Barleywine vs. high OG beer

[JLem]

Is Barleywine simply a high gravity beer? Or is there something else that makes it different? If it's "just" a high gravity beer, what style?

 

[COLObrewer]

In a word - Aging (As in wine). Typically barley wine is aged extensively to bring out a miriad of complex flavors. I believe the style also should utilize mostly basic malts so the specific malt flavors are not masked by specialty malts. That being said, there are no strict rules in the making of barley wine. Does this help any? It is it's own style. Here's a good MJ beer hunter writeup with history: Michael Jackson's Beer Hunter - Heavy gravity, man

 

[Killer_Robot]

I'm pretty new to brewing and have never made a barleywine. From the drinking side though, I can also add hops to the list. They tend to have a stronger punch of bitterness and florals than many high gravity styles: in American styles especially there seems to be some overlap between barleywines and strong IPAs. From a brewing perspective I imagine this means more aroma hops and possibly dry hopping, as compared to most strong beers, but for the details best to ask someone more experienced than me.

 

[Gildog]

i dont have alot of experience with barleywine, but i also seem to see a lot of cask aging involved in making them

 

[JLem]

So if I take a basic pale ale recipe, increase the grain/sugars to get a higher ABV, increase the hops accordingly and let it age for 6 months (or more), I'd have barleywine? Do I approach the fermentation process the same before aging? What about secondary additions (dry hopping? oak chips? etc.)?

 

[Brewpastor]

Barleywine is a definite style. Actually, there are two main categories of Barleywine: English and American. There are other strong beer styles, such as Imperial Stout Double Bock, Old Ale. The recent increase of "Imperial" beers has both added to the number of strong beer styles and blurred the lines between them.

Of course this only matters if you are concerned with style.

There are a lot of good recipes out there to help you along.

 

[BarleyWater]

So if I take a basic pale ale recipe, increase the grain/sugars to get a higher ABV, increase the hops accordingly and let it age for 6 months (or more), I'd have barleywine? Do I approach the fermentation process the same before aging? What about secondary additions (dry hopping? oak chips? etc.)?

In short, no. Barleywine is a style of beer just like porter or lambic, with it's own characteristics and brewing practices. While there does tend to be some overlap between Barleywine and IIPA's, barleywines tend to be much sweeter with less carbonation and a distinct hop profile, that is not bitter like that of a IIPA. Although English and American versions may differ on the hop profile.

Barleywines do tend to take longer to brew and age, but that has more to do with the strength of the beer than anything else like a Russian Imperial Stout. High gravity fermentation take a lot more care and practice to get it to turn out how you want also. With a greater amount of sugars to convert, resulting in a more alcoholic beer, the yeast are much more likely to get stressed out and not behave like you want them to. The time it takes to make a Barleywine will make any dry hopping fruitless, but the addition of oak may be employed by some brewers (I'm not as fan though). There are a lot of great Barleywines out there, two of my favorites are Real Ale Sisyphus and Anchor Old Foghorn, grab yourself a selection and see what they are like.

http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category19.php#style19B
http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category19.php#style19C