Barneywine

[sweetcell]

What's the reasoning behind big beers taking longer to carb up? I have one IIPA that is taking a while right now and am curious.

high-alcohol beer is a stressful environment for yeast. as alcohol % rises, yeast starts to die off - essentially choking on their own waste by-products (alcohol). some manage to hang in there, go dormant, etc. by the time you add your bottling sugar there just isn't as much active yeast in there as there was at the peak of fermentation, or in a post-fermentation lower-gravity beer. the yeasties that are left will get around to digesting your bottling sugar eventually. they'll just need more time, since there are less of them to get the job done. that's why you might add new yeast before bottling an aged high-gravity beer: to make up for the lack of primary yeast.

one thing that i've found that helps with carbonation is to occasionally turn the bottles upside-down and gently swirl to get the yeast back in suspension. this increases the chances that the yeast will encounter sugar molecules.

 

[Nyrkki]

I bottled this earlier this week. FG had dropped lower than expected, so it has 11,5-12 % of alcohol. I dryhopped it with about 2 oz. cascade.

After sampling this from the fermenter my expectatitons have risen. This is probably one of the best beers I've made. Lots of malttyness and caramel flavours. The bitterness is just a bit harsh, but this will mellow out, and even if it doesn't I don't mind. The hop flavour is similar to Nogne Imperial IPA and quite close to their barley wine. The dryhopping will probably enhance the hop aroma, which it will need if I mannage to store some bottles for a few years.

I'll post some comments after I've opened the first bottle. Hopefully that won't happen before August...

 

[steveh01420]

So how did your brew come out? I just had a Nogne IIPA #100 and I want to try making one, your recipe looks good.

 

[Nyrkki]

Can't believe I didn't post earlier on the results. The beer came out fantastic. It's been six months in bottles now and still has a decent hop punch. Adding more dry hops could improve this beer, though I think it is really really good as it is. I'll open a bottle tomorrow so I can give proper critique and maybe a pic, as I'll be working late tonight.

 

[Nyrkki]

Well I opened a bottle and I'm sipping it right now. The color is very deep amber and it is quite clear. Head is made from very very small bubbles and carbonation is low as it should be. The head laces it self nicely. Aroma is dominated by cascade citrus, caramel and deep malty flavor. The body is thick enough to give an impression of a high abv brew but still surprisingly quaffable. Flavor-wise I pick caramel, dark toffee, raisins, cascade, oranges and black currant and raspberry leafs. I love the black currant leaf flavor. Dank. It is quite fruity, and the cascade emphisizes this. The beer is quite dry, maybe even too dry for the style, but together with the hop bitterness it makes this beer very drinkable.

This is a really well balanced beer, with a decent hop punch and bitterness to even out all the caramel flavor. The bitterness is spot on. Not too harsh, but able to kill the malty sweetness. There is almost no notes of alcohol, but at warmer temps you can persive it. My GF, who usually is not a fan of high abv beers, estimated the alcohol at no more than 6%, which is half of the actual alcohol content.

Over all I am very pleased with the beer. This is clearly my best high abv brew and apart from my belgian Wit the beer that has been most praised by my friends. When I'll brew this again I'll probably skip the wheat (endangers stability of the beer and makes it too cloudy) and up the dry hops. I might also try to raise the FG with some caramel malts in order to sweeten it up but I really like this slightly drier version of an american barleywine. I will let most of the batch age more as the it hasn't harmed it yet. The yeast choice is spot on, and really allows the malt to shine through.