SWMBO wants some barley wine

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msa8967

mickaweapon
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My wife says that if I am willing to make her a barley wine that she is willing to try having another baby (at age 42). I have not attempted a grain bill this big and I have read that recipes like these can take 9-12 months to properly finish. I bought a NB kit and plugged the recipe into beersmith and showed it to her. She said that if she is going to go through childbirth birth again that the ABV and SG/IBU ratio needs to be higher. Thus, I tried modifying this recipe on beersmith and would like feedback, comments and suggestions anyone is willing to share.

I plan to try to harvest some Wyeast American 1056 from an Amber Ale that I am fermenting right now plus try to build a yeast starter for this large OG.

Barley Wine for SWMBO (All-Grain at 70% efficiency, Batch Sparge)
18.0 lb Maris Otter (4.0 SRM) 95%
0.5 lb Crystal 20 L 2.5%
0.5 lb Crystal 80 L 2.5%
3.0 oz Cascade (5.0%) 60 min 39.4 IBU
2.0 oz Williamette (4.7%) 15 min 12.2 IBU
2 packets Wyeast American Ale #1056

EST OG: 1.092
EST FG: 1.021
EST SRM: 13.3
EST ABV: 9.22%
SG/IBU: 0.563

Recipe is not that fancy but at having to wait 9 months to try the thing I thought it would be best to ask for opinions. [Should this will go into a secondary for at least 6 months before bottling?]

Thanks,

Mick
 
I just gotta tell you, your wife is AWESOME! She is begging YOU for BW! :mug:

Recipe looks simple, but delicious. Perhaps you should dry hop it a couple weeks before you bottle.
 
Should I use only Cascade or a blend of Cascade and Williamette for dry hopping? We have been married just over a year and had our first child 2 months ago. It was a very long period for her when she could not drink beer and thus, if we are going to go through this again she wants something more than just an APA or IPA waiting for her.

Thanks for the input. It is nice to have a swmbo that supports this hobby. She just gave me the book "How to Brew like a Monk" for my birthday.
 
Looks like a good recipe but I would definitely up the IBUs if I were you. Somewhere around 80 would probably be good. The bitterness will decrease as it ages and a barleywine can tend to be cloying without lots of bitterness to balance out all the malt. A blend of cascade and willamette sounds great for dry-hopping.
 
Looks like a good recipe but I would definitely up the IBUs if I were you.

i agree. i've made 5 gal batches of BW before that had a pound of hops in it. took a year for it to mellow but by then it was amazing.

Also, I think a bit of chocolate of Crystal 120 might give it some more nice red color and toast flavor.
 
I have a 1/2 lb of choc of Crystal 120 left over from a porter recipe I am making her. I will through that in. Thanks for the advice about increasing the amounts since this will be taking 9 months to finish. Would there be a better combination of hops to use than Williamette and Cascade? Even though this is a 5 gllon recipe I am going to use my 8 gallon primary bucket and a blow off tube just in case.

Thanks y'all (my wife and her family are from southern GA).
 
Sounds like your wife wants another baby, and found a way to get free beer out of the bargain. ;-)


Anyway, I'm a big fan of willamette in "big beers" like old ales and barleywines. I also like northern brewer in there as a 15m addition.
 
I'll ditto the hop choices and the C120L. If you swap out a couple pounds of MO for brown sugar, that will help the attenuation and add a little more flavor. Hold off on dry hopping until 2-3 weeks before the due date, so leave it in the secondary.
 
So can I use both Williamette and Northern Brewer as hop additions at the 15 min point? This will be the first time I have used these together.

Would taking out 4 lbs of MO and using 3 lbs of brown sugar seem like a good choice or should it be more like 3 and 2 for a substution?
 
I'd go with 2 lbs of sugar max. I think more than that could be detrimental. Willamette and northern brewer would also make a really good combo. If I was making the beer, I'd bitter with northern brewer, add willamette and northern brewer at 15 minutes and dry hop with willamette and cascade. That would make an awesome barleywine.
 
I'd go with 2 lbs of sugar max. I think more than that could be detrimental. Willamette and northern brewer would also make a really good combo. If I was making the beer, I'd bitter with northern brewer, add willamette and northern brewer at 15 minutes and dry hop with willamette and cascade. That would make an awesome barleywine.

Agreed.
 
