal process will be fine. I'd do a 90 minute boil, if not 2 hours, though.

 

[vinpaysdoc]

Just got done brewing an Imperial Barleywine. My normal mash efficiency with a 10 gal cylindrical cooler mash tun is 75%. My mash efficiency with this brew was around 62%. The estimated OG for my grain bill was 1.161. I suspect that a 65% mash efficiency will be spot on for your brew.

For my Imperial Barleywine, I had to decrease the batch size to 4 gallons so it would fit in the mash tun.

Good luck!

 

[DoWBrewer]

I would recommend doing a sugar addition to easily up your gravity. It will thin the body a bit, but that is not necessarily bad with a BW. You can add your addition to the fermenter after the second or third day. It really gets the yeast moving again. I would also keep some LME on hand in case your gravity is low.

 

[rico567]

The one barleywine I did (about the same numbers as OP) was a success. Standard simple English barleywine, mashed in a 10 gal cooler.....did NOT try to use all the necessary grain (the recipe called for a bump of 2 lbs DME to hit OG) to make this beer. I then fermented it out per recipe, using a packet of Pasteur Champagne yeast in the secondary (4 months), even though the FG was pretty much there at the end of regular fermentation.

Beware of trying to use all grain to do it with a 10 gal. cooler, because with this big a beer, you can easily max your cooler out. I did that once (with a Founders Breakfast Stout clone) and the resultant mash came to within 1.5 inches of the rim of the cooler. I could barely lift the cooler onto a bench for lautering.

 

[doublehaul]

Thanks all great info. I brewed founders breakfast stout too! Ill have help to lift it but i will be concerned with screwing the lid on. My plan for yeast is to make a 1L starter, chill for 2 days, decant, step up to a 2L starter, chill again, decant and pitch. According to yeastcalc that should be sufficient.

 

[wonderbread23]

I've always had to run off more wort and then boil a bit longer to achieve that kinda of starting gravity. The issue that on my system (and most systems, I'm guessing) is that I'm never able to get a gravity higher than 1.080 or so out of my first runnings --- this seems to be about the maximum amount of sugar saturation that is achievable, regardless of the amount of grain in the tun. Say that you're able to run off 6 gallons of 1.080 wort and your end target volume is 5 gallons. That wort would be only at 1.096 once 5 gallons is achieved. You would need to reduce the volume to 4.36 gallons to hit the 1.110 target you're shooting for.

What is the pre-boil gravity that your software is telling you that you should be trying to achieve? I am guess it is higher than 1.080 which makes it somewhat unrealistic.

 

[doublehaul]

I've always had to run off more wort and then boil a bit longer to achieve that kinda of starting gravity. The issue that on my system (and most systems, I'm guessing) is that I'm never able to get a gravity higher than 1.080 or so out of my first runnings --- this seems to be about the maximum amount of sugar saturation that is achievable, regardless of the amount of grain in the tun. Say that you're able to run off 6 gallons of 1.080 wort and your end target volume is 5 gallons. That wort would be only at 1.096 once 5 gallons is achieved. You would need to reduce the volume to 4.36 gallons to hit the 1.110 target you're shooting for.

What is the pre-boil gravity that your software is telling you that you should be trying to achieve? I am guess it is higher than 1.080 which makes it somewhat unrealistic.

I didn't think about it that way. The software is telling me 1.083 boil gravity. The closest thing I've brewed to this, looking at my notes, I collected 7+ gallons with a pre-boil of 1.080 (how about that), and my post boil OG was 1.092. And if I remember right it basically filled a bucket fermenter so probably 5.5 gallons - so right in line with what you are saying. I generally try to get 5.5 gallons, so maybe I could boil 90 minutes with a big boil and try to get 5... Or I could just plan on adding some malt extract if I'm low.