I'm Thinking... 09/09/09 Barleywine

[mrkristofo]

For those of you that made a smaller beer (2nd mash) with the grains, what kind of gravity did you pull off of it? Did you add some more grains?

School's been keeping me busy...I'll be brewing this in a week. Cheers.

 

[olllllo]

1040+, but that was a combination of 2 brewers runoffs and who the hell cares mentality.

 

[STAD]

I want to give barleywine another try because it's not often that I don't like a certain beer (with the exception of most malt liquor). Is there an easily accessible brand I should try?

 

[TexLaw]

I know this is REALLY off topic and I'm probably going to get flamed here but....

I've only had Barleywine once (Sierra Nevada, Bigfoot) and I almost hated it. Is this considered a good barleywine, or did I just have a bad experience...

As an American Barleywine, it's pretty much the prototype. However, it does change a bit from year to year. Age and care also matter. A 2008, right now, will be different from a 2007 and 2006, and so on, for any or all of those reasons. Nowadays, there are many, many American Barleywines to choose from on the market.

English Barleywines are almost a different style, altogether.

To get back to your question, yes, Bigfoot is considered a good barleywine. You may have had a bad experience, or you just may be someone that doesn't care for American Barleywines. There are such people!


TL

 

[STAD]

You may have had a bad experience, or you just may be someone that doesn't care for American Barleywines. There are such people!


TL

That's what I'm thinking, I just figured it was blasphemy to dislike it given the hype.

 

[Warrior]

For those of you that made a smaller beer (2nd mash) with the grains, what kind of gravity did you pull off of it? Did you add some more grains?

School's been keeping me busy...I'll be brewing this in a week. Cheers.

I added another 7 1/2 lbs of grain for an ESB. Ended up with a gravity of 1.064 in the ESB my target was 1.056. I estimate that the 2nd runnings contrbuted about .025 points to the beer, next time I'll use about 6 lbs of additional grains. Both batches were 5 1/2 gal batches.

 

[nealf]

For those of you that made a smaller beer (2nd mash) with the grains, what kind of gravity did you pull off of it? Did you add some more grains?

School's been keeping me busy...I'll be brewing this in a week. Cheers.

3.5 gallons or so of 1.045 if I'm not too mistaken... it was getting late and I didn't bother to take a gravity reading post boil; I used my homegrown hops and some other random stuff... who knows how it'll turn out. Probably gonna suck but whatever, its better than just trashing it I guess.

 

[Chriso]

Sweet. 19 minutes till flameout.

This is one "angry" beer, boil-wise. Thicker than **** soup! I wasn't really sure the entire Lb of candi sugar was even going to dissolve, but it did!

'Ats a lot of grain for 3 gallons!!!!

Update: 3 Gallons net, exactly. Now to see the grav.

Update 2: Disappointing. Just disappointing. Only 1.105. I missed the mark by nearly 20 pts. What. The. Firkin.

Hope my someday-to-be-recipients don't mind getting a wussy loser weak beer. Only 10.5-11.0% ABV, and that's IF it makes it down to 1.020-1.025 like I want it to. (Cmonnnn Cry Havoc yeast cake, do your schtuff!) If it stalls at 1.030, we're talking a 9.8% beer. LAAAAME.

Here's what I wound up going with:
10.5 lbs Pale Malt
1 lbs Munich Malt
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
4.0 oz Special Roast
1 lbs Candi Sugar, Clear (0.5 SRM)

1.75 oz Chinook [10.50 %] (90 min)
1.00 oz Centennial [8.00 %] (20 min)
1.00 oz Centennial [8.00 %] (5 min)

Might dry hop with Cascade.

 

[eddie]

Yeah, my efficiency took a pounding too. I think I ended up at 61% when all was said and done.

 

[FSR402]

Boil up some DME and get it in there just after the fermentation takes off. That is if it really bothers yo that much.
Or we can pair up and I'll send my 16% with your 10%

 

[niquejim]

For those of you that made a smaller beer (2nd mash) with the grains, what kind of gravity did you pull off of it? Did you add some more grains?

School's been keeping me busy...I'll be brewing this in a week. Cheers.

I made 3+/- gallons of BW @ 1.104 then added 1lb pale, .5 pale chocolate malt and .25 crystal 50/60 and got 5 gallons of 1.032 mild

Yeah, my efficiency took a pounding too. I think I ended up at 61% when all was said and done.

