All Grain Barley Wine

rodabod · Jul 24, 2015

Mash started this morning.

This recipe is from the Mikkeller book as it's my first barley wine, so I'm afraid I won't be posting the exact ingredients here.

7.4Kg grain bill
16L strike water at 79.5c
Pre-boil volume: 14L
Post-boil volume: 12L
Target OG: 1104
Target FG: 1028 or so.....
ABV: 10%
Yeast: Wyeast 1056 liquid yeast (1 pack)

Photos to follow....

Covrich · Jul 24, 2015

You going for a split brew or just doing the 12 litres?

rodabod · Jul 24, 2015

My girlfriend thinks we are doing DIY (house renovation, not beer) today, and she already helped me mash in that ludicrous amount of grain, so I've had to go for just the 12L. Ideally, I'd do two and get a full batch as its barely any more effort to double your volume.

rodabod · Jul 24, 2015

Some of the ingredients. Brown bags are caramel malts. There's a 25Kg bag of Fawcett's extra pale Maris Otter not in the shot.

clibit · Jul 24, 2015

Good hops! Good luck with the mash. You could mash again over weekend and add it? One tube of liquid yeast wouldn't be enough for a full batch but adding more when the yeast is up and running would work.

MyQul · Jul 24, 2015

As clibit says you may not have enough yeast. I was under the impression you were going to do a big starter.

I read of people who were doing a barley wine brewing a fairly neutral beer just so they can pitch the barley wine wort directly onto the previous brews yeast cake

rodabod · Jul 24, 2015

Will see how the yeast get on. It's a half volume batch rather than 5 Gallons, so will monitor progress.

Pre-boil gravity 1096!

clibit · Jul 24, 2015

Liquid yeast packets are designed to ferment 19 litres at about 1040. And that assumes they are in good nick. I think you could well be under pitching. Adding a sachet of US05 would solve it, it's the same strain as your liquid yeast.

rodabod · Jul 24, 2015

I've got half a sachet of US-05 which was opened maybe a month ago. Or I've got four packets of S-04, but it has less attenuation abilities.

Brewers Friend yeast calculator seemed to think I would have enough numbers in the Wyeast. It's dated 6th July 2015, ie. two weeks since fabrication.

What do you reckon?

clibit · Jul 24, 2015

I wouldn't use S04 myself. The liquid yeast comes from USA so was it really manufactured a couple of weeks ago? If you trust the opened 05 packet add that. Or buy another?

rodabod · Jul 24, 2015

Purchased from a very big brew store. Check it out:

The half pack of US-05 was taped up, but I'm not sure if it could possibly lead to infection if it somehow got contaminated. Maybe that's unlikely though.

MyQul · Jul 24, 2015

I opened packets of yeast used some then folded and taped it back down lots of times when I used to do 1G brews

rodabod · Jul 24, 2015

Ok, I'll try rehydrating this half pack that I have and add it in!

Nugget added:

clibit · Jul 24, 2015

Where did you buy the wyeast?

rodabod · Jul 24, 2015

"The Home Brew Shop" in Hampshire. They are very good.

I've added some water to the dried yeast, so I can add some creme d'US-05.

rodabod · Jul 24, 2015

That was definitely the most difficult brew I've attempted so far.

Apart from possibly underestimating how much yeast was needed, I had two other issues:

The Wyeast nutrient pouch didnt burst properly. I've ripped it properly to allow the yeast to get to it, while the rehydrated US-05 is having first dibs on the sugar. Will add shortly.

Because the wort became so clear, I actually forgot to add any protofloc. Following filtering the entire boiling wort through a mesh, I can't see how it would benefit from it, so I'm happy that I omitted it.

Thanks for the advice from everyone who has chipped in.

More photos to follow.

beechwood · Jul 25, 2015

Looks good. How long will you mature it for?......:drink:

Covrich · Jul 25, 2015

Looks like sprouts in gravy that !!

I hear they can take up to 6 months??

rodabod · Jul 25, 2015

Heh.

Should be 3 months conditioning minimum.

Fermentation was well under way after a few hours, and it's now gurgling away.

I'd recommend these Wyeast starter packs given my experience so far. Just make sure you absolutely smack the nutrient pouch to make sure it bursts. The packs balloon when you do it properly.

rodabod · Jul 28, 2015

I've already overshot my final gravity as it's still bubbling and down to 1024.

I will taste the sample shortly. Certainly smells like it'll need months of aging....

See photo:

All Grain Barley Wine

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

Member

Geek

Member

Member

Senior Member

Chairman of the Bored

Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Member

Chairman of the Bored

Member

Senior Member

Member

Member

Regular.

Geek

Member

Member

Similar threads

Join the conversation!

Join today and get all the highlights of this community direct to your inbox. It's FREE!