English Barleywine

I really enjoy the large beers that many breweries put out as winter seasonal releases.  Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot and Narwhal are two I really like.  These beers are nice to age for several years as they gain additional complexity as time passes.  It's also cool that you can sample the different vintages over the years and really be able to pick out those changes.

As my pipeline of beer is very healthy at the moment I decided it would be fun to brew a big beer of my own with the intention of aging until the winter months.  I am thinking it would be cool to drink a few a year and evaluate how the beer changes over time.  If I enjoy this process I might make it a yearly ritual.

An English Barleywine, with it's malt complexity, seems like one of the best big beers for aging.  I searched the internet for recipes but didn't find any that I liked so I have created my own.  My goals for this beer are as follows:

1. Golden/Pale Color - I do not want a Barleywine that could be mistaken for a porter or stout
2. Approximately 9% alcohol - I want it to be a big beer but I don't want drinking one to be a night ender
3. FG of ~1.025 - I want a fairly sweet finish to the beer.  I hypothesize that this sweetness will be a pleasant feature as the beer ages (we will see)
4. Balanced hop character - The beer will become more of a malt bomb over time as the hops fade.  I think it will be interesting to evaluate how the hop character changes in successive tastings.
5. Simple grain bill - Many of the recipes on-line had either a single malt (typically Maris Otter) or many (5-6) specialty grains.  I was considering doing a single malt but, from reading, I was concerned that I might miss out on some complexity with this approach (the technique of boiling the first runnings down to a syrup is supposed to provide caramel notes you might get with crystal malts but the reviews are mixed).  I decided against an established recipe with many specialty grains as I want to better understand the flavor contributions of each specialty grain.  If I brew another Barleywine I will use this recipe as a baseline and consider adding some specialty grains.

So, with these goals in mind I decided on a grain bill with 85% Maris Otter and 15% crystal malt (7% 10L, 5% 20L and 3% 40L.  I went back and fourth on whether this was too much crystal malt as I was concerned that I could end up with a FG quite a bit higher than the 1.025 that I'm shooting for.  This experiment on fermentability of crystal malts convinced me that, since I'm using a lot of lightly toasted crystal, I would likely still get good attenuation of the crystal sugar.  I used a hop schedule based on the English Bitter I brewed a few weeks back - Fuggle and East Kent Golding Hops - was shooting for ~60 IBU which should be relatively balanced at 1.025.  

I'm doing a long mash (90 min) in the low 150s to ensure I get good conversion and lots of simple sugars.  I plan on collecting 10-12 gal of wort which will hopefully get me about ~65% efficiency (I'd prefer to error on the low side than the high).  Depending on how much wort is collected it will be a 90 to 120 min boil to get down to 5.5 gal - will likely get some nice caramelization during this process.  It will be interesting to see how the color of the beer is impacted by this.

I will ferment with two packets of dry yeast (didn't run any calculations to get this but it seems to be the general recommendation for a beer this large).  I chose to use Nottingham and S-04 with a primary fermentation temperature of 64 F.  Hopefully having the different types of yeast will ensure that at least one of them is able to get this beer down to the desired FG.

I will do 4 weeks of primary fermentation and then 4 weeks of secondary.  I am going to split the batch into two 2.5 gal secondaries.  I will leave one plain and age the other on brandy soaked oak chips (which I think should be complimentary).  Once complete I will store the beer at my mom's house for long term conditioning and to be enjoyed when I go out there to visit during the holidays.