Big beers are a challenge. I was shooting for 1.112 and didn't quite make it

 

[FSR402]

Racked the 999BW onto 3oz of house roast oak cubes that I had soaked on Bourbon for two weeks.
The FG was 1.040 so with my starting gravity of 1.150 that puts me at 14.5%abv

the sample tasted great and not hot at all which I was shocked by. :rockin:

 

[BierMuncher]

Brew Tracking as of 10/3

Once you've completed your brew session, PM me so I can track the progress of all the participants.

Here's what I have so far. If I've missed your session, let me know.

I've removed individuals who have been absent from HBT for four weeks or more.


Alamo_Beer - (Brewed 8/16)
Amiaji - (Brewed 9/8)
Beerrific - (Brewed 9/6)
beerthirty - (Brewed 9/7)
BierMuncher - (Brewed 8/27)
Bike N Brew
Brewpastor
Brewsmith
BuffaloSabresBrewer
CBBaron - (Brewed 9/19)
chriso - (Brewed 10/03)
conpewter – (Brewed 8/24)
Couevas – (Brewed 8/4)
DeathBrewer
deathweed – (Brewed 8/26)
Displaced MassHole
Doog_Si_Reeb - (Brewed 9/7)
eddie - (Brewed 8/31)
EdWort
Evan!
EvilTOJ - (Brewed 9/8)
FSR402 - (Brewed 9-7-08)
Glibbidy
hagbardceline
Hagen – (Brewed 8/23)
HarvInSTL
jds
jfrizzell
jmulligan - (Brewed 9/13)
Kai
Kilted Brewer - (Brewed 7/13)
KingBrianI - (Brewed 9/6)
korndog - (Brewed 9/23)
Liquidicem - (Brewed 9/1)
MikeFlynn74 - (Brewed 9/28)
mmb
MNBugeater - (Brewed 9/6)
mrkristofo
Mustangj - (Brewed 9/21)
nealf - (Brewed 9/14)
niquejim - (Brewed 9/29)
olllllo - (Brewed 9/7)
Ooompa Loompa
Pirate Ale - (Brewed 9/6)
Ridemywideglide - (Brewed 8/31)
Saccharomyces - (Brewed 9/13)
SporkD2 - (Brewed 9/4)
Stratotankard - (Brewed 9/13)
TerapinChef
TexLaw (Brewed 9/21)
the_bird
uglygoat - (Brewed 9/28)
Warrior = (Brewed 9/27)
wedge421
wildwest450 - (Brewed 9/12)
xiang – (Brewed 8/26)

 

[Poppy360]

Mine is mashing right now.

 

[Ridemywideglide]

Racked the 999BW onto 3oz of house roast oak cubes that I had soaked on Bourbon for two weeks.
The FG was 1.040 so with my starting gravity of 1.150 that puts me at 14.5%abv

the sample tasted great and not hot at all which I was shocked by. :rockin:

1.150???? Holy ****.. :rockin:

 

[Poppy360]

Wow, I only made it to .102

 

[FSR402]

Wow, I only made it to .102

don't feel bad, to hit that I had like a 6 hour boil. Treated the brew like it was a 10 gallon batch and boiled it down. On the plus side, it gave me enough time to make 20 more gallons that day.

 

[TexLaw]

Why is everyone so freaked out about pushing this beer as high as possible? I shot for and nailed a nice 1.099 (for the 9-9). This is only a one-year swap, not something we want to age until the turn of the century!


TL

 

[mmb]

Why is everyone so freaked out about pushing this beer as high as possible? I shot for and nailed a nice 1.099 (for the 9-9). This is only a one-year swap, not something we want to age until the turn of the century!


TL

As this will be my first beer I'm shooting for 1.100, I'm curious what type of hit I'm going to take on my efficiency.

What is everyone getting on this brew and what is your average? I'm averaging right around 79% right now using an equal volume double batch sparge @ 180. I'm concerned that if I low ball it too much I'll be really out of wack one way or the other.

 

[Chriso]

So far, most people seem to be reporting about 10% drop in efficiency. I got about 60.5% on my batch, wrote the recipe for 70%. Usually average about 68% on regular batches, sometimes higher, sometimes a lot lower.

