My Barleywine is too sweet

[manoaction]

In July I brewed a barleywine that went from 1113 to 1026, and now it's powerfully sweet. Rich carmel flavors and a little sickeningly sweet.

Is there anything that can be done? Can I dry hop in some bitterness to balance the sweetness?

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Dry-hopping doesn't add bitterness. You could get a hop shot and squirt it in there. It is what some super hoppy beers are bittered with (Pliny the younger) to help with loss due to hop absorption. I have never used one though, so can't give first hand experience

 

[motobrewer]

what was the hop bill? a 1.113 -> 1.026 barleywine shouldn't be sweet unless it was under-bittered.

as mentioned, dry hopping won't help that problem. hop shot might. never used it.

 

[RandomBeerGuy]

Just boil some hops in a small amount of water boil for 60 min and add it.

 

[heywatchthis]

Just boil some hops in a small amount of water boil for 60 min and add it.

+1...this is how to fix it.

 

[GuldTuborg]

Oaking may help, too, if you want to experiment with that. The tannins can help balance the sweetness. I'd pull a sample and try it on that, first, if you haven't done anything like that before.

 

[dogbar]

You could also brew a complementary hoppy beer and do a little blending. Take down your FG and up the IBUs in one shot.

 

[LexusChris]

Dropping an OG of 1.113 to 1.026 is 77% apparent attenuation. That may be the limits of the yeast strain you used. (Which yeast?)

Your problem is the FG of 1.026 ... which would definitely be sweet. FG is the amount of sugar left after fermentation.. You can add some stronger yeast, which will drop the FG further. If you can get to 85% apparanet attenuation, then you should be around 1.017 which would still be a nice body, but not so sweet.

Some Nottingham, SD Super, Champange or other high gravity yeast should help...
--LexusChris

 

[bigbeergeek]

1.113 to 1.026 is great attenuation for an all-malt barley wine. They're a somewhat sweet style. Add some table sugar to the recipe next time. A pound or two can do wonders for a barley wine.

I wouldn't waste hops or expensive extracts on a beer that you don't like very much. I like the idea of oaking it. Chips are cheap, fast and really have a "drying" effect on the drinking experience.

Remember that most barley wines are sweet, richly-malty "sippin" beers, after all... especially the ones that top 11% abv.

 

[manoaction]

I used 25lbs of Marris Otter w/1lb of Brown Sugar.

2oz of 10AA Target for 60 mins
6oz of 3.6AA Fuggle of 10 mins

I used S-04 for my yeast. After checking my notes it went from 1110 to 1025.

After a month I tossed in about 3 oz of Jack Daniels Oak chips that I had steamed and then soaked in bourbon. The oak tannins are there, but pretty hidden by the overwhelming carmel flavor.

It's not undrinkable, but I was definitely hoping for something a little drier in flavor.

It's been an interesting

 

[maskednegator]

Dry-hopping doesn't add bitterness. You could get a hop shot and squirt it in there. It is what some super hoppy beers are bittered with (Pliny the younger) to help with loss due to hop absorption. I have never used one though, so can't give first hand experience

Hopshots need to be boiled to give bitterness, they are not pre-isomerized.

 

[unionrdr]

Barley wine is supposed to be sweet,but not cloying. When I was researching Burton ales,some of the original,top shelf ones had an OG of 1.150 or more! Def going to be a little sweet. The Burton #3 ale style I'm fermenting now is a little sweet,being an intentionally lightened version of the heavy ones they brewed as top shelf ales. It made it lighter & more drinkable,as the public began to prefer. This made it the pre cursor to the pale ale style we know today that the Burton breweries now make. The Burton I'm attempting to clone is the #3 style at a hair over 7%. It's still a bit sweet,but not cloying. If you'd gotten it down to 1.022-1.024,it may've been a bit more to your liking.
But sweet is the name of the game here. It's just an original ale style if you will. It basically seems to have been-barley wine ale,Burton ale (proto pale),Then pale ale as the FG's went down & the brews dried up more.

 

[manoaction]

Would aging help at all? I suppose I need to face the fact that since I brewed in July it's only four months old. I suppose I should give it at least six months.

 

[GuldTuborg]

I recommend you ship this to me for analysis.

Seriously, though, what kinds of commercial barley wines do you usually drink? I haven't run the numbers in Beersmith, but nothing in your recipe looks off. I'm having a hard time thinking this would be overpoweringly sweet. Maybe it's just that you don't like big, sweet beers, but if you can weigh in on some commercial English (or even other types of) barley wines, at least we'd have some kind of metric to go on.

One more thing: how did you handle fermentation, i.e., pitch rate, temps, etc.

 

[motobrewer]

Would aging help at all? I suppose I need to face the fact that since I brewed in July it's only four months old. I suppose I should give it at least six months.

if it's sweet because it's under-bittered, at best aging won't do anything; at worse it'll just make it more sweet.

Your IBU:GU ratio is around .624, which is around Brown Ale levels. barleywines should be closer to 1.0

 

[GuldTuborg]

Your IBU:GU ratio is around .624, which is around Brown Ale levels. barleywines should be closer to 1.0

It's not too far off from some standard English Barley wines. JW Lees Harvest Ale, from what we know about it, looks surprisingly similar to the recipe posted above. While it's definitely a beer with a good dose of sweetness, it's not exactly syrup, either. Maybe I'm just way off base, but the bittering seems appropriate for an English barley wine. I'm guessing it's just not what the OP likes. American barley wines, with the bittering ratio you suggested, might be more his speed.

I'll renew my offer to find a happy home for this beer! Hint, hint.

Oh, and while age won't help the bittering levels, it will help the flavors round out and soften a bit. Keep it and let it age. If nothing else, you tastes may change over the next few years, and you may grow to like beers like this.

 

[Marc0]

much like manoaction - i made a barleywine that i thought at first taste was sweet - but after aging for several months, as Guld said, the flavors have rounded out a bit. It most definitely is a sipping beer! It had an OG of 1.102 and FG of 1.016.

Grain bill:
14 lb 2 row
3 lb munich
0.5 lb each crystals 30, 80, 120, chocolate, wheat
2 lb dextrose at boil

Hop schedule:
4 oz goldings 5% for 90
3 oz fuggles 4.5% for 45
2 oz goldings at 5 min to go
keg hop with 1 oz goldings

pitched on BIG edinburg ale cake from a bitter I made.

it's a big beer that's become better with age

 

[mpride1911]

Experiencing the same issue at the moment and would like to know what you ended up doing and how it turned out.

 

[skibb]

With an all basemalt grain bill + simple sugars - it could be sweet because its under attenuated.
Or maybe your boil was weak and you didn't do a good job of isomerizing your alpha acids. That amount of hops should make for plenty bitterness.

Throw some Brett in there, let it sit for a year. That's what I would do at least

 

[huhwha]

Just bottled my barleywine from the keg. OG 1.105. FG 1.015. Yeah, it's sweet and malty and boozy and delicious! Brewed the end of March, so it still needs another good 6 months or so to really round out, but I could happily drink it now. That said, this is a style I really enjoy. Don't get me wrong, I really love hops, but I'm not a big fan of the American style hopped up barleywines. Now a really hoppy imperial IPA on the other hand is quite delicious!