The beer fermented at an unusually high temperature (mid 70s) to get a lot of ester character from the yeast. The recipe called for WLP 099 Super High Gravity yeast which is supposed to be Eldridge Pope's original strain. I wasn't able to get this in time for last year's brew so I went with the alternative suggestion of Nottingham. I was frustrated by not having the original yeast so this year I planned ahead and got the real thing. I've brewed a batch of small beer on the yeast to act as a starter for this batch so I'll hopefully have a bit healthy cake to chew through this 1.1 SG wort.
The beer is aggressively hopped to 84 IBU per recipe. This was accomplished with low AA English Hops. Last year I used mostly (5.5 oz) EKG at 6.1% AA along with a bit of Fuggle (2 oz) at 4.5% AA to accomplish the task. This year I've gone with a bit more (8.5 oz) of Fuggle only for the bittering. I was hoping to get whole leaf hops for this (not sure why) but they were all sold out so I've gone with pellet. Makes for a lot of plant matter in the beer using low AA acid hops, which will waste some wort, but I like the bittering character of Fuggles.
Finally, last year I tried to cram 6 gal of this beer into a 6.5 gal bucket and got a ton of blow out (almost had the lid pop off due to a blocked blow off tube actually). Made a mess and lost me a lot of beer. This time I'll ferment in two buckets and then combine for aging.
This is my sixth English Barleywine brewed on Memorial Day. These beers require patience to make but I really enjoy the process. Hope to do many more.
Recipe Details:
- Grain:
- 16 lb Maris Otter
- 7 lb 2 Row
- 4.5 lb Flaked Wheat
- 1.5 lb Crystal 60 L
- 6 oz Acid Malt
- Hops:
- 6 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 4.7% AA) at 120 min
- 2.5 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 4.7% AA) at 15 min
- Yeast:
- WLP 099 Super High Gravity (Eldridge Pope/Hardy’s yeast) - Second Pitch
- Water:
- 20 gal spring water
- 2 oz CaCl
- 2 oz Gypsum
- 1 oz Irish Moss at 15 min
- Extras:
- 1 oz Cabernet soaked Toasted Oak
Process Details:
- Batch Size:
- 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
- Mash:
- 153 F for 60 min
- Boil:
- 3 hrs
- Fermentation Temperature:
- 70+ F
- Primary Duration:
- 4 weeks
- Secondary Duration:
- 4-5 months
Results:
- OG:
- 1.120 (Target 1.100)
- Efficiency:
- 6.7% (Target 62%)
- FG:
- 1.010 (Target 1.030)
- Apparent Attenuation:
- 91% (Target 71%)
- ABV:
- 16.25% (Target 11.87%)
Brewing Notes:
- 5/27/19 - Brewday - 9:45 AM to 4:45 PM Including setup and cleanup
- Brought 7 gal of spring water up to 185 F
- Milled half the grain. Mixed the CaCl and Gypsum in with this
- Moved 6 gal into the mash tun. Cycled the RIMS at 163 F. Had about 1 gal in the Grant and RIMS during this.
- Added the grain to the mash tun. Stirred well to eliminate doughballs
- Set the RIMS to cycle at 153 F. Temperature settled out to about 151 F - ramped up to target within 10 min. Mashed for 6 min
- Heated 9.5 gal of sparge/strike water to 185 F
- Sparged the mash until I'd collected about 7 gal of wort. Left about a gal of final runnings in the grant
- Brought the wort to a boil. Boiled for 60 min
- Cleaned out the mash tun and then added 5 more gal of water. Cycled this through the RIMs (along with the previous mash's final runnings) until the system was at 163 F. This took an extra 30 min of cycling the RIMS to get there
- Milled the second half of the grain (added the second half of brewing salts to this). Added to the mash tun and stirred well to eliminate dough balls. Temperature settled to 154 F.
- Heated another 5 gal of spring water up to 185 F
- Mashed for 60 min. Cycled the RIMS the entire time at 153 F
- Boiled down to about 4 gal by the end of the mash
- Sparged the second mash until I had about 11 gal of wort
- Continued heating through the mash and had it at a low boil most of the time
- Boiled for 120 min
- Added the bittering hops once the hot break cleared
- Transferred my Historic Pale Ale (AK) off the yeast cake to a new fermenter
- Added the flavoring hops with 30 min left
- Put in Irish Moss with 15 min left
- Put in the chiller to sanitize with 5 min left
- Chilled to 75 F
- Split the yeast between two fermenters
- Drained the wort into the fermenters. Let it drop a couple feet to aerate
- Collected about 6 gal. There was maybe a half gal of wort mixed with the hops and hot break. I decided to pour this into the fermenters
- I added 1 additional vial of yeast to the fermenters during the transfer
- Measured the gravity as 1.120
- Moved to the chest freezer set to 77 F
- 5/28/19 - Lots of airlock activity the next day
- 6/28/19 - Combined the two halves into one fermenter for a bit more aging on the yeast cake. Moved this out of the chest freezer
- 7/19/19 - Moved the fermenter to the chest freezer to cold crash at 34 F
- 7/20/19 - Added gelatin to fine the beer
- 7/21/19 - Transferred the beer into a glass carboy for a bit more aging. Added about 1 oz of oak which I'd toasted at 360 F and then soaked in Cabernet Sauvignon for a year. Measured the gravity of the beer as 1.010. I'll give the beer another three months or so to age.