 

[Beerrific]

Why is everyone so freaked out about pushing this beer as high as possible? I shot for and nailed a nice 1.099 (for the 9-9). This is only a one-year swap, not something we want to age until the turn of the century!


TL

Yeah, good point. I was shooting for the OG in the recipe but (being my first high gravity beer) my efficiency took a dive. I ended up hitting 1.099 and figured since it was the 9-9-9 brew that was a sign it was meant to be.

 

[uglygoat]

1.110-1.1120 mine was in between there. so 65% according to the recipe. good 'nuff.

 

[korndog]

I know I am going to want to brighten this beer up at serving time. I really like dry hopped Am. barleywines, so I think I will keep this in keg until next year at which point I will dry hop or add a hop tea before bottling. Does that sound like a sound strategy?

 

[CBBaron]

Why is everyone so freaked out about pushing this beer as high as possible? I shot for and nailed a nice 1.099 (for the 9-9). This is only a one-year swap, not something we want to age until the turn of the century!


TL

The recipe decided on targeted 1.119, so that was my target. I wasn't going to worry too much if it was +/- 20 points from that. And while our target is 1 year I hope to save a few of these for years in the future to see how a big beer can age.

It seems this beer is being brewed with a lot more variation than the 08-08-08. I guess with a target gravity this far outside of what most brewers have done that should be expected. I don't suspect I will brew this big again any time soon.

Craig

 

[Saccharomyces]

I've only had Barleywine once (Sierra Nevada, Bigfoot) and I almost hated it. Is this considered a good barleywine, or did I just have a bad experience...

Over the top hops, it's not a good example of a barleywine IMO. Anchor Old Foghorn is a middle of the road American Barleywine which is not too hard to find.

 

[Saccharomyces]

I know I am going to want to brighten this beer up at serving time. I really like dry hopped Am. barleywines, so I think I will keep this in keg until next year at which point I will dry hop or add a hop tea before bottling. Does that sound like a sound strategy?

I'm planning to drop an ounce of centennial whole leaf hops into the keg immediately prior to carbonation and then bottle the whole keg a few weeks later.

 

[Saccharomyces]

For those of you that made a smaller beer (2nd mash) with the grains, what kind of gravity did you pull off of it? Did you add some more grains?

I ran off an extra three gallons for my Mr. Beer fermenter and threw in random hops I had leftover from previous batches at 60 and 10. I fermented with a little bit of yeast from one of the three packages I pitched into the barleywine. I didn't measure the OG or FG, either though the pre-boil grav was 1.053 before topping off so I think it will be ESB strength. It'll probably be the best beer I ever made and I will have zero chance of replicating it.

 

[Warrior]

I know I am going to want to brighten this beer up at serving time. I really like dry hopped Am. barleywines, so I think I will keep this in keg until next year at which point I will dry hop or add a hop tea before bottling. Does that sound like a sound strategy?

I'll be using the French press method for both the aroma and flavor hop additions.

 

[Warrior]

The recipe decided on targeted 1.119, so that was my target. I wasn't going to worry too much if it was +/- 20 points from that. And while our target is 1 year I hope to save a few of these for years in the future to see how a big beer can age.

It seems this beer is being brewed with a lot more variation than the 08-08-08. I guess with a target gravity this far outside of what most brewers have done that should be expected. I don't suspect I will brew this big again any time soon.

Craig

I'll be brewing a Thomas Hardy's clone style again sometime in the next month, that came in @ 1.132. Didn't end up with as much as i wanted the 1st time and that's why I'll be making it again.

 

[korndog]

I'm planning to drop an ounce of centennial whole leaf hops into the keg immediately prior to carbonation and then bottle the whole keg a few weeks later.

I'll be using the French press method for both the aroma and flavor hop additions.

Both sound good. it think I might experiment with the French Press method between now and packaging time on some other beers. It seems like a good way to maximize your utilization. I am told Vinnie uses only hop extracts in Pliny now.

 

[Saccharomyces]

Both sound good. it think I might experiment with the French Press method between now and packaging time on some other beers. It seems like a good way to maximize your utilization. I am told Vinnie uses only hop extracts in Pliny now.

I may use the FPR method in lieu of dry hopping depending on the results I get when I try it for my late hop IIPA.