This was an expensive beer to brew but it will be well worth it if it turns out decently.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 18 lbs Maris Otter
• 1 lbs 8 oz Crystal 10 L
• 1 lb Crystal 20 L
• 8 oz Crystal 40 L
• 5 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 2 oz East Kent Goldings (Pellet, 7.2% AA) at 60 min
• 1.25 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 5.3% AA) at 20 min
• 1 oz East Kent Goldings (Pellet, 7.2% AA) at 20 min
• Yeast:
• S-04 for Primary
• Nottingham for Primary
• 1/2 Packet of EC-1118 Wine yeast at bottling
• Water:
• 12 gal RO water
• 2 tsp of Calcium Chloride
• 2 tsp of Gypsum
• 1 tsp of Irish Moss at 20 min
• Extras:
• 1 oz Medium Toast Hungarian Oak Cubes
• 1 cup of E&J Brandy

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal
• Mash:
• 150 F for 90 min
• Boil:
• 140 min
• Fermentation Temp:
• 64 F

Results:

• OG:
• 1.101 (Target 1.095)
• Efficiency:
• 77% (Target 65%)
• FG:
• 1.016 (Target 1.025)
• ABV:
• 11.2% (Target 9%)

Brewing Notes:

• 5/26/14 Brew Day - 5:30 AM to 12:30 PM Including setup and cleanup
• Added calcium chloride and gypsum to two 5 gal jugs of RO water
• Heated 8 gal of water to 178 F in my large boil kettle - took 24 min
• Added 26.5 qt of 178 F strike water to the mash tun for a 1.25 ratio of water to grain

• Let the mash tun heat up for 10 min (shooting for 162 F) - ended up at 168 F so I stirred vigorously until it got down to the target dough in temp
• Added 21 lbs of grain.  I spend a lot of time adding the grain to eliminate dough balls.  I ended up losing more heat than intended so rather than having a mash temp of 152 F I ended up with 150.  I decided it was close enough and didn't take action
• Mashed for 90 minutes - final temperature was 149 F.  Ran a iodine starch conversion test which showed that conversion had completed.
• Heated up an additional 3.5 gal of RO water to 172 F
• Added 3.5 gal of mash out water, stirred, let settle for 5 min, vorlaufed, and then drained.  I had to fill the mash tun to the brim to do this.

• Ended up with 8 gal of wort from first runnings.  I took a gravity sample and chilled it in the freezer.  Measured sample as 1.060 at 90 F.  Per my hydrometer calibration this is off by 8 points so actual first wort gravity was 1.068 which was about 69% efficiency.  I was expecting 65% efficiency for all wort collected.
• Brought 3.5 gal water to 172 F in my small pot and did a single batch sparge
• Heated the 11 gal of collected wort to a boil - took 25 min.  I was watching the boil closely as boil over seemed like a likely possibility as the kettle was pretty full.  Found that even with the hot break foam at the start of the vigorous boil I had a couple inches to spare

• During the boil was able to confirm the 2 gal/hr boil off rate I'd suspected with my new sight glass - sight glass did get up to a boil a few times which I corrected by adjusting the heat and using an aluminum foil heat shield.  Sight glass was very nice to have for this batch with the huge volume to be boiled down
• Decided to boil down to 8 gal prior to adding the 60 min hops.  It took 80 min to get to this point.

• Added the 20 min hops and the Irish Moss

• At 15 min I put the wort chiller into the kettle to sanitize
• Ended the boil at 11:55 AM - long/hot brew day.  It was mid 90s at that point
• Chilled wort down to tap water temps (85 F) which took about 15 min
• Transferred to the fermenter.  I attempted to get some aeration going by letting the wort fall a couple feet and splash around.

• Moved the fermentor to the fermentation chamber to chill down to the pitching temperature of 60 F - took about 5 hrs
• Ended up with 6 gal of wort.  Measured OG as 1.096 at 71 F - per my hydrometer calibration this is 5 points under measured so the actual OG is 1.101 which is a bit higher than my target.  The fermentor is very full at 6 gal so diluting the wort is not a viable option.  If the beer ends up finishing up at 1.025 then it will end up at ~10% ABV which isn't what I wanted but I'll be able to live with it.
• Rehydrated the two packets of dry yeast in previously boiled tap water (as recommended by yeast manufacturers) at 100 F.  Poured the yeast on top, let it re-hydrate for ~15 min, and then mixed it in.  Brought it down to 70 F by adding small amounts of 60 F wort and then pitched the yeast.
• Shook the fermentor for 1 min to aerate the wort
• Set the fermentation chamber to 64 F and let the temps naturally rise
• In anticipation of vigorous fermentation I setup the fermenter with a blow off tube and a growler of water/starsan solution
• 5/27/14 - Fermentor is bubbling away ~18 hrs after pitching.  No blow off yet fortunately.
• 5/28/14 - There is a lot of blow off activity this morning - if I hadn't used a tube the airlock definitely would have gotten clogged.  The tube appears to be handling the foam well enough

