First Barley Wine

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BobBailey

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Howdy folks,

Brewed up my first Barley wine on 2/28. OG was 1.092 and FG 1.015 after 15 days in primary. Transferred to secondary and it's been there since. I have 4 oz. of cubed Oak wine barrel staves soaking in bourbon for a week now and plan on adding both the cubes and bourbon.

At this point I'm debating on whether to add the oak & bourbon to secondary for a couple of months or to keg it this weekend and just add them to the keg. Either way I plan on it going into a keg, force carbing and then bottling from the keg after 3 0r 4 months.

Would appreciate and input from those of you who have experience in either or both techniques.

Recipe:

Batch size: 4.5 gal.

16 lb. Muntons 2-row pale
1 lb. Weyermans Munich
.81 lb. Carafoam
.5 lb. Victory
.35 lb. British Dark Crystal
.45 lb. Acidulated malt.

Single infusion mash @150 F / 90 minutes
1.25 qt./lb.
Batch Sparge / 60 minute Boil

40 gm. Magnum 11.1% @ 60
40 gm. Chinook 10.21% @ 60
14 gm. Amarillo 7.13% @ 20
14 gm. Willamette 4.8% @ 20
14 gm. Amarillo 7.13% @ 10
14 gm. Willamette 4.8% @ 10

23 gm. Safale US-05, Rehydrated
Ferment @ 65 F.

Thanks in advance,

Bob
 
Why bottle from the keg? Wanna use the beer gun, eh? ;)

I have no experience with either technique, but if I were doing it for the first time, I'd do the aging/infusing in the secondary, pull tasting samples until it's good, then keg, carb, and bottle. To properly carb the beer in the keg will take a few additional weeks before you can bottle, and those extra 2-3 weeks of carbing and conditioning might over-oak your BW more than you intended.

Just my .02. Congrats on the attenuation! :mug:
 
Oh, why the acidulated malt? Is that based off of a commercial example? What do you hope to gain from the .45 lbs?
 
What toast level is the oak? With the bourbon soak of 4oz, you'll want to taste it after just a week (maybe two) so that you can see where it's at. You could, also, try adding just 2oz (or less) of the oak at first so that you don't give it too much, too fast. IMO, better to add less of the flavor element and have it in there longer, getting what you want. Otherwise, if you add too much at the start, it could become too much and then you'll be looking at a long aging time in order to get it to mellow to the point where you'll be happy drinking it.

So far, I've used medium toast oak chips and cubes. I used the chips in my first two batches, going with .75oz in ~5 gallons both times. I didn't soak them in bourbon (or any alcohol), just boiled some water, had them in a sanitized jar, and poured the hot water over them. I closed the jar up and let them cool to a safe temp (room temp) before pouring it all in (tea and all)... Got nice flavors that way. Right now I have a wee heavy sitting on 1.5oz of medium toast Hungarian oak cubes that I treated the same way. I added those almost two weeks ago now. I plan on letting them go until at least next week (giving it 3 weeks minimum) before tasting the batch. IF it tastes ready, I'll bottle it up. Otherwise, it will go another week, or more. I also might add more oak cubes (have the other 1.5oz from the first bag) to the batch and let it go another 3-4 weeks. I might soak those in some bourbon, although I kind of doubt it (since I don't have any right now)...

I would just advise caution when adding strong flavor elements. A small amount of bourbon, if you pour that into the batch, can be a very powerful flavor element.
 
Thanks for the replies. Think I'll heed your advice and add the oak & bourbon to the carboy and monitior the flavor. Main reason I was thinking about the keg thing was to expose the brew to oxygen one less time.

Btw, the oak isn't toasted. The only hint of color is from red wine.

Bob
 
All the oak cubes/chips I've seen have been at least a light toast level... I don't think you would want to use untoasted oak in a batch... You get different flavors and characteristics from the different toast levels, not really any color. At least not in the brews I've used them in. Then again, my brews were fairly dark already (my old ale and barley wine so far)... I'll report back when I bottle up my wee heavy that's sitting on some cubes.
 
I second everything Golddiggie is saying.

I definitely think you should go into the keg so that you can easily taste it every once in awhile so you know when to pull the oak out or bottle.

You may even want to not add the bourbon at first but save it and set it aside, and then add later on when you feel like it's "packaging" time.
 
I opened a bottle about 2 weeks ago. Just couldn't wait to taste. It has almost a Cream Sherry tone to it, no hot alcohol and very well balanced too. I have it under the house in a cooler where the temp. has been in the mid 70s. Not going to touch it until thanksgiving. I'll let y'all know how it is with some age.

Bob
 
I keep a mason jar of oak chips and bourbon in my cupboard. When I oak something, I just add the oaked bourbon to taste. Works very well, like an oak extract.

I'm sure you'll have a very pleasant Thanksgiving!
 
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