I found out a week and a half ago that my wife is pregnant. Yippee!
I’d like to make a big beer now and celebrate with it in about 8 months (She’s due end of Dec - beginning of Jan) but I’m still not ready for all grain.
I see that NB uses 12 lbs of LME and then what looks like not much hops. Could I make something similar using a bit more hops than the 3 oz of Cascade/Willamette they call for in their recipe? I’m just worried that I won’t have that hop flavor I’m accustomed to.
I’m planning on adding a couple pnds of honey at the end of the boil as well.
This brings me to my next question. I just harvested over a quart of 05 yeast cake two days ago, and it’s in the fridge now. I assume I should use more of that cake than I normally would for such a high gravity beer?
Because I’m not that knowledgeable, are Barleywines ever dryhopped? This is what I have in BeerSmith right now…
1oz Magnum 60 min
1oz Citra 15 min
1oz Centennial 15
1oz Cascade and 1oz Citra dry hop
Gives me round about 1.087 and IBU’s at 54
Should I let it sit in a carboy for longer than a regular beer? Or should I just make it like a normal beer, bottle it and let it sit for 7 or 8 months.
Thanks for any help on some ‘Baby A-Comin’ Barleywine!
you can definitely add more hops. Typically English barlywines are more malt forward, and American barlywines are a bit more hop forward. many barleywines are dry hopped, but that hop aroma will diminish with time. personally i like dry hopped barleywines. If you bulk age your barleywine you will get the most out of the dry hops because you can add them a week before you bottle/keg. rather than doing the same, and letting them age in the bottles (remember hop aroma will dimish with time). so it depends how you want to do things, IMO it cant hurt. I would recomend using the lightest malt extract you can find, rather than the gold DME. Gold DME will result in a higher FG, and with barleywines - reaching a low/reasonable FG can be difficult, the gold DME will only make that harder. IMO honey or a sugar addition is a good idea.
for the yeast. http://www.mrmalty.com has a yeast pitching calculator that has a “repitch from slurry” option that will help you decide how much slurry you will need. Dont forget to add the ‘harvest date’ in the top right corner of the calculator
This is just me but I’d try to up the gravity about 10 points. If your going to go big go big. And while we’re on that I’d up the bittering addition and try to get around 100IBUs. A lot of that hop flavor and aroma is going to fade over time. There 's nothing wrong with dryhopping a Barleywine, or any other beer for that matter if it gets you the flavor you want. As far as the yeast goes I try to make a starter beer for all of my giant beers and just use the whole yeast cake after two weeks in the primary. There are other people who will say you should rinse it first but I’ve gotten great attenuation this way and it’s easy. If you don’t do that at least make a BIG starter.
The problem is he wants to celebrate in 8 months. Much more O G and you’ll be celebrating the kid’s first or second birthday with it instead of his birth.
I guess my only problem with upping the IBU’s is that my father in law, whom I’d like to share the beer with, doesn’t like bitter beers. As far as upping the gravity I could go 12 pnds of LME and still add the the 2 pnds of honey. That gets me to 1.101 and almost 11% but would the beer be ready in 6 or 7 months? Shows I’d finish around 1.019 but I doubt with extract I’d get that low. Hell, the PA and IPA’s I make now have never finished under that ha… I’m sure that’s the Extract though.
The reason I’m using Gold LME is I have a case of 6lb bottles sitting in the closet. I’m not interested in spending any other money for awhile, specially with a little one on the way!
Maybe I’ll just go with the 12 pnds of LME and leave the honey out.
Hmmm Mr. Malty is saying I should use 150 ml of yeast slurry… that doesn’t seem like lot. Comes out to .15 quarts. That’s not even a fifth of a quart. I’d feel better using at least 1/4 of a quart.
[quote=“Nighthawk”]I was going to suggest upping the bittering also. But after looking at the SNPA clone thread I going to say stay with what you have. OG 1.054/34IBU
Keep the honey, or use 1/2 honey and 1/2 table sugar. Like you mention, it’s going to be difficult to get the FG down low.
Pitch the full yeast cake on this one.
Congratulations !!![/quote]
I’m looking at the SNPA thread but what are those 1.054 and 34 ibu numbers you posted for? I’m getting 1.087 and 54 IBU with my recipe up there, at least that’s what BeerSmith is giving me.
I have about 1 1/4 quarts of yeast cake. I should pitch that much? There’s very little water/beer coming to the top of the cakes/jars although they’ve only been in the fridge for two days.
After thinking about it, I think I may just bottle them after it’s done fermenting. If I wait 5 or 6 months I’m afraid there will be no active yeast left and I don’t know that I want to re-pitch that far down the road to bottle.
Thanks for the congrats. My first baby on the way. I’m not very young either so it may be my only baby on the way haha…
At first I was thinking your IBU were low also, with an OG of 1.087 and IBU of 54. But then reading the SNPA thread, it’s readings are 1.054OG/34 IBU. So it your recipe is more in line ratio wise than I had thought. On the low end of the barleywine style. But home brewing is about making something the YOU want to drink. Not what someone on the internet wants you to drink.
Many times, as noted earlier, people will transfer a IIPA/Barlywine on to a yeast cake still in the fermenter. So I would not worry about pitching a full quart. Save the last little bit as it may be more hot/cold break material than yeast.
The beer will be ready in 6-7 months if it is 1.100 OG. It will be better after 1, 2 years, and if you’re lucky, even better after that. But at 6 months it will be ready. I personally see nothing wrong with a 1.100 beer with 54 IBUs.
