Birthday Barleywine Project

[Darth_Malt]

It's tax time! And with my return on the way, I will be able to make the move into All Grain brewing. As of now I have done 4 Extract w/ Specialty grain batches, and feel quite comfortable with the process.

My move into AG will fall right around my 29th birthday, which led me to the idea of doing a Barleywine (actually 2, one light and one dark. It's a Star Wars thing, don't judge me...) and putting it away for a year and breaking it out for my 30th. I'm still working on the recipes, and will post them here when I get them figured out.

My main concern is this. Am I going to want to do a batch or two with the new AG setup before trying to tackle a big beer like this? I'd hate to run 2 big barleywines, wait a year, and then find out I really had no idea what I was doing and wasted all the time and money.

 

[Teromous]

I find that doing a true all grain barleywine, and doing it right is not an easy process. You really have to know your system well. The whole idea of it tasting good a year from now is a minor concern compared to getting a barleywine brewed and fermented correctly. It's a very costly beer to mess up. It's also a very costly beer to experiment with. You probably know all of this though, which is why you posted a precautionary thread.

You're likely to get answers from "go ahead" to "don't do it" here...my advice would be to wait. I know the whole idea of a good/evil barleywine sounds cool but it's much more than having a cool label concept. Planning for a large gravity beer before you've even used your AG setup just sounds like a bad idea.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

I agree. I've been tweaking my AG system for a while now a and am just getting to the point where I feel ready to try something like this. I am planning to partigyle a barleywine as soon as things thaw out and do my own version of the Wookie and the Ewok! I'll still probably use some extract and/or sugar to hit my targets without it stalling or being to cloyingly sweet and chewy.

 

[Zamial]

Most people that want to move to Ag from Extract seem to want to do some big huge beer ASAP. I did it and had a strange brew for a long time. It is just now starting to be drinkable 2 years later. BW are easy to make once you have your process nailed down.

I would HIGHLY recommend looking into partigyle brewing. Unless you REALLY like to boil things for a long time.

GL

 

[hehawbrew]

Start AG with an IPA . Quick, easy, and tasty.

BW takes time and is expensive. Me and a brew pal did one back in May of 2013. Ten gal cost something like 150$. Grain, vanilla beans soaked in vodka, wood chips soaked in whiskey, yeast, not to mention the 9 month wait to bottle and an occupied fermenter !

Maybe do a gallon?

 

[Paps]

My suggestion is to do some S.M.A.S.H. A/G batches 1rst
(single malt and single hop)
Not only to familliarise youself with your A/G equipment but also to get a feel for what flavors different grain & hops impart to a beer.
Also try mashing at different temps (low 148 vs high 156) to
see how each affects taste,dryness, & mouthfeel of the beer.
After getting some experience with this you can look at recipe here and
have a better understanding of what the finished product will be beforehand allowing you a better judgement as to which recipe you might actually like.
Having to wait a year for a brew that you might not like at all paired with really high expectations could be a set up for a huge let down.
While i respect your enthousiasm(spelling) and `go big or go home` attitude i suggest you wait a little while before doing a BW.

 

[SeeMont]

Thanks for starting this thread. I have 9 AG brews under my belt and am just now feeling a little comfortable. Mashing that amount of grain scares me, a large weight and volume. The partigyle brewing interests me but having only one brew kettle and burner confuses me.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Thanks for starting this thread. I have 9 AG brews under my belt and am just now feeling a little comfortable. Mashing that amount of grain scares me, a large weight and volume. The partigyle brewing interests me but having only one brew kettle and burner confuses me.

Mash the massive amount of grain necessary to hit your numbers for the big beer. You will still sparge to get the volume you need for that, but there is still plenty of sugars left in those grains. So you run off the needed amount and start your boil for the big beer. Then keep sparging and collect that wort for the smaller brew in a bucket. Finish the boil for the big beer, chill, and transfer to your fermenter. Boil the smaller beer. 5 gallons of barleywine, 5 gallons of mild.

 

[hehawbrew]

Hey Darth Malt-

Not sure if this will satisfy your BW hunger or not, but I just saw (and ordered) a one gallon BW kit from northern Brewer. It's an extract kit and I'm sure it's not gonna be as awesome a good AG BW, but- thought I would throw it out there.

It was only 12$, which was cheap enough to make me curious.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[SeeMont]

Tannstaafb: Thanks so much for the idea. Another question, I brew the Barley Wine, Do the Primary for atleast a month, monitoring gravity. I am thinking at that point transfering this to a keg and let sit to condition. come next fall, transfer to bottles. How does this sound.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Tannstaafb: Thanks so much for the idea. Another question, I brew the Barley Wine, Do the Primary for atleast a month, monitoring gravity. I am thinking at that point transfering this to a keg and let sit to condition. come next fall, transfer to bottles. How does this sound.

Sounds like a good plan! You have a sufficient primary and then bulk conditioning for several months. AND in a format that you can sneak a sample now and then!