Iraqi Barleywine...

[HHP]

I'm leaving for Iraq in a little under a month, and am thinking about brewing a huge beer (1.150?) to have sitting in the secondary the whole deployment. (8-12 months)

It will obviously have to be supplemented by DME, but i'm curious what kind of grain bill is recommended.

Also, do I need a special "high gravity" yeast?

Can I get a beer that big into the secondary in two weeks or less?

I am looking for any input possible on this.

Thanks!

 

[shamrockdoc]

do I need a special "high gravity" yeast

An adjunct you should try should be burnt trash and baby **** ...take ya right back to the streets of Baghdad.

I would try a WLP028

http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp028.html

 

[RIT_Warrior]

I know that Dogfishead gets its 120 minute IPA up high by brewing a lower gravity beer first and then feeding sugar into the primary. I believe they also use several kinds of yeast, although you could probably get away with only one kind. White Labs makes a "super high gravity" ale yeast, and Wyeast has a high gravity Belgian, so you could check out those strains if you like.

I'd probably brew a normal beer with one of those yeasts and then transfer the barleywine straight on the yeast cake to really get things moving quickly.

 

[HexKrak]

White labs and wyeast have good "high gravity" beer yeasts.

There was a bunch of barley wine recipe suggestions in this thread
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/he...emorial-5-year-aged-barleywine-recipe-195096/

 

[HHP]

An adjunct you should try should be burnt trash and baby **** ...take ya right back to the streets of Baghdad.

That couldn't be closer to the truth...

 

[shamrockdoc]

That couldn't be closer to the truth...

You never forget that smell.

 

[Frankfurtvr4]

I am 57.94 days from drinking my Barley. I brewed it in early August. Will clear out a six pack on midtour and finish it off at the end of the year.

 

[shamrockdoc]

I am 57.94 days from drinking my Barley. I brewed it in early August. Will clear out a six pack on midtour and finish it off at the end of the year.

Short-timer! congrats ...or is this till mid-tour?

 

[Frankfurtvr4]

Mid, It does mark the six month point though. I will start the unit redeployment when I come back.

 

[smokinghole]

I just recently did a 1.152 RIS. I started with a high alcohol strain from white labs the WLP001 which is very smiliar to wlp028. Then I added two 2L cultures of wlp099 and still had it stall at 1.050ish. I recently just got a 5L flask so either I'm going to build up another large culture of wlp099 or I'm going to brew a lower gravity 1.060ish stout to drop my bit RIS on.

Also another piece of advice. I would brew a nice high gravity wort at like 1.100 or up to 1.130 then run the gravity higher with sugar. I used real dark Indian jaggery. It was labeled Kitul and had a wonderful flavor and super dark color.

Use yeast nutrient and LOTS of oxygen pure oxygen if you can swing it, and give it a second injection around the 18hour mark too. A big beer like this is a lot of work, long boil, lots of tedious yeast care and such.

 

[HHP]

I can't swing pure oxygen, but I will aerate right before pitch, and aerate again 18 hrs in? My Aeration method is manual swishing with a kitchen instrument...

Sugar over DME? Rice extract?

 

[smokinghole]

Corn sugar, table sugar, turbinado, pincollio, jaggery (indian grocery store), date or maple (cost prohibitive). Some are more flavorful choices than others the unrefined will add something where the corn sugar, or table sugar will just add alcohol. You can even use candy sugars that they use in belgian beers.

I would shy away from brown sugar because typical brown sugar in the grocery store is just simply refined sugar with molasses added back for the color and moisture content.

 

[shamrockdoc]

I can't swing pure oxygen, but I will aerate right before pitch, and aerate again 18 hrs in? My Aeration method is manual swishing with a kitchen instrument...

Sugar over DME? Rice extract?

Ask your medic if he can give up an O2 bottle for the weekend. Turbinado has good off-flavors plus its a cheaper alt to belgian candi

 

[BierSnob]

You could use 2 yeasts. Start with an Irish ale yeast in the primary and then add a Champagne yeast in the secondary to finish it.

 

[HHP]

Ask your medic if he can give up an O2 bottle for the weekend. Turbinado has good off-flavors plus its a cheaper alt to belgian candi

Thats a really good idea, the wife and I are actually having him over for dinner tomorrow, so I might be able to make that happen...

Yeah ill look around at recipes, im not brewing it till next weekend, but going to brew the pre-barleywine tomorrow...

I'll update when I have details...

 

[HHP]

OK,

I came up with the recipe for the starter beer, and it turned into a bigger beer than anticipated (I just dont like the thought of purposefully brewing a "session" beer), estimated OG at 1.072

Will this get out of the primary and get a proper yeast cake for the huge beer in 1 week?

Grainbill:
10lbs 2-row
10lbs maris otter
4lbs melanoidian
1lb crystal 40l

I can back off on it if need be, but i'm heading down to the store in an hour or two.

 

[HHP]

OK,

I'm ready to brew the barleywine, but the pre-batch is not there yet. It started out at 1.068, and I pitched my only 16 hour old starter sunday (1/9) morning. I checked the gravity yesterday evening and it was only down to 1.040, and was at "full krauzen" (I think). I was hoping to brew on saturday, but I don't think it will be ready...

What gravity do I need to get it down to before transferring to the secondary?

Is there anything I can do to speed it up, so that I can brew this weekend some time, this is critical, because the barleywine needs to get started!

I'm going to add a little yeast energizer to it and hope that speeds it up?

 

[naamanf]

I brewed up a imperial stout and threw it in a corny with some bourbon soaked oak before I left for this deployment. I have been looking forward to trying it for the last 11 months. One month to go. Hope it doesn't taste like oaked crap