Phils - Brewing a Big Barley Wine

All, this was posted on our first trial forum but due to the significance of the reason for the brew I wanted to move it over to this forum, hopefully Phil can keep us up to date with how it's coming along. :)

Hi Guys,

when I finally get dressed this morning I shall be brewing a big old barley wine in honour of my son who was born exactly one week ago. The recipe is very basic in a traditional barley wine sort of way. The OG of 1.138 is calculated from 1 point per oz of William's birth weight. He weighed 8lb 10 oz or 138 oz.

The idea is to brew it, age it for a couple of months, bottle it then drink a couple of bottles each year on his birthday. I may have to hide them though as there's a good chance I may just get a thirst on one night and have them all drained by Christmas

So, I present to you..

Celebration of William Philip

Brew length: 30l
OG: 1.138
IBU: 93
EBC: 28
Efficiency: 70%

Pale Malt - 18.2kg
Crystal Malt - 0.5kg
EKG - 400g FWH
Yeast - Nottingham

Mash temp: 64C
Boil 90minutes

/Phil.

Update from Phil:

Thanks chaps. I'm a very proud father

The mash is almost done now. Just raising to 75C for mash out.

/Phil.

Update from Phil:

Crikey, now I know why people say they use extract to make the wort up to gravity for barley wines. I collected 55 litres of 1.080 wort and now need to boil that down to 32 litres to hit 1.138

I stopped sparging when the runnings hit 1.050

Now bubbling away fiercely with 6kw trying to evaporate all that liquid

/Phil.

Update from Phil:

I'm going to pitch 50g of Nottingham into 30 litres of wort. I'll aerate until the foam's coming out of the fermenter then I'll rouse tomorrow.

That should get it going.

/Phil.

Question from J_P:

Congratulations Phil, will a bottle of the brew keep until he's 18?

On the subject of hop and grain disposal I throw the hops at the bottom of the garden and mix the grain with my leaf mould and it makes a fine soil conditioner

Reply from Phil:

Thanks J_P. I have enough trouble making my beer last until it's properley fermented but, yes, the idea is to keep as much back as possible.

So far this has fermented down to 1.099 so it's coming along, slowly

I have obviously had to take a little refractometer sample from time to time and not wanting to waste such an important beer I have drunk some

It's incredibly sweet (still has a gravity of 100 and only has bout 4% alcohol so what do I expect )and has some lovely, rich caramelised raisin flavours from the long fierce boil. If it ferments down enough I think this could end up being a cracking beer.

I'm swirling it around a little to rouse the yeast on a daily basis and will start raising the temperature next week to encourage the yeasties to do their thing.

I don't put the grain anywhere the dog can find it. Last time he found some he covered the garden in foul smelling flapjacks

That's why it goes in the bin.

/Phil.

Question from Vossy1:

More questions Phil...if I may....thrown up by The Durden book
I've seen in the past that you parti-gyle.
Is this your prefered method of collecting the wort for large gravity beers?
Also, do you rinse the hops?
And do you use higher fermenting temps to encourage the yeast?

Reply from Phil:

Parti-gyle makes it easier to collect some good strong wort for heavy beers so I'd recommend this method for beers over 1.100. It avoids the long boils like I had to use on this barley wine. I tend to fly sparge the first ber and batch sparge the 2nd one to enable me to use my HLT as a second boiler.

I don't rinse the hops as I don't fancy rinsing all the break material into the fermenter.

With high gravity beers it's really impotant not to let the fermentation temperature get above 21C or you'll get some nasty higher alcohols. Personally, I would start off at 19C then raise to 21 after about 4 days. The nasty off flavours seem to be more of a problem if the temperature is high in the first couple of days of fermetation.

Steve (The Pint) and I were at a club meeting one night last year and he presented a beer that had this kind of flavour. It was a fairly strong beer. One of the members who's a beer judge tasted it and said something like, "You seem to have fermented this a little warm. You'd have got away with it on a smaller beer but not on one this size (1.070). You probably fermented at about 22-23 degrees C". When Steve checked his notes he did indeed ferment at 22.5C

Despite what certain people say about beer judges, they really do know their stuff.

