American Barleywine
I brewed my first barleywine this weekend. It was by far the largest beer that I have ever brewed weighing in at 1.111. My efficiency suffered due to the high gravity and perhaps my mash PH was a touch high due to the addition of about 7 g of chalk to the mash. Typically I use 78% efficiency for my brew house however this recipe yielded about 64%. So basically I would have extracted another 10 points sugars if I had hit my numbers. As it is this beer will probably finish at 11.5% to 12% abv, which is plenty by style.
For the hops I went with predominately west coast hops with 7 of the 8.5 ozs of hops being added in the final 15 minutes. Additionally I waited 30 minutes before starting the cooling. According to some research out of this years craft brewers conference, this wait to cool plus dryhopping yields some of the strongest hop aroma in beers. Now, I know that this beer is going to have to age at least 6 month and most of this aroma will dissappate, but the way I look at it, its not going to hurt.
Given the color of this beer (22 srm) Palmer’s water chemistry excel sheet suggested raising the residual alkalinity (lowering the PH). My mash PH was in the 5.6 range which was ok in the end analysis however I would rather have been around the 5.4 or 5.5 number. Next time a little less chalk or perhaps a gram of Gypsum and Chloride to balance it out.
As I stated earlier the end result is a deep red beer, that when I measured the gravity the hydrometer almost jumped out of the top of sample jar. I reused a yeast cake of Cal Ale II from my latest Rye Ipa. It is currently fermenting in my 10 gallon corny @ 65 degrees F.
Recipe:
Grist:
20.00 lb Maris Otter (2 Row) (3.0 SRM) Grain 75.0 %
2.00 lb Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 7.5 %
2.00 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 7.1 %
1.50 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 5.6 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 1.9 %
0.50 lb Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 1.9 %
0.25 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 0.9 %Hop Schedule:
1.00 oz Zeus [16.40%] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 46.9 IBU
0.50 oz Magnum [14.10%] (60 min) Hops 23.7 IBU
2.00 oz Chinook [13.00%] (15 min) Hops 23.3 IBU
2.00 oz Pacific Gem [15.40%] (5 min) Hops 17.3 IBU
3.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (0 min) Hops -