After getting some great feedback here is the revised recipe.

Barley Wine for SWMBO (All-Grain at 70% efficiency, Batch Sparge)
14.0 lb Maris Otter (4.0 SRM) 81%
0.5 lb Crystal 20 L 3%
0.5 lb Crystal 80 L 3%
0.25 lb Crystal 120 L 1.5%
1.5 lb Light Brown Sugar 9%

2.5 oz Northern Brewer (8.5%) 60 min 53.4 IBU
1.5 oz Williamette (4.7%) 15 min 8.8 IBU
1.5 oz Northern Brewer (8.5%) 15 min 15.9 IBU
0.5 oz Williamette (Dry hop 7 days)
1.0 oz Cascade (Dry hop 7 days)

2 packets Wyeast American Ale #1056

EST OG: 1.093
EST FG: 1.022
EST SRM: 15.5
EST ABV: 9.31%
SG/IBU: 0.874

Should the dry hop last for 7 days, longer, shorter?

Thanks for everyone's input
 
That's a great recipe. 7 days for the dry hop sounds good, I wouldn't go over that since I find you begin to get vegetal flavors from the hops when they sit in there any longer. Good luck with the beer!
 
Hopefully we will be celebrating a new addition to our family using this ale to toast in a year. Thanks for all of the great advice. I feel very confident about this brew.

You should save a couple bottles for the new addition's 21st birthday. That could be a really cool gift, and I'm sure that beer will age well.
 
Looks like a great recipe! My only suggestion would be to boil for 90 minutes. I also did my first barley recently and was reminded to mash low. 148-150.
 
I mashed at 149* for 75 minutes. I only did a 90 minute boil to bring up the OG and give it more caramel notes. That reminds me. I need to rack that to a secondary today and pull a sample. My FG is at 1.022.
 
If you don't mind me asking how long did you let this go for in the primary and then in the secondary? Should it be low in carbonation when bottling and how long should it bottle condition. My store room stays about 65-66F most of the year.
 
I'll add my Barleywine experience to the mix here, I've only done one so take it for what it's worth.

-I got 65% efficiency, I normally am spot on at 83%
-My OG was 1.105, I hopped it to 87 IBU's, I wish I would have shot for about 110-120 IBU's
-I did a two hour boil and I'm really getting some Mollases notes from it,probably from Caramelization of the Special B I used.(I assume)
-I mashed at 151* for 90 minutes and it attenuated down to 1.022, and is just shy of 11% ABV, I used a Pack and a half US05
-I secondaried mine for 2 months, and half of that was on 2oz of Oak chips.

Not sure if any of that will help you, but good luck, sounds like your moving in the right direction.:mug:
 
I went 6 weeks in the primary (too long really but was out of town a lot). I plan on keeping it in the secondary for another 3 months and bottling. I will be going for 2.1 volumes on the carbonation. My OG was 1.102 with a FG of 1.022.
 
Has anyone else had a lower than typical efficiency when doing a barley wine? I usually am in the 70-75% range but I have not done a brew this big (in terms of grain bill) and thus I wonder if I should account for a less than typical efficiency when planning this brew.

Thanks again for all the advice. I am picking up a lot of good tips to use on this brew. Not quite sure what I should do brewing wise if we end up having twins.

Mick
 
Mine eff was at 60% where I have been getting 65-70% drop.

I would say to make two batches. One for you and one for the kid on his 21 bday.
 
One thing I have not decided on yet is whether or not to add any yeast when this brew is transferred to the secondary. I read in another thread in this forum where someone asked about adding a small amount of yeast into the secondary upon racking.

Anyone have an opinion on this?
 
IMO if you plan to bottle it I would add some yeast to the bottling bucket along with the sugar. I had a RIS that I had to open all the bottles after 6 months of aging because they didn't carb. I washed some of the yeast from my batch and plan on creating a starter and adding that before bottling.
 
IMO if you plan to bottle it I would add some yeast to the bottling bucket along with the sugar. I had a RIS that I had to open all the bottles after 6 months of aging because they didn't carb. I washed some of the yeast from my batch and plan on creating a starter and adding that before bottling.

Yeah I would definitely add more at bottling time, but not when you transfer to secondary. If you pitch the proper amount you shouldn't have to add more. But by the time it's ready for bottling it will pretty stressed, so adding a little for carbing up is a good idea.
 
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