Barleywine

[sea1961]

I’M about to brew a nice Barleywine:
Ingredients:
• 18 lbs British Pale 2-Row (Maris Otter)
• 1 lb Caramel (60L)
• 1 lb Victory Malt (25L)
• 2 oz Golding’s hops (60 min)
• 1 oz Cascade hops (7 min)
• 1 tsp Irish moss
• 1 Tbsp Five Star 5.2
• 2 packs SAFALE US-05 American Ale (Primary)
• 1 Pack Red Star Pasteur Champagne Yeast (Secondary)
OG: 1.104 FG: 1.020
Primary Ferment: 21 days (3 weeks)
Secondary Ferment: 42 days (6 weeks)
I will be using a 5 Gallon Used Bourbon Barrel for the secondary fermentation. My question is if I choose forced carbonation, will I just rack from the secondary to my keg and carbonate or is there something I’m missing???
Thanks!

 

[lumpher]

6 weeks aging for a barleywine? they usually take 2 years or more

 

[msa8967]

I would let this go in the primary for at least 4-5 weaks prior to transfer and then transfer to the secondary for a much longer amount of time. For my first barelywine I had it in the primary for 6 weeks and the secondary for 6 months before I bottled and I was told that might have been too soon to bottle.

 

[sea1961]

Mick,
Thanks for the input!!!

 

[sea1961]

lumpher,
Thanks for you responce!

 

[msa8967]

"I will be using a 5 Gallon Used Bourbon Barrel for the secondary fermentation. My question is if I choose forced carbonation, will I just rack from the secondary to my keg and carbonate or is there something I’m missing???"

Are you sure you want to keg this beer? A true barely wine may take several years to develop to its full potential. Thus, I would bottle this batch and start sampling one per month after it has been bottle conditioned for 6 months to a year. I know this sounds like a very long time to wait but I have tasted barely wines from experienced home brewers that were aged for one year versus two years and there is a signifcant difference in waiting.

Also, do you want to tie up a keg and keg space letting this age for a year prior to drinking? Were you plasnning on storing the keg in a cool place (like 60 F) or in your kegerator (like 45 F)? Hope these don't come across as being too critical with these questions but to spend all the money on grain and time to brew your first bw you want it to come out the best possible.

 

[sea1961]

"I will be using a 5 Gallon Used Bourbon Barrel for the secondary fermentation. My question is if I choose forced carbonation, will I just rack from the secondary to my keg and carbonate or is there something I’m missing???"

Are you sure you want to keg this beer? A true barely wine may take several years to develop to its full potential. Thus, I would bottle this batch and start sampling one per month after it has been bottle conditioned for 6 months to a year. I know this sounds like a very long time to wait but I have tasted barely wines from experienced home brewers that were aged for one year versus two years and there is a significant difference in waiting.

Also, do you want to tie up a keg and keg space letting this age for a year prior to drinking? Were you planning on storing the keg in a cool place (like 60 F) or in your kegerator (like 45 F)? Hope these don't come across as being too critical with these questions but to spend all the money on grain and time to brew your first bw you want it to come out the best possible.

??? If I bottle condition, how do I get around the issue of the trub at the bottom of the bottle? I wanted to age the BW in the Bourbon barrel (looks like longer than I thought) at around 64 degrees F and then force carbonate so I could then bottle from there. I would like to be able to transport this brew when completed? Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Revvy]

??? If I bottle condition, how do I get around the issue of the trub at the bottom of the bottle? I wanted to age the BW in the Bourbon barrel (looks like longer than I thought) at around 64 degrees F and then force carbonate so I could then bottle from there. I would like to be able to transport this brew when completed? Thanks for the feedback!

Why would you have trub at the bottom of the bottle? You'll have a little bit of sediment at the bottom from bottle conditioning, but so what? Most bottle conditioned barleywine, and beers for that matter have some sediment in it. So? It's not evil, it's part of the process of bottle conditioned beers. And After 6+ months of sitting in secondary, you're going to have little if any sediment from the brewing process left in solution, just whatever you get from adding fresh yeast and your priming sugar...probably just a little smear at the bottom of the bottle, again so what?

 

[cwheel]

Remember that those bourbon / rum barrels can impart a wide range of flavor intensities to beer. Most people recommend that you periodically check the flavor of the beer to figure out when the proper amount of liquor/wood has transferred to the beer. It is possible to get too much flavor/liquor out of the barrels. Not saying this will necessarily happen, but keep an eye on it.

 

[baseballstar4]

I would let this go in the primary for at least 4-5 weaks prior to transfer and then transfer to the secondary for a much longer amount of time. For my first barelywine I had it in the primary for 6 weeks and the secondary for 6 months before I bottled and I was told that might have been too soon to bottle.

If you are going in 2ndary for 6+ months what temperature would you recommend? I'm in Ohio and in a 6 month span we can have a wide variety of temperature changes in the weather. My basement stays at a consistent 62F year round. Reason for me asking, is that I am looking into a brew that ages for a long time.

 

[sea1961]

Remember that those bourbon / rum barrels can impart a wide range of flavor intensities to beer. Most people recommend that you periodically check the flavor of the beer to figure out when the proper amount of liquor/wood has transferred to the beer. It is possible to get too much flavor/liquor out of the barrels. Not saying this will necessarily happen, but keep an eye on it.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[morticaixavier]

If you are going in 2ndary for 6+ months what temperature would you recommend? I'm in Ohio and in a 6 month span we can have a wide variety of temperature changes in the weather. My basement stays at a consistent 62F year round. Reason for me asking, is that I am looking into a brew that ages for a long time.

62 is an excellent temp for long term ale aging. The thing to remember with long aging is that all the processes will go faster the higher the temp.

With BW's or old ales part of the flavour profile is a small amount of oxidation. If aging in a barrel this will happen because the wood is porous. if in bottle conditioning it will happen less as the yeast will scavenge much of the o2 that is present in the headspace but it will still happen. If the beer is kept warmer it will happen faster.

To the OP RE: sediment in the bottle. I agree with Revvy. It will be so little and, after a goodly long time in bottle will be so compacted that it will not get stirred up very easily and as long as you pour carefully when decanting it will not carry over into the glass at all.

Enjoy! I think barley wine is one of the most rewarding styles to brew because it is so simple in terms of ingredients and so amazingly complex in flavour when done right. Personally I don't use any specialty grains in my barley wine, just a well chosen base grain like MO or, for my most recent batch which is still sitting in a rum barrel, all munich. I use one big bittering charge at the begining of the boil (120 minutes at least) and leave it at that.