aging a barleywine

[jm]

I'm headed up to Denver for the GABF and a friend of mine up there wanted me to bring my brewing equipment and show him how to brew; he's on the fence about getting into it and wanted to see what it's about. So I asked him what he wanted to brew and he immediately responds "barleywine!"

I'm fine with that but my concern is that it's probably going to set in secondary until next year's GABF. He's got a nice cool basement so the temperature should be pretty stable over the year but I'm not sure if sitting in secondary that long is going to develop off-flavors or have some other issues; I've never tried letting something sit for that long without bottling it.

I'm listening to the high gravity series on Brew Strong but haven't hit on a definite answer yet and I'm sure someone here has some advice.

[brewinhard]

i think your best bet is to either age in a corny keg after crash-cooling to drop out yeast/sediment or simply bottling directly after a lengthy primary fermentation (3-4 wks) to be sure it is done. I once aged a barleywine in a carboy after primary fermentation for 5 mos and although there didn't seem like excess trub/yeast had settled to the bottom, there was definitely a meaty/brothy/smelly vitamin jar thing going on which was definitely due to yeast autolysis. Just giving you my experience and what I have learned from it.

[jm]

The more I think about it the more I think I'm gonna have to pull the plug on the GABF barleywine. Thanks for confirming it's a bad idea. Maybe next year.