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Noob wants to make a barley wine
I'm a relative newbie to brewing. I've made about 6 or 7 batches (all of which were either extract only or partial mash). I've always just followed recipes from folks at my local home brew shop. Now I want to make a barley wine and want to try my own recipe. I've come up with my recipe using Beer Smith and a few books and other research. I was hoping I could get some opinions (be gentle given that I'm a newbie) on the recipe.
Title: Mantou's 1st (in honor of my son's first birthday)
Batch size: 3 gallons
Malt:
9 lbs pale liquid extract
8 oz CaraPils
2 oz Chocolate
Hops:
1.5 oz Chinook (60 min)
1 oz Cascade (25 min)
1 oz Cascade (10 min)
.25 oz Cascade (dry hop)
.25 oz Chinook (dry hop)
.25 oz Centennial (dry hop)
Yeast:
Safale US-05
Estimated OG: 1.109
Estimated FG: 1.025
IBU: 97
Estimated ABV: 10.99%
Thoughts?
I like my barley wines with fewer IBU. With 100 IBU, you're making one like Bigfoot. As long as that's what you're into, you should be good. Use plenty of oxygen, maybe two packets of yeast, and try to control your fermentation temperature.
Be sure to treat your yeast right. As a newer brewer this can't be empasized enough.
I'd actually recommend making a batch of 1.040 Pale ale first, then pitching a good pint of that yeast cake into this barleywine attempt. If you don't have an aeration/oxygenation setup plan on shaking that wort for 5-10minutes before pitching yeast, and get it to 65F at least when you do so.
I'd sub out some of the carapils for a higher lovibond crystal malt. You're already getting the dextrines from the malt, you might as well get some flavor and color from it as well.
I'd also sub some corn sugar for the malt extract. US05 is a higher attenuator than its liquid yeast counterparts but malt extract tends to be less fermentable than you want it to be. Jamil's rule of thumb is using corn sugar up to 10% in an extract recipe to attain the final gravity you're looking for. The last thing you want is a beer stuck at 1.050.
Hops look fine to me.
Oxygenate/aerate the crap out of this one. The yeast will have their work cut out for them with this beer and can use any help they can get.
Rehydrate your yeast before pitching. Sprinkling the yeast straight on top of the wort greatly reduces its viability.
I'd pitch a little cooler than you're planning on fermenting. Once fermentation gets going its going to heat up so keep an eye on those fermentation temps.
Save the dry hopping for the last 2 weeks before bottling. I bulk age my big beers for months and dry hop for a week or two before kegging.
Add new yeast when bottling to ensure carbonation. The original yeast will be worn out and unhealthy at this point.
When I make high gravity beer I usually will make a smaller beer first and pitch the big beer onto the yeast cake of the smaller. Kinda like brewchez's idea but with less moving and pouring of sludgy yeast. Also get as much oxygen in there as possible. It's low tek but just pick up the carboy and shake the c#*& out of it. Remember to sanitize a solid stopper for this.
Anyway the recipe looks good. I would agree with FPB though, ditch/ reduce the carapils and add in some 60L or higher. I like my beer darker and maltier so I would go with
8 Lb Extra pale LME
1 Lb corn sugar
8 Oz 60L
4 Oz 120L
2 Oz Chocolate
Or something like that, just my opinion. I really like your hop schedule though
Good work
ID
Thanks, everyone. Those are great tips. I'm curious about the whole yeast cake thing. Being a newbie, I'm not sure what that means. Is it just the sludge at the bottom of the primary fermenter after the liquid has been poured off? How does reusing yeast work?
Yep, what we call "cake" is the whole thing at the bottom of your fermenter after racking.
It's almost always overpitching (too much yeast) but in the case of a huge beer (over 1.100) that's normally OK.
I reuse yeast by racking off the yeast, then adding water, then swirling to bring it all up into suspension, then waiting a half hour for the non-yeast to settle out, then pouring off the yeastiness to another container, then rousing, waiting, and pouring all over again. The result is a few jars about 1/8 full of yeast, ready for a new beer (or starter if it's been more than a few weeks).
I Guess I usually overpitch my really big beers. I really want to make sure and start a strong fermentation, After all the work and expense of a big beer like a BW I want to help make sure that the yeast has a good start.
Thanks
ID
Above it was suggested to sub some LME for corn sugar. How exactly does this aid to adding sweetness, as opposed to dryness? Also, could this be done with raw cane sugar instead of corn sugar? I like to prime with sugar in the raw with darker beers, gives kind of a molasses-y kind flavor.. well what little flavor comes from priming anyways. Its probably just all in my head.
Also, as far as reusing your yeast cake, once you add the water and pour a couple times, as mentioned do you let it settle and siphon off the water? Or do you use the watery yeasty slurry thats all mixed together?
Definitely an interesting thread. How did the newbiewine... sorry I mean Barleywine turn out?
subbing the extract for the sugar gives a little sweetness because the sugar will ferment out completely, while the extract has some unfermentable sugars in it. how much unfermentable sugar is in the extract depends on what brand it is, Laaglander is only about 50 % fermentable, while Briess is about 80% fermentable. Subbing raw cane sugar would probably end up just as dry as corn sugar, I believe it is pretty much all fermentable, but not exactly sure.
hi...
You can make Barley Wine in just 5 easy step which are following below;
1) Heat 2.5 gallons of water to 42 C and add the grain. Cook the mash at 39 to 42 C for 20 minutes. Then add 2.5 gallons of boiling water to raise the temperature to 60 to 62 C for 30 minutes. Add another 1.5 gallons of boiling water to heat the mash to 67 to 70 C for 1.25 hours.
2) Drain all the liquid wort without sparing to yield about 4 to 4.5 gallons of wort with a specific gravity of 1.080.
3) Heat the wort to a boil and add the Northern Brewer hops. Add 1 oz. Goldings hops in 30 minutes and add another 1/2 oz. at 45 minutes. Add the final 1/2 oz. of Goldings hops and the Fuggles hops at 55 minutes. Continue boiling the wort until it is reduced 3 gallons, about an hour total boil.
4) Allow the wort to settle for 15 minutes and siphon it into the primary fermentation container through a counter flow chiller with an aerating cane on end. Pitch the yeast and ferment for about two months at 65 to 70 F.
5) Rack the beer into the secondary container and add 1 oz. of EKG hops. Allow the beer to ferment for another month and add more yeast immediately before bottling and add enough hot water to make 7 gallons.
jjanderton wrote:
and add enough hot water to make 7 gallons.
HUH?
Where are you brewing?
add more yeast immediately before bottling and add enough hot water to make 7 gallons.
Read more: http://www.brewingkb.com/post.php?tid=4 … z1QCv8EdML
That sounds almost like brewing a barley wine and then watering it down to a pale ale...a really watered down pale ale... ? ...wondering what's the point, you would yeild 7G but it still would take three months before you bottle...
3 Gal fermenting, then 4G hot water before bottling? The math just doesn't work on that one.
jj, you may want to elaborate on step 5
hi sewer...
I am not getting you, if I'm mistaken, then please make me correct. I really appreciate you if you do so and for optimal carbonation the beer has to sit for 2 – 3 weeks. That is the time period consisted of sleepless nights, pacing outside the door where the beer was resting and an anticipation that makes you sweat uncontrollably
Regards John 
Hey John,
It wasn't the adding more yeast immediately before bottling that I didn't understand. It was the adding enough hot water to make 7 gallons. It sounds like you ferment 3 gallons and add 4 gallons of hot water right before you bottle. Is that what you were saying or was this a misprint?
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