After trying a big Imperial Stout a couple of weeks ago (which is still fermenting), I decided to take on another big beer with a Barleywine. Here is the recipe I used:
Batch Size - 5 gallons
Grains
16 lbs 13oz - Pale 2-Row
1 lbs 3.9 oz - White Wheat
1 lbs 2.3 oz - Cara Belgian
15.3 oz - Caramalt
9.2 oz - Munich Malt
9.2 oz - Caramunich Malt
Hops
5.35 oz - Fuggle (60 min)
1.61 oz - US Goldings (10 min)
Yeast
Wyeast 1056 - American Ale - Target 625 billion
cells
The brew schedule was as follows:
Mash
1.25 q water/lb
90 min at 158 degrees
Mashout to 170 degrees for 10 min
Sparge for approx 1 hour
Boil
150 min boil
Final 60 min - Add Fuggles
Final 10 min - Add Whirfloc and US Goldings
Fermentation
Primary - 14 Days @ 65
Secondary - 30 Days @ 70 on Bourbon Soaked Medium Char American Oak
Keg Condition - 30 Days
Here are the specs on this brew:
IBU's - 66.4
Color - 10.5 SRM
Calories - 357 per 12 oz
Estimated OG - 1.101
Actual OG - 1.093
Estimated FG - 1.029
Estimated ABV - 9.6%
New Estimated ABV from OG - 8.5%
A few notes on this brew. First, I have learned for reasons I am still learning (if that makes sense) that when brewing a high gravity beer it is easy to have a lower efficiency than normal. This proved to be true for this brew as I fell a little under my mark. After brewing I watched this video which gave me some ideas for next time:
Another part of this process which I'm dialing in is my BeerSmith2 software setup. There are many dynamics to this software that take time to learn. Not only learning about the software, but learning about details of your beer equipment and process. Going into this brew I felt I had things dialed in pretty well, however my results were not completely what I was expecting. What I'm also learning is that I can take a gravity reading at the end of my boil to see if I'm where I should be. If too low then I simply need to boil more.
More on the idea of boiling more. This is a bit trickier than it sounds because you add your hops at specific times. With that said I have been using the following calculator at Brewer's Friend:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/dilution-and-boiloff-gravity-calculator/
There is also a tool in the BeerSmith software to help with this too. Using a tool like this will help determine how much more you need to boil off before you hit your gravity. Knowing how much you need to boil off, and the rate your system boils off wort, you can determine the amount of time it takes. For example I use 1.8 gallons per hour of boil off, so if the software tells me I have 1.8 gallons left to go, then I know I have 1 hour left.
As you can see there are some moving parts here. Ideally you hit your pre-boil gravities so you don't have to modify along the way and you end up with the exact volume you are hoping. However you have to be flexible to hit your numbers. Remember the bitterness of hops are balanced by the sweetness of the beer, so if you get either too out of balance you may not like the results.
So far the fermentation is going well. I made a huge starter and pitched it a couple of days after the brew. I of course wanted to pitch it on brew day but the starter being so big took a big longer than expected. If you are solid in your cleaning and sanitizing, then there should be no issues with simply holding the wort ready to ferment in a closed container (in theory, though adds risk).
What I learned from last time is to aerate the wort well. Immediately after pitching the yeast I ran oxygen for as long as I could before it started to foam over. I let it settle a couple of hours, then did it again. I let that settle a couple of hours, then did it again.
If you watch the above video John Palmer discusses that really what would be better is to pitch the yeast at high krausen. This is something I am going to read and learn more about. Previously I've been allowing the starter to complete, then settle, then decant off the top beer leaving the slurry. I then swish the slurry around to stir it all up and pitch. There seems to be debate online regarding pitching the spent beer which is why I decant it off. However in order to pitch high krausen you have to pitch the fermented beer