• 5/29/14 - Still bubbling away but a bit slower.  No more blow off.  I increased the fermentation chamber to 66 F to encourage the yeast to finish up.
• 5/30/14 - Bubbling has ended.  Increased fermentation chamber temperature to 68 F.
• 6/1/14 - Took a gravity sample after a week of fermentation.  Measured 1.016 at 70 F which, per my hydrometer calibration, is under measured by 4 points so actual gravity is 1.020.  I wanted 1.025 but the yeast had other plans.  The sample has a pretty nice level of sweetness and body to it.  So, if it stops here I think it's basically what I'd had in mind.  It has quite a bit of fruity yeast character in the aroma and up front in the flavor.  The finish is primarily alcohol at this point but it's definitely not hot fusel alcohol.  I'm not sure how much insight you can gain into the future of a beer that will be aged for 6 months after a week of fermentation but I am encouraged that there don't seem to be any blatant flaws in the green beer at this point.  The fermentor is caked with krausen - this was a vigorous fermentation.  The beer is still lightly bubbling - I assume this is off-gassing rather than continued fermentation but we will see after the next gravity sample.

• 6/14/14 - Took another gravity sample - this time it measured 1.014 at 70 F.  Per my most up to date hydrometer calibration I believe this is about 2 points under measured so the gravity is actually 1.016.  The sample has lost a bit of sweetness from last time so I believe that the gravity drop is correct.  It's a pretty boozy beer at this point - still a bit sweet though despite the gravity drop.  I think it's going to need the 6 months to mature but that it's going to be pretty good.
• 6/25/14 - Boiled 1 oz of Medium Toast Oak Cubes in water to pull off some of the tannins and then soaked them in an inexpensive Brandy (E&J).  The oak cubes smelled wonderful after boiling - it was exactly the smell that I get from Whiskey due to the oak aging  This is my trial run with oak so I have gone with what I believe is a fairly conservative amount (also went with cubes rather than chips to try to get more control).  I will be fine with the beer even if the impact of the oak and Brandy are pretty subdued - I plan on brewing this again next year so I will treat this one as a learning experience.  I will let the cubes soak until this weekend and then let half the batch secondary on them for the next month.

• 6/28/14 - Transferred the beer into two 3 gal secondary fermentors.  Put the oak cubes and most of the Brandy into one prior to transfer.  I ended up with a little less than 5 gal total beer - must have lost quite a bit of volume with the blowoff from the vigorous fermentation.  Measured the FG as 1.014 at 71 F which is 1.016 per my hydrometer calibration.  I have ended up with quite a bit of headspace in the two fermentors - hope that doesn't cause excessive oxidation.  I split the sample between two glasses and splashed a bit of the oak infused brandy in one.  I think the flavors contributed by the oak and Brandy are going to compliment the Barleywine nicely.  Based on this sample I would say that the beer has mellowed a bit since my tasting a couple weeks back.  It is a bit smoother now (although not smooth enough) and the fruity yeast and sweet malt are coming through a bit more.  I will keep the two fermentors in my closet for the next few weeks and then bottle.