 

[niquejim]

As this will be my first beer I'm shooting for 1.100, I'm curious what type of hit I'm going to take on my efficiency.

What is everyone getting on this brew and what is your average? I'm averaging right around 79% right now using an equal volume double batch sparge @ 180. I'm concerned that if I low ball it too much I'll be really out of wack one way or the other.

Figure a drop of 7-10%. If you get better if not you'll still have a BIG beer

 

[eddie]

Anybody else thinking about what they plan on sending with the 999? I'm planning on sending some strong scotch ale and maybe a rye IPA, roggenbier or English mild. I haven't decided yet. Maybe I'll just give my assigned recipients a choice of the three depending on what I have available at shipping time.

 

[Saccharomyces]

I'll be sending whatever is really good on tap at the time plus some Real Ale beers, I really like their stuff!

 

[HarvInSTL]

Mark mine down as half brewed. I knocked out one 5 gallon batch today. OG came in at 23 Brix before the candi sugar addition.

I should have time to brew the original recipe tomorrow.

Should have these done sooner but life gets in the way.

 

[wildwest450]

How long should this sit in secondary? I don't normally secondary, but I need the keg space right now. It took a month, but it went from 1.114 to 1.031, 10.93%

 

[BierMuncher]

Brew Tracking as of 10/12

Once you've completed your brew session, PM me so I can track the progress of all the participants.

Here's what I have so far. If I've missed your session, let me know.

I've removed individuals who have been absent from HBT for four weeks or more.


Alamo_Beer - (Brewed 8/16)
Amiaji - (Brewed 9/8)
Beerrific - (Brewed 9/6)
beerthirty - (Brewed 9/7)
BierMuncher - (Brewed 8/27)
Bike N Brew
Brewpastor
Brewsmith
BuffaloSabresBrewer
CBBaron - (Brewed 9/19)
chriso - (Brewed 10/03)
conpewter – (Brewed 8/24)
Couevas – (Brewed 8/4)
DeathBrewer
deathweed – (Brewed 8/26)
Doog_Si_Reeb - (Brewed 9/7)
eddie - (Brewed 8/31)
EdWort
Evan!
EvilTOJ - (Brewed 9/8)
FSR402 - (Brewed 9-7-08)
Glibbidy
Hagen – (Brewed 8/23)
HarvInSTL - (Brewed 10/12)
jfrizzell
jmulligan - (Brewed 9/13)
Kai
Kilted Brewer - (Brewed 7/13)
KingBrianI - (Brewed 9/6)
korndog - (Brewed 9/23)
Liquidicem - (Brewed 9/1)
MikeFlynn74 - (Brewed 9/28)
mmb
MNBugeater - (Brewed 9/6)
mrkristofo
Mustangj - (Brewed 9/21)
nealf - (Brewed 9/14)
niquejim - (Brewed 9/29)
olllllo - (Brewed 9/7)
Ooompa Loompa
Pirate Ale - (Brewed 9/6)
Ridemywideglide - (Brewed 8/31)
Saccharomyces - (Brewed 9/13)
SporkD2 - (Brewed 9/4)
Stratotankard - (Brewed 9/13)
SUMO - (Brewed 10/12)
TerapinChef
TexLaw (Brewed 9/21)
the_bird
uglygoat - (Brewed 9/28)
Warrior = (Brewed 9/27)
wedge421
wildwest450 - (Brewed 9/12)
xiang – (Brewed 8/26)

 

[KingBrianI]

looks like about 65% of people have brewed if my kindergarten-level counting skills held true.

how long do people typically dry hop? ive never dry hopped and think this might be a good candidate. i was thinking about 1 oz. in the 4 gal. batch for two weeks. sound good?

 

[niquejim]

looks like about 65% of people have brewed if my kindergarten-level counting skills held true.

how long do people typically dry hop? ive never dry hopped and think this might be a good candidate. i was thinking about 1 oz. in the 4 gal. batch for two weeks. sound good?

As long as it is the 2 weeks prior to bottling to maximize the length of time the flavor lasts in the bottle. After a year in the bottle it probably will be greatly reduced

 

[TerapinChef]

Well I brewed my starter batch today, a Marris Otter/Tettanang SmAsH so next week i'll be finally knocking this one out...