English Barleywine questions

I like to make a session beer first and then dump the cake into a barleywine, but you should be fine...some C-80 might help darken it up and give you a head start on the long boil...I don't think you'll need the 2nd mash tun, but it won't hurt (assuming a 5 gal batch)...good luck

 

I like the recipe but the IBUs are way low. I'd go with 50 at a minimum.

 

Yes, 25 IBUs (35 considered minimum) is a little low even for an English Barleywine...but depending on the maltbill you might never know

 

WLP005 can floc too early in my experience with it. I would pair it with WLP007 or rouse the yeast after four or five days of active fermentation.

 

I think you need more IBUs to balance the malt. A friend did a barleywine recently and had good luck with taking a gallon or so of the first runnings and boiling it down to a quart or less while sparging then adding that reduction back at the start of the boil. If you want some color with almost no effect on flavor you could add 2oz of debittered black malt. It will give a nice reddish hue.

 

I did an english barleywine last year that people really loved. Actually had people offer to buy bottles off me. My IBU was around 60 and really can barely tell any bitterness is there. I also boiled the hell out of the 1st gallon running. Be careful, can boil over very easily. Would definitely recommend some darker malt as well. I put in some Carmel 120L. Color came out close to BCBW. Had no problem fitting 24.75 lbs of grain into my 10 gallon mash tun. Probably couldn't fit 27 lbs though, so that could be a problem. However, I ended up with an OG of 1.122 using less grain that you are, so if you are doing a 5 gallon batch, you could use less golden promise to make sure it fits in your mash tun. Just sparge very slow and you should be able to hit a fairly high efficiency. Also, if you do a 2 hour boil you'll be able to collect more wort and get a higher efficiency with less grain. Lastly, aging was the best thing for this beer. Was perfect after about 8 months after brew day.

 

What Qt/Gallon ratio did you use for the mash? I just did a stout with 25 gallons at 1.22 and it came to the top of my 10 gallon cooler. Made it tough to stir it up so came a little low on my efficiency (65%) though it probably could have used more sparge water as well. Will be doing a barleywine soon so all this information has been very informative!

 

1.25. I suppose saying no problem is sort of a stretch. my lid on the cooler goes inside it about 1 or so inches and I couldn't close it all the way. Probably got some extra room there.

 

Also, when you say huge starter, what do you mean? 5L starter? probably close to what you need. I did a 1L starter, stepped it up to 2L, then stepped it up to 4L. Also, shot pure oxygen into the fermenter. That's a pretty big step too.

 

I could close mine but had to gently stir the mash paddle or it would have overflowed. May try 1.15 when I do the Barleywine to give me more room and hopefully see a better efficiency.

 

My girlfriend and I brew together which helps. She stirs the mash the whole time while I'm pouring in grains slowly, so we get it mixed in pretty well.

 

A 10 gal mash cooler for a 5 gal batch of barleywine iis not really pushing the envelope unless you pushed the envelope on the OG ...and besides....there's always a little dme to fill in the gaps

 

You could but you should save your mosaic for some late additions in an IPA or something similar.

 

You can bitter with any hop, since the flavor/aroma will be completely gone after a 60 min boil. I'm with feDUBBELFIST though – if you can, save the mosaic for a beer where you can really benefit from it. Maybe Warrior or Columbus for bittering? If you absolutely can't get new hops in time then your mosaic will work just fine.