• 7/8/14 - Had a small sample of the oaked half - I sampled off the top.  Only a mild oak/brandy flavor at this point.  I think it will be safe giving it a couple more weeks.
• 7/19/14 - Bottled each half with 2.25 oz of priming sugar and wine yeast to help with conditioning (as the original yeast were likely mostly dead with the high alcohol and long bulk conditioning time).  Ended up with about 2.5 gal of each which netted me 24 bottles of Plain and 24 bottles of Brandy/Oaked Barleywine.  I tasted the oaked half which had a mild but pleasant oak flavor.

• 7/29/14 - Drove this beer up to my mother's house in Northern CA.  I plan on doing the first tasting in 5 months at Christmas time.
• 12/26/14 - Tasting Notes (2014) - Still drinking pretty young (harsh/sharp) - will benefit from more age.  Fairly good amount of fruity character at this point - I think it has a nice level of complexity.  The oak half was quite a bit better for this first tasting.
• 12/26/15 - Tasting Notes (2015) - Both of the versions have mellowed out nicely over the last year.  The fruity yeast and caramel malt character has moved forward more strongly and the alcohol has settled down.  The oak also faded a bit and now the two halves were very close in flavor.  I believe this beer will continue to be tasty as it ages further based on this tasting.
• 2/27/17 - Tasting Notes (2016) - A really smooth and flavorful beer with a few years under it's belt.  There is a pretty nice balance between the beer and alcohol to this one that didn't seem to exist before - I think age has treated it well.  As of this tasting I consider this the best of the English Barleywine I've brewed so far (compared with 2015 and 2016 editions).  The two variations of the beer are very similar (no real contribution from the oak in this tasting) but I preferred the pain version due to the slightly stronger alcohol bite in the brandy half.
• 3/9/18 - Tasting Notes (2017) - This beer has continued to age very nicely.  It is smooth, rich, and complex.  Plan and Brandy halves are very similar at this point.
• 5/26/19 - Tasting Notes (2019) - Plain:
• Aroma: Fruity - figs and raisin. Caramel malt. Very rich aroma.
• Appearance: Dark red and very clear. Poured with a thin layer of foam that quickly faded to nothing
• Flavor: Sweet malt with rich fruit ester. Maybe a slight bit of bitterness in the finish. Some alcohol comes through. Aged beer flavor - a musty and earthy character
• Mouthfeel: Medium-full bodied. Slightly sweet. A bit of warming alcohol
• Overall: Complex and interesting beer with some bold flavors
• 5/23/20 - Tasting Notes (2020) - Brandy and Oak:
• Aroma:  Boozy.  Fruit ester along with a bit of bready malt.  Maybe a bit of honey as well.  Musty kind of aged sherry-like aroma
• Appearance:  Light brown and pretty clear.  Pours with no head
• Flavor:  Slightly fruity up front followed by malt which is like toasted bread.  Get some caramel as well.  The finish is kind of musty and blends the malt with a smooth aged alcohol character
• Mouthfeel:  Medium-light bodied with a little sweetness.  Has a slight bit of astringency but not enough to be unpleasant
• Overall:  Really richly flavored and nicely complex beer.  It's like a fruity and alcoholic caramel.  It has continued to age very nicely
• 5/20/21 - Tasting Notes (2021) - Plain:
• Aroma:  Fruity ester and caramel.  A bit wine like in the aroma. Boozy
• Appearance:  Reddish-brown and clear.  Pours with a thin layer of foam that quickly fades to nothing
• Flavor:  Dark caramel and sweet bready flavors along with a subtle fruit flavor.  The finish has a bit of bitterness and is countered by a hit of alcohol and a strong and rich caramel and chocolate flavor.
• Mouthfeel:  Medium-light bodied and pretty dry.  Goes down very smooth with noticeable warming alcohol
• Overall:  Very richly flavored and complex - the finish in particular is very interesting.  The malt flavors are really the stars of the show here.
• 5/28/22 - Tasting Notes (2022) - Plain:
• Tasting Notes (40 of 50):
• Aroma (9 of 12):  Rich fruity aroma most prominent.  Smells a bit like a wine.  Also get some caramel and sweet malt in there along with brown sugar.  Some booze in the mix as well.  Don't really get any hops.  A very nice smelling beer.