- 1/5/20 - Bottled today with 4 oz of priming sugar and a pack of rehydrated Red Star Premier Cuvee Champagne yeast. Gravity is still 1.010. Tastes really good with strong dark fruit and caramel. Ended up with a bit under 6 gal which netted me 53 12 oz bottles (I would have had a couple more but I dropped the bottle caper and spilled some.)
- 2/16/20 - Tasting Notes - Very rich and complex beer. It makes a very good sipper on a cold night. It's boozy for sure but it doesn't taste like it would be 16% ABV. I really like the toasty bread and caramel flavor and how it coats the mouth and lingers. Also nice that it's sweet but not overly so. I think this one is going to age very nicely for me.
- 5/23/20 - Tasting Notes (2020):
- Aroma: Herbal hops are pretty pronounced in this one. Fruit ester also plays in the background. A bit of malt but it's overcome by the other aroma. Alcohol comes through in the background as well
- Appearance: Pours with a 1 finger head that fades to nothing fairly quickly. Brown and very clear.
- Flavor: Toasty caramel malt up front. A good amount of hop flavor comes in next and then the toasty and cramel-like malt character lingers in the finish. This is balanced by bitter hop flavor. There is a fruity yeast ester character that also comes through in the start. It also has a pretty smooth alcohol component that comes through all this slightly
- Mouthfeel: Medium-light bodied and slightly sweet. Very smooth. Warming alcohol presence
- Overall: Very nicely flavored beer. Really rich set of flavors with the malt being the star. The hop flavor rounds things out nicely. As the youngest beer here it's quite different in terms of prominence of yeast character. I imaging this will become more apparent as it ages and the bolder hop flavors fade
- 5/30/21 - Tasting Notes (2021):
- Aroma: Fruity ester character - overripe fruit. Some booze in there. Maybe a bit of caramel as well
- Appearance: Dark gold and very clear. Pours with a 1 finger head that fairly quickly fades to a thin ring
- Flavor: Fruity ester and sweet bready and caramel malts. A bit of toasty flavor in there as well. Has a chocolate character too it. Gives the impression of sweetness. Finishes with a medium bitterness that is balanced by rich dark malt. Some booze in there as well. Maybe get some hop flavor out of it as well
- Mouthfeel: Medium-full bodied and fairly sticky. Smooth drinking with warming alcohol
- Overall: Very rich and complex beer. Has a very nice combination of malt and yeast character
- 5/28/22 - Tasting Notes (2022):
- Tasting Notes (36 of 50):
- Aroma (7 of 12): A bit boozy with an unusual fruity ester character. Also get a fair bit of bready, toasty malt and caramel. I think I also smell some oak in there. I don't really pick out any hops here.
- Appearance (2 of 3): Dark red and very clear. Pours with a 1 finger head that quickly dissipates to nothing
- Flavor (16 of 20): Sweet bready malt up front along with a dark caramel flavor. In the middle I get a wave of booze along with some fruity ester character. The finish has a fairly assertive bitterness which a bit more agressive than the malt flavors. I may get a bit of herbal hop character in there as well
- Mouthfeel (4 of 5): Medium-full bodied and slightly sweet. Drinks with just a bit of astringency. Has an alcohol warming effect
- Overall (7 of 10): This is strongly flavored beer with a nice level of complexity. Has a slant towards strong malt character with a more restrained fruity ester character. Quite a boozy beer which is nice in a Barleywine of course. I really like the bitterness to it as well.
- 5/28/23 - Tasting Notes (2023):
- Tasting Notes (40 of 50):
- Aroma (7 of 12): Light fruit flavor - overripe dark fruit and maybe apple. Musty. A bit of caramel malt and maybe some toasted malt in there as well
- Appearance (3 of 3): Copper colored and very clear. Pours with a 1 finger head that fades down to a thin ring after a few minutes
- Flavor (17 of 20): Fruity up front followed by a rich dark caramel and toasted bread flavor. The finish has a medium bitterness and a firm and bold malt flavor which lingers. It's lightly sweet in the finish. It also has a chocolate kind of character to it. A bit of booze in the flavor profile as well.
- Mouthfeel (5 of 5): Medium full bodied and a bit sticky. Drinks very smoothly
- Overall (8 of 10): This is a nice boldly flavored beer with pretty good complexity. It has a nice balance between fruity and malt flavors (and leans a bit more towards the malt). Has a nice bitterness which balances the finish nicely.
Lessons Learned:
- I got most of my grain from a LHBS called "Fancy Camper" near me. I ordered 21 lbs of grain (or at least I thought I did). I ended up getting charged for 24 lbs of grain and then, when I measured, I got 22 lbs of grain (including the bag). I was frustrated by the $$$ but, more so, as I had them bag all the grain together, I was frustrated that I don't really know what I actually got. It is a very convenient shop so I will certainly go back but I'll ask for grain bagged separately going forward.
- I ended up overshooting my OG by quite a bit with the beer. I did the same thing with my last big beer (RIS with Oak). I have been assuming an ~60%. I'm doing a bit better. You can always top up with water to get closer to target OG but then volume of the fermenter is also a concern. Not sure what I'll do next time but I think it's better to be a bit high than a bit low.
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