What the hell did I just make? (I think its a Barleywine??)

[Thirsty Boy]

Well, I just brewed up a batch of this stuff... I thinks its kind of a Barleywine.

I wasn't intending to brew really I was just mucking about home toasting some malt. and before you knw it I was in the middle of a brew day. The recipe consisted of what I had on hand

It was:

10.5litre batch (2.8 gallons) - OG = 1.087 IBU = 63

Pale Malt (2 row) - 2.6kg (5.7lb)
Darkish Munich malt - I think at around 30EBC - 0.5kg (1.1lb)
1 round Palm sugar - 520g (1.15lb)

90min boil

25g Pride of Ringwood @ 60min
30g EKG @ 30min
10g EKG @ 5min

Yeast nutrient
Whirlfloc

will be fermenting with Safale S04 when I get around to taking it out of the no-chill cubes


It falls into the style guidelines for an English Barleywine, but all the recipes I have seen include a slug of crystal malts... thats why I went for the Palm sugar. I haven't brewed with it before, but I was hoping for some nice caramel flavours to sub for the crystal..

If it isn't a barleywine... what is it??

Thanks

Thirsty

[Bugeater]

Sure looks like an underhopped English style barleywine to me. The first one I ever brewed had about 1.5 kg of 60L crystal in a 5 gallon batch. That one you almost wanted to spread on toast, it was so thick and sweet (but very good!). The last one I did had less than 0.5 kg of crystal malt and had a pound of pioncillo sugar (Mexican nrefined cane sugar) to help the gravity and add a little flavor. That was is also quite good and will improve with some age.

I don't think that a bunch of crystal malt is the determining factor in whether it is a barleywine. What matters is whether it tastes like one. No one who drinks it will know exactly what is or isn't in there. As long as it tastes right, it is right.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[Thirsty Boy]

Thanks Bug,

I've never actually tasted a barleywine before (either english or american) so I'm just gonna have to try and find one while this ages.

Underhopped?? I looked at promash for a bit of a guide to how many IBUs to give it and I'm at the upper end of the guidelines for IBUs, while being at the lower end for the gravity. I was trying to over hop it so that it would age OK....

Oh well, I guess it might just be a bit sweet, thats OK, maybe I will dry hop it for a while before I bottle it, but probably not.

Thanks mate

Thirsty

[Bugeater]

Underhopped? English style barleywines do go a little easy on the hops. However the bitterness does fade over time and you will want to age this for a minimum of 7 or 8 months before it's ready to drink. For this style, I go for a BU:GU ratio between 0.9 and 1.0. Your BW is at 1.087 so I would have gone for for 78-87 IBU. 63 IBU probably tastes just fine at this point, but the bitterness will gradually drop off and give you a sweeter tasting beer. I base this on my own taste and feedback from a couple of competitions. However, part of this may just be on how my software computes IBU's and the actual AA% of my hops after storage at my place.

I'm not trying to be critical of your BW, especially with your first one. I imagine you will really like what you end up with. With a small batch like that, it will probably be gone long before the bitterness drops anyway. This is one of my favorite styles. I'm hooked on big malty beers.

Good luck with this one!

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[Thirsty Boy]

Thanks Wayne,

I'm more than happy for you to critisise my Barleywine.... I wasn't even sure that thats what I had made in the first place

Thanks for the hints about the BU:GU ratio, I was just looking at the style guidelines from promash, and I'd certainly rather have feed back from an experienced brewer.

Of course, its too late for this beer. But for my next one I (which I will probably brew before I even taste this one) I will go with a higher bitterness.

Hopefully, because I didn't include any crystal malts in the grist, that might cut down the amount of residual sugar. I might get away with the lower IBUs and still get it reasonably balanced. Fingers crossed.

Cheers Bug

Thirsty

[Bugeater]

I imagine you are right about the lack of crystal malt. You will probably end up with a good balance after all.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[leary]

Thirsty:
Young's Old Nick is an English style of barleywine you may be able to find. Here is the website for that:

http://www.youngs.co.uk/ProductPage.asp ... roductID=9

A great american style barleywine is sierra nevada's bigfoot ale. YUMMY!

[Thirsty Boy]

Thirsty:
Young's Old Nick is an English style of barleywine you may be able to find. Here is the website for that:

http://www.youngs.co.uk/ProductPage.asp ... roductID=9

A great american style barleywine is sierra nevada's bigfoot ale. YUMMY!

Thanks Leary,

We do get a few Youngs products here, so there is a small chance I might run into the Old Nick one day. I'll keep an eye out.

Unfortunately the Sierra Nevada Bigfoot is almost an impossible ask. Basically nobody is importing American beer into Australia. Well not that I can find anyway. We get a few of the usual items from BMC, a little bit of Sam Adams boston lager, a vanishingly small amount of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (I've actually seen it on a shelf once !!) and I heard vague rumors that you Anchor steam appears once every year or two..

Sigh