• Appearance (2 of 3):  Red in color and pretty clear.  Pours with a small amount of head that quickly fades to nothing.
• Flavor (17 of 20):  Fruity flavor up front which fades into some toasty and bready malt along with caramel and maybe even a chocolate note.  The finish is fairly dry but has a nice crisp malty flavor.  There is a slight hop bitterness to it.
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):  Medium bodied and fairly dry - just a bit of sweetness to it.  It's very smooth.  A bit of alcohol heat to it.
• Overall (8 of 10):  This is a bold and complex beer.  It has a very nice fruit character (although I'm not sure exactly what fruit it resembles) and a really satisfying bold set of malt flavors.  It's fairly easy to drink but it's also a very nice sipping beer.
• 5/28/23 - Tasting Notes (2023):
• Tasting Notes (40 of 50):
• Aroma (10 of 12):  Fruity (raisin and apple maybe) along with a musty character.  Wine like.  Some caramel malt in there as well.  Has a bit of a spicy character as well and a candy like sweetness.  Pretty bold aroma.
• Appearance (2 of 3):  Reddish brown in color and clear.  Pours with very slight bubbling that fades immediately.
• Flavor (16 of 20):  Fruity and caramel malt up front.  Also has something like a maple syrup flavor.  There is a mustiness in the flavor.  Get a bit of booze in there as well.  Only the tiniest bit of bitterness to it.  The malty and musty flavors linger on the finish.
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):  Medium bodied and only lightly sweet.  It has a slight astringency.  Noticeable warming alcohol.
• Overall (8 of 10):  Complex and bold flavors in this one.  This is an enjoyable beer to drink.
• 6/1/24 - Tasting Notes (2024):
• Tasting Notes (32 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):  A bit of malt and then a fruity and wine like character - maybe some raisin in there.  Has a bit of alcohol in the aroma as well.  Interesting aroma but fairly mild
• Appearance (2 of 3):  Pours with only a thin layer of foam.  Redish brown and clear
• Flavor (15 of 20):  Malty up front with toasted bread being the primary characteristic.  A bit of a fruity character next but it is faint.  No bitterness.  The finish is the toasty bready malt character.  Alcohol comes through in the end as well.  The flavor lingers for some time after the sip.  Flavor is fairly mild.
• Mouthfeel (3 of 5):  Medium bodied and pretty smooth - not really sticky on the palate.  Maybe has a bit of prickliness.
• Overall (5 of 10):  It is a relatively dry barleywine and not that boldly flavor or complex.  I wonder if there could have been some oxidation here.  Not a bad beer but definitely not as nice as most of the others

Lessons Learned:

1. Got very good efficiency this time.  Not sure why it was so good - maybe the 90 min mash helped with that.  I had assumed my efficiency would be in the 60s which is what typically happens with such large grain bills.
2. I think understanding the first wort gravity and volume was a very helpful data point.  If my efficiency had been bad I could have tried to course correct at that point.
3. The sight glass really helped - I think this is a very useful tool
4. My boil kettle is capable of gracefully handling 11 gal of wort.  Might be able to get one more gal into the kettle - good to know if I ever do a 10 gal batch.
5. Having only one large pot is a bit of a pain as the small pot was not large enough to boil the strike water addition or a reasonably sized batch sparge.  As a result I had to improvise with a large mash out addition from the large kettle.  Also having to ladle the water around is annoying.  I think I have started to appreciate the limits of my current setup.  The impact of these limits seems to be more pronounced with a larger beer like this one.
6. I wasn't even close with the final gravity - attenuated almost 10 points more than I was hoping for (it really was blind hope though).  Mashing in the low 150s/high 140s probably was a major contributor to this.  Nottingham and S-04 are pretty strong fermenters up to 12% ABV - I just had too much readily fermentable sugar I guess.