/Phil.

Question from ryan:

The Belgians do that with their beer don't they? Starting the fermentation at lower temps then bringing them higher towards the end.

As a sidenote, something else I want to try is something I read on Pictish brewery's site (top notch micro ) - they drop the temp down to 8 - 10°C for a few days when the beer hits the FG to stop fermentation exactly where they want it. (I guess they don't have a problem with diacetyl.)

http://www.pictish-brewing.co.uk/tour.html

Learn from the experts

Reply from Phil:

Ryan, I have tried this but didn't have much success. As you say, diacetyl is the worry here. And I absolutely hate diacetyl

/Phil.

Question from prodigal2:

Phil
congratulations on the new addition.
This is what brewing is all about, making something for a special occasion.
I am intrested on why you have gone for FWH on the goldings. I must admit it is a technique that I have used more and more. And yet their seems to be little science about the technique

Reply from Phil:

P2, the FWH thing was because I like the rounded bitterness and flavour that FWH'ing gives. In retrospect, I should have boiled longer and less fiercely and stuck the hops in for 90 minutes only with this particular beer due to the amount of water I had to boil off.

Generally, FWH'ing is a great way of adding a subtle rounded hop character to a beer. What are your experiences with FWH'ing.

/Phil.

Post from prodigal2:



I have only used FWH in about 4-5 beers(2 which where modern dark milds). i have found that I prefer the flavour brought out via FWH, and it appears that with FWH hop flavour and aroma seems to last longer. Also I find that to me I am getting the most out of the hop by doing this. Where as I think mash hoping is a waste of hops. For those of us who like hop flavour over bitterness and are looking for balance I think FWH is the future.

i will be very interested in how the spicy golding flavour will develop in this beer over time.
P2

Update from Phil:

The Barleywine is down to 1.051 now and still falling

/Phil.

Well the update is not good I'm afraid. The figure of 51 was a misreading (22.2 Brix read as 20.2 after a few bevvies) and should have been 70. The beer then stayed at 70 until last night.

I added champagne yeast last weekend and it didn't have any effect. So, last night I rehydrated another 50g of Nottingham and pitched that. I then aerated for a few minutes and roused the existing yeast. Drastic times call for drastic measures.

I'm pleased to say that after having stuck at 70 for 2 weeks it's now down to 65.

I'm going to keep my fingers crossed now as there are no more tricks for getting this going if it stops again. :pray:

This is the first time I've ever had a stuck ferment. I guess I didn't aerate enough although I did it until there was foam 15 inches thick on top of the wort. I should have aerated for a couple of days on and off and pitched an entire yeast cake from a smaller gravity beer.

Live and learn though

/Phil.

Sounds like a bit of a nervy time :shock:

Hope it continues to fall Phil :pray:

The moment of truth will be in a couple of days when I taste it. If it's not oxidised I'll know I got away with it.

If it's no good, I'll brew another.

/Phil.

And? .....What happened phil ..... This is a bit like missin the last 3 minutes of the film... just when it gets real interesting

Frisp said:

And? .....What happened phil ..... This is a bit like missin the last 3 minutes of the film... just when it gets real interesting

Click to expand...

:lol:

Sorry

It has come down below 50 now and is dropping slowly. I've puy it in a keg now and will leave it for a year to see if it gets down to a reasonable gravity.

I'll probably brew another just in case.

/Phil.

Phil said:

I guess I didn't aerate enough although I did it until there was foam 15 inches thick on top of the wort. I should have aerated for a couple of days on and off and pitched an entire yeast cake from a smaller gravity beer.

Click to expand...

Big beers require large amounts of yeast and lots of aeration. I've done a couple of Imperial Stouts, and am planning on doing Bass' No 1. (From Durden Park) over the winter, and have never had a Stuck ferment, but I do exactly what you suggest, brew a double corny length of a session beer (around 1.038) and then pitch the big beer on the yeast cake, a triple dose of yeast nutrient (and servomyces) and then aeration every hour until the krausen starts to form, at which point I drop (with aeration) into the Primary FV. I've had a 1.102 IS drop to 1.016 in two weeks using this method.