My First BarleyWine

[David_Trucks]

I'm not saying you should take gravity readings RIGHT NOW. I'm saying relax for a few weeks, then take your readings when it's close to time for bottling.


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[JINKS]

Give it time. There's really no need for so many gravity readings. Each time just exposes your beer to more oxygen.

I've only taken one gravity reading.
Gets a gravity reading Sunday because I'm pulling it out of the ferment chamber and moving it from a 5 gal carboy to a 3 gallon carboy for long term bulk conditioning in the bedroom closet at 70ish degrees.

 

[JINKS]

I'm not saying you should take gravity readings RIGHT NOW. I'm saying relax for a few weeks, then take your readings when it's close to time for bottling.


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Next reading Sunday then I'm gonna transfer it to a smaller carboy (3gallon) and will not look at it again until it has bulk conditioned to December.

I may bottle around Xmas, I'll see how its tasting then.
Still putting co2 through the airlock 1 per minute. Got to be getting close to the max tolerance of the Nottingham Yeast.
I was pretty sure I read somewhere in here that Nottingham tolerance was 12-13% and I'm interested to see if Notty can take it to 1.029 as predicted by BF site. I can't find anything official from Danstar though.

 

[Jtownbrewery]

Sounds nice really want to know how this turns out I've made three barley wines myself and just love when they turn out amazing keep on posting

 

[JINKS]

Still in chamber at 70° F. Introduced a friend to home brewing, I'll be going over to his house Saturday morning to help him make his first Brewers Best kit. English Pale Ale.

 

[JINKS]

Still getting airlock movement (about 1 per 5 min) which to me is amazing. I usually stop seeing airlock movement at around day 3 or 4 not day 12.
I guess that means that the Nottingham yeast is still doing its job.
Not going to raise temp anymore. Plan on letting it sit it out at 70ish maybe a tad colder as winter sets in a few months from now.

 

[JINKS]

Racked from the 5 gallon to the 3 gallon carboy today. Took a gravity reading also and the pics have the results.
Now I won't even look at it till maybe sometime in September and I will probably take another gravity reading then.


On a tasting note: Please keep in mind I don't have a tasters tongue, it seems to have smoothed way out.
The last tasted sample reminded me of rubbing alcohol with sugar in it (I had to rinse out my mouth), now this one is absolutely tolerable and if it keeps up the trend will be absolutely delicious in a few months.

 

[Trox]

Sorry I'm a little late on this, but you should have made sure that fermentation was all the way done before racking over to a secondary. Chances are if it wasn't done you stalled out the fermentation when you transferred over. Of course since you mentioned adding champagne yeast a few days before bottling so that might take care of anything left over.

Otherwise sounds like a great beer that will be really good during winter 2015.

 

[JINKS]

The original recipe says 1.029 for a final gravity so I figured that 1.030 was close enough to rack. I'm working on the assumption that the yeast in suspension and what I may have sucked from the bottom of the 5 gallon will continue (albeit slowly) to bring the final down a few points more over the next few months.

 

[JINKS]

Interesting to see the color change with the flocculation of the yeast.

 

[JINKS]

UPDATE: got a bottle to house above Wae Heavy. I plan on building a nice wood box to house the bottle to keep out light. Plan to break open on my 50th birthday April 2017
Thats the 3 gallon glass carboy (gasp!) sitting next to it.

 

[JINKS]

And with the label. Full 8.5" X 11" sheet of sticky paper.
Found blue aluminum foil for the neck when I bottle. Still have wire cage for holding the cork too, although I'm not using the original cork I will probably go synthetic.

 

[JINKS]

Just put this in a Keg today and gravity tested at 1.030 so no real change from when I racked it. Tastes good but flat as to be expected, and hooey alcohol warm. This one's gonna be great next Christmas.

Now the thousand dollar question which alcohol calculator is correct?
Brewcalcs

andy's

Beersmith

Brewers Friend

Daves dreaded

Homebrewdad

I was using brewcalcs but as it differs hugely from the others. Guess I'll switch.

 

[rodwha]

I noticed the major color change too.

