first barely wine

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

JGriff731

Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
20
Reaction score
0
Location
greenup
Looking to brew my first barely wine within the next week. Was interested in some tips, tricks, and advice from the guys who have had experience with big beers. Would also appreciate advice on a mash schedule that would help me attain the most malt forward characteristics as possible. Recipe is simple and as follows; 15lbs 2-row, 1lbs of Caravienne, and 1lbs. Caramunich.
 
last one I did was an american barleywine, mashed at 148f and it came out great.It attenuated well. You could mash a little higher for more body, but I wouldn't go too high. You want it to attenuate well. Make a huge starter. Ferment on the low end for the 1st 3 days ( 65f worked out great for me) then slowly raise the temp to around 70-72f to help it finish out. If you ferment too high , you will get more hot alcohol flavors and it will take longer to soften up.The 1st 3 days are the most important as far as fermentation temp. aerate well too. Do a 90 min boil. Have some DME on hand to adjust your gravity if the pre-boil gravity seems low or if your tun can't fit enough grain. Target 80 ibu's or higher. you can't really over bitter a barley wine, but you can under - bitter, so don't be shy with the hops. Any over bittering will be faded away by the time it's a drinkable beer anyway. You will need high ibu's to stand up to the massive malt backbone.Use yeast nutrient.Use a yeast that can handle a high gravity beer such as wlp001 or wyeast 1056. The yeast will need every bit of help you can give it, so treat it well. Some people make a small beer first, then just dump the barleywine right onto the yeast cake....definately a viable option with a good track record, but a big starter will be great too. plan on aging for at least 6 months....or maybe a year. That's all I know that seems to work for me...good luck!!:mug:
 
Phenomenal advice brother! Can't wait to get started today! Any advice on bottle aging/conditioning this particular brew? I figured that I would keg half and bottle the rest.

Thanks again!
 
Yeast nutrient is a must! Give you yeast a fighting chance. Oxygenate the **** out of it as well. 90 boils for me are a minimum...my 15% was a little over a two hour boil. I actually like full body barleywines and tend to add sugars over the course of fermentation for a lighter feel.
 
Phenomenal advice brother! Can't wait to get started today! Any advice on bottle aging/conditioning this particular brew? I figured that I would keg half and bottle the rest.

Thanks again!

I've never bottle conditioned a beer before....been kegging right from the start, but I would give the beer 6 months before drinking (except samples of course). It should really improve after about a year.
 
Phenomenal advice brother! Can't wait to get started today! Any advice on bottle aging/conditioning this particular brew? I figured that I would keg half and bottle the rest.

Thanks again!

I wouldn't keg it because it will likely be pretty hot and not too good for a few months at least.
 
Big beer brewing is a whole different animal as I found out. I do it about twice a year. The biggest thing I noticed was a drop in efficiency using so much grain. By the time you get your grist/water ratio right, you won't be able to sparge very much before you have your pre-boil volume. You can go on the thick side, but that introduces other considerations. I have resorted to mashing to about 1.060, sparging as usual (fly sparge is my default method), then making up the rest of the gravity points with DME. This keeps my mash process on track without too much fuss. There is no problem mashing all that grain, most folks do, you just have to anticipate some differences in your results.

The other thing I do is brew a standard gravity beer first about 2 weeks before the big beer. For an Imperial Stout, I'll brew maybe an Oatmeal Stout 2 weeks prior, rack the Oatmeal Stout on brew day, then put the Imperial right on top of the yeast cake. This assures a good quick start and saves you from having to make the gargantuan starter you will need for a big beer. And this sucker will ferment like mad. If you can keep the temps down, especially at first like someone else recommended, you can try to keep it contained, but for sure plan on a blow off tube and check on it about every couple of hours through the first 24 hours or so - that or have a really big blow off bucket.
 
My last couple barleywines/RISes, big beers I've either pitched on a yeast cake, or I have gone the route of using a big starter. When I use a starter, I give the wort a good dose of pure o2 at pitching, and then another at about 12 hours after pitching (but no more after that).

You can use a couple packs of dry yeast if you don't have the tools to put pure O2 in.

EDIT: And seriously: mash way low, like 148 to 149, and let it go for a while. Even at that low temp, you'll have plenty of maltiness in the finished beer.
 
How large of a batch? 17lbs isn't that much for 5g. Also- you can expect a BIG hit in efficiency with more grains. Consider only using the first runnings if you're looking for a big OG.
 
Don't know what your setup is but I just did a double mash biab that got my OG to 1.121. Only 3lb of that was lme too. I mashed at 148 for both mashes. Got about 90% conversion for mash 1 and 70% for mash 2. Id extend to a 90 min mash for barleywines. Man I love biab.
 
I use the 25l Braumeister. Found out that 17lbs of grain is its limit. Super thick. Did a 90min mash @ 150. Done 2 batches got 1.078 for both. I would assume that's fairly low for this brew :-/ no dme/lme was added either. It went well and it's fermenting away now @ 68f. Any tips on fermentation? Read somewhere to age on the yeast cake?
 
I use the 25l Braumeister. Found out that 17lbs of grain is its limit. Super thick. Did a 90min mash @ 150. Done 2 batches got 1.078 for both. I would assume that's fairly low for this brew :-/ no dme/lme was added either. It went well and it's fermenting away now @ 68f. Any tips on fermentation? Read somewhere to age on the yeast cake?

68f is a little warm, but it will be fine with a little age on it. You could add 1LB of table sugar when fermentation starts to slow down, and that would help with attenuation, and bring up the abv a little, as well as dry it out some. Also after the 3rd day of fermentation start raising the temp 1 degree per day till it reaches 72f, then leave it at 72f for the rest of fermentation. That will help ensure that the yeast finishes out the ferment and you get full attenuation. The worst thing you can do is allow the temp to drop, which may cause the yeast to drop out. I would allow it to sit on the yeast for up to 1 month, but no more....of course , if / whenever you are sure that the ferment is complete, you should keg it at that point, because it will condition in the keg just fine. Since you are fermenting on the warm side (68f), I would expect the ferment to go a little faster, so you may be finished up in a week to 10 days. My last one took 3 weeks, but I started the ferment at 64f, so ymmv.
 
Thanks! Always appreciate that help! I started at 68 because someone mentioned it before and the particular yeast I used (WLP O99 super high gravity)suggested such temperature. Controlling the temp won't be a problem with MoreBeer's heated and cooled conical.
 
Back
Top