Getting ready to put in an order for a barley wine recipe I came up with to play around with some hops I haven't used yet and would like some input. 5 gallon batch 66% efficient brew house 90 minute boil Expected Og 1.094 Expected Fg 1.023 Target mash temp 150-151f Malts 17lbs warminster Maris otter. 4.5l 1 lb bairds carahell 11l 1lb bairds light carastan. 11-17l Hops (90 ibus) 90 min 1 oz nugget 13% 30 min 1 oz Nelson sauvin 10-11% 30 min 1 oz galaxy 12-14% 5 min 1 oz Nelson 5 min 1 oz galaxy 6 days dry hop Nelson 6 days dry hop galaxy I am torn between wyeast 1056 American ale or American ale II or northwest ale... I've used all of these and don't know if one is better in high alcohol... I'm pitching two packs in a 1l starter on my brand new stir plate!!! I am using pure oxygen at pitching and giving it a second dose after about 12 hours of fermentation. I'm looking for this beer to have some fruity hop character that I haven't encountered before as it will drink like a double ipa fresh but I'm gonna age some bottles for down the road. I unfortunately am still bottling my beer so I don't know if ill have to re yeast at bottling time due to the 9-10%abv? Any input is much appreciated my brewin brothers and sisters! Ps plan on pitching around 64f and letting it ride up to High 60's or 70.
I think the recipe looks fine, although I must admit that I have no experience with any of the hops you are using. With a beer this big, I definitely recommend pitching more yeast at bottling.
I would move those 30min additions down to 20min or less, otherwise your loosing alot of the aroma/flavor, I would also suggest adding the 5min additions instead at KO to preserve more aroma
How would one figure out an appropriate amount of yeast to add at bottling and do I just add it similar to how I add priming sugar?? Is a smack pack over doing it and should I use dry yeast for this?
If adding dry yeast, I believe the general rule of thumb is to pitch 1/10th of your original fermantation pitch size at bottling for bottle refermentation. So just use mrmalty to calculate how much dry yeast it would have taken to ferment the batch (if you didn't use dry yeast for primary fermentation) then divide the # of grams by 10 to calculate the refermentation pitch amount. I believe US05 dry yeast has a peak alcohol tolerance of about 11-12% though so if your barley wine finishes at 11.5% or higher it might be "added insurance" to referment with another yeast that has an even higher alcohol tolerance. As for alll of these recommendations about enhancing the aroma, do realize that depending on how long you opt to condition your barleywine before serving you will lose lots of the aroma from the aroma hop additions anyway. If you plan on aging your barleywine for the 6 - 12 month range (like most but certainly not all homebrewers do) then you are really only going to get a big hop aroma if you are adding the dry hops at the end of that conditioning phase and then kegging / bottling at that point. So since you are bottling and not kegging, you'd be better off transferring your barleywine (after primary fermentation) to a secondary fermenter (top it off completely eliminating the head space to avoid oxidation) for that extended conditioning period. Then dry hop it about a week before you are done conditioning it and bottle after the dry hopping. If this isn't an option for you or you plan on doing a very short conditioning of your barley wine and still want as much aroma as possible without doing so, then by all means lower your 30 minute addition to 20, your 5 to KO, and dry hop as soon as you'd like.
The recipe looks to be OK. The arguement about the 30 minute hops is a matter that can be debated. You can move that more to the end if you want. You will get more aroma from the dry hops. If you age for a long time, dry hop or re-dry hop before you package. It only takes 1 gram of dry yeast at bottling. The beer I made with Warminster MO last year never dropped bright. Many of the British Malsters are now using a blend of MO and other malts (70/30) to get the nitrogen level down. I might use more crystal malt, of a higher Lovibond. The real key to these is to pitch the right amount of healthy yeast and maintian the temperature. One year I made on on Jan 2 that ended up with a gold at the NHC. It used 30 minute additions too. Edit - lots of O2 for the yeast is also a must.
Great info here guys... I dropped the Maris otter and am doing 15 lbs brewer malt and 2lbs Vienna to try and get a clear beer... I've had clarity issues with warminster also... I also decided to go with wyeast Irish ale yeast cuz it has 11 or 12% alcohol tolerance so I'm hoping maybe I won't have to re yeast at bottling time? I probably will move my 30 minute hops to 20 or 15 as I want this to drink like an imperial ipa but store some bottles away to see what it Tastes like in a year or two.
I use 1056 for my Barley Wine and it finished at 10.5% this year. I did not re-yeast and it bottle conditioned just fine. The beer spent 2 weeks in the primary and 3 weeks in a secondary, if that helps at all.
That's awesome leery!! I'm thinking mine is gonna end up around 9.5 maybe 10% so I'm not gonna re yeast either. Thanks for the info