I've yet to try a barleywine, but did recently bottle an American version of an old ale (8%). I don't have a proper sized Better Bottle to bulk age though so I kept it in primary 6-7 weeks.

That bottle looks HUGE! What is the volume?

 

[JINKS]

I noticed the major color change too.

I've yet to try a barleywine, but did recently bottle an American version of an old ale (8%). I don't have a proper sized Better Bottle to bulk age though so I kept it in primary 6-7 weeks.

That bottle looks HUGE! What is the volume?

6 liter 1.585 gallon.

 

[rodwha]

Wow! That thing is HUGE! Where did you get it?

 

[JINKS]

Wow! That thing is HUGE! Where did you get it?

Ebay $25.00 Got a 5 liter and a 3 liter wine bottles also under $25 bucks each unfortunately they can't take beer pressure so I'll use them for mead or wine or something.

Here is one on sale now
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Large-Empty...276?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19f7a81564

 

[rodwha]

That's bear sized right there!

 

[rodwha]

$99 plus $19 for shipping?!?! Empty!?!?

 

[JINKS]

$99 plus $19 for shipping?!?! Empty!?!?

They are rare, I had the one I got in a watch list. She had it at auction with a 100 dollar starting bid. There were no takers, so when she re-listed it with no minimum bid, I got it for $25.00

 

[JINKS]

$99 plus $19 for shipping?!?! Empty!?!?

http://www.wiredforwine.com/featured-wine/veuve-clicquot-brut-champagne-methuselah-6-liter

Check this price out.

 

[rodwha]

A little much for me (volume) as I typically drink most beer by myself as SWMBO goes for the cranberry and vodka or wine simply for the reduced calories/carbs.

I might act foolish if I popped that open myself! Even with a 5% beer there's just no telling!

Still really cool though. And it would be worthwhile if I knew others would drink it with me. Maybe a Christmas party at grandma's... There's a few who'll appreciate a craft beer.

 

[rodwha]

I can see how they may want to get some of their money back! Wow! Holy smokes Batman!

 

[JINKS]

Going to break in my Blichman's beer gun Sunday and bottle this monster. Will give my interpretation of taste with it cold and carbonated that evening.

 

[JINKS]

In another thread we were having a ABV discussion and KidLightning gave me this info.

The ABV calculation is not linear. Use the "alternate" calculator on Brewer's Friend to get a more accurate ABV calculation at that high of a starting gravity. Using your numbers it spits out 14.25%:

A more complex equation which attempts to provide greater accuracy at higher gravities is:

ABV =(76.08 * (og-fg) / (1.775-og)) * (fg / 0.794)

Also, I'm glad you're seeing numbers like this. I have plans to brew a 3 gallon batch of Imperial Stout soon that should be about 1.120 OG and I was hoping to get it around 14% ABV with Nottingham. I'm going to age 1 gallon on bourbon-soaked oak chips, 1 gallon on rye-soaked vanilla bean, and either leave the last gallon as-is, or age it on something else (coffee, cacao nibs, rye-soaked blackberries, pinot noir-soaked oak chips).

 

[rodwha]

Odd. I've not seen this, but have only seen the OG-FG * 131 to come up with the alcohol content.

 

[JINKS]

Odd. I've not seen this, but have only seen the OG-FG * 131 to come up with the alcohol content.

It is the only formula that comes close to the 14% abv and I'm to cheap to send a sample to a lab to get a real abv.

I do know that from the small sample I drank while checking the FG it has definitely got some (read a lot of) kick.

 

[rodwha]

I wouldn't bother sending it out to be tested either.

 

[JINKS]

Life has gotten in the way so this is still sitting in the keg under co2 waiting for me to get to it. Eventually all the little annoyances will go away and I'll get this bottled and tasted.

 

[JINKS]

Well it's been about a year. Sampled last night for flavor and it has one. Still a good warmth from the alcohol and an OK flavor, not something I'm that fond of, so I just bottled a few of these from the keg. I'll sit on these for quite a while before trying again. The rest of it went to feed the drainfield.