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  • Barley wine malt bill

    I have just been asked to make the first barley wine for my brewery. I am brewing on a 7 bbl system and using the Brewhouse efficiency I found I am going to need about 800-900lbs of malt.

    Looking at a few recipes I found that the malt bill asks for 65-75% pale and then the rest of the malt bill is 5-10% of each of crystal, Dextrin, Munich; with 2-5% of wheat for body and a touch of roasted/chocolate which seems like mostly for color.

    Dose this sound right? I want to double check before I use that much grain on a off style beer.

    Cheers!

  • #2
    Tyler, personally I avoid roasted,black and chocolate for barleywines as the use of high concentrations of pale( especially if you use a nice Maris Otter variety),munich,caramel with longer boils has always produced good color in my opinion. I do know a few recipes that have called for a touch of wheat, everyone has their own personal touch.

    Goodluck with it, if you want anymore speficic feedback from my experiences feel free to email me.

    Looking forward to tipping a snifter while playing some shuffleboard.
    Cheers,
    Mike Roy
    Brewmaster
    Franklins Restaurant, Brewery & General Store
    5123 Baltimore Ave
    Hyattsville,MD 20781
    301-927-2740

    Franklinsbrewery.com
    @franklinsbrwry
    facebook.com/franklinsbrewery

    Comment


    • #3
      I'm with Mike; drop the roast/chocolate. I use a huge amount of Pale malt, some caramel malts, and a little high kiln malt. I use first runnings only and do a 3 hour+ boil. Use massive amounts of hops.
      Cheers & I'm out!
      David R. Pierce
      NABC & Bank Street Brewhouse
      POB 343
      New Albany, IN 47151

      Comment


      • #4
        I have to chime in with agreement here too. Lots of pale (maris otter is the stuff!) and minimize anything you do with roasted malts. Crystal malts and some wheat are fine too, but realize you will get some nice color from a good quality pale ale malt used in large quantities, especially with a long boil. You can probably skip the dextrin/carapils malt as you won't need to enhance body with a large pale malt bill. Have fun and don't forget to send some this way!

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        • #5
          thanks for the help guys. Looks like I am going to tweak my original recipe a bit and hopefully can fit a 3 hour boil into my brew day (looks like I am coming in early this day). And about the hops I am shooting for 100IBUS so we will see how it comes out


          Cheers

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          • #6
            Further to this subject.....

            Could you folks please clue me in on fermentation techniques: yeast choices, pitching rates, fermentation temperatures, attenuation targets, maturation times/temperatures, rests, etc. I'm also building a big beer and need some help. Thanks in advance!
            Phillip Kelm--Palau Brewing Company Manager--

            Comment


            • #7
              barleywine

              I brewed my first barleywine a few weeks back on my 7bbl system.
              I filled my mash tun to the brim with pale, crystal, chocolate, amber and wheat and then boiled down to half volume in my kettle (took almost 6 hours) and then added lots of hops and some golden syrup (a cane syrup) in the whirlpool. OG was a massive 30 Plato! and ended up with about 300 litres. The first yeast struggled initially but then went crazy and then stopped at 12P. I repitched yeast, oygenated, tried everything to get it going again to no avail.
              Will let you know how it tastes in a few months time

              Al
              Tanglehead

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              • #8
                Originally posted by big_al
                I brewed my first barleywine a few weeks back on my 7bbl system.
                I filled my mash tun to the brim with pale, crystal, chocolate, amber and wheat and then boiled down to half volume in my kettle (took almost 6 hours) and then added lots of hops and some golden syrup (a cane syrup) in the whirlpool. OG was a massive 30 Plato! and ended up with about 300 litres. The first yeast struggled initially but then went crazy and then stopped at 12P. I repitched yeast, oygenated, tried everything to get it going again to no avail.
                Will let you know how it tastes in a few months time

                Al
                Tanglehead

                Um...WOW! Did you just wing this beer or was your starting gravity actually designed to be 30 Plato???? Personally I feel that's a little too extreme for me, what type of yeast were you using?
                Cheers,
                Mike Roy
                Brewmaster
                Franklins Restaurant, Brewery & General Store
                5123 Baltimore Ave
                Hyattsville,MD 20781
                301-927-2740

                Franklinsbrewery.com
                @franklinsbrwry
                facebook.com/franklinsbrewery

                Comment


                • #9
                  big Beer!

                  yes, I was aiming for something pretty high, wanted to finish with about 10.5-11%ABV, but wasn't sure what the FG would be. Ended up finishing higher than I would like.
                  Is tasting a bit like a tawny port at the moment, lots of warming alcohol in the mouth. will be pretty flat though.

                  Allan

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                  • #10
                    Have you tried pitching a highly alcohol tolerant yeast strain that's used for some of the newer high alcohol wines? I know that they're producing 15-16% ABV wines with this yeast, and it may not affect your flavor too much since you're now starting with 12P and you'll have such a big beer (maybe I'm piping in too late, but you can try next time). You could possibly end up with a 15% or higher beer, although it wouldn't suprise me at all if it refused to hold sufficient CO2 in suspension.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      30P wort

                      At the now defunct brewery I used to work at we did something similar to this. "Samiclaus" it was called, a 30Plato first wort that we fermented during the course of a year to 14-16 abv. This was a bottom fermenter but there seems no reason to me that it shouldn't work with the right top-fermenter.

                      Yeast handling is of upmost importance. We piched initially with a tolerant lager strain fed up on malt extract and sugar. The primary fermentation lasted 2-3 weeks during which time we re -pitched with the same strain at least once, mostly twice - always careful to have the yeast in exponential phase. Before secondary we pitched with another highly tolerant bottom fermenter, waited untill extract levels droped again and then transferred to secondary for about a year. Final attenuation around 5-7 Plato depending on the stars the moon and the weather.

                      Good luck and have patience.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Aswiss....When you say re-pitch with the same strain, I assume you mean repitch with the same strain from another batch, or do you mean collecting it from the same fermenter and reintroducing it? Also how do you pitch yeast after your fermentation has already begun, what type of vessel are you using,what is your procedure?
                        Cheers,
                        Mike Roy
                        Brewmaster
                        Franklins Restaurant, Brewery & General Store
                        5123 Baltimore Ave
                        Hyattsville,MD 20781
                        301-927-2740

                        Franklinsbrewery.com
                        @franklinsbrwry
                        facebook.com/franklinsbrewery

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          repitching

                          We repitched the yeast each time after starting it up in a propagating tank equiped with aeration temp control etc. The yeast was usually started from the lab each time, although this is not necessary - you could take yeast from another batch and then feed it and aerate it. You have to bring the OG up to around 30P in the piching yeast otherwise you will dilute your fermenting beer.

                          Feeding the yeast constantly with an extract source gets it moving. Aeration of the yeast a must although it can get messy - it really takes off. Temps have to be gradually brought down to the same temp in the waiting beer, this is all hard going for a yeast and a temp shock just isn't needed. Repitching meant pumping it into the fermenter and then rousing with CO2 - again it can get messy. We preffered CO2 to O2 - oxidation issues in the final product.

                          It takes a little trial and error.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Good stuff on this post! I have a 21P strong ale/barleywine gently fermenting at 22C and everything is going well. The beer is 3 days old now and is around 5P. If it stops short of 3P, I will repitch with another yeast (wine?) So, after I'm happy with fermentation, is it better to age it cool (10-12C) or cold (0C)?
                            Phillip Kelm--Palau Brewing Company Manager--

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Wow! 3 days and down to 5P that's fast going.
                              Best be sure that we're talking the same language. When I wrote 5-7P for Samichlaus I meant apparent extract. Real extract is of course a lot higher. With these alcohol levels a hydrometer doesn't work any more, the reading comes way down too low. 5P apparent extract gives a below 1.0 reading on a hydrometer.
                              We used a density/refraction combination that gave good working values. These were also not accurate at the far end of attenuation. With so much alcohol a destillation method is the only reliable method for a final determination.

                              As far as ageing goes i would recommend a gradual lowering of the temperature to about 10-12C (That is aprox where we held our beer for several months). The yeast stayed ever so slightly active. In our case extract levels were still dropping slowly (tenths of %) after 3 months. Then I would lower it to 0C for a while to drop out the protein haze. There's a lot of that in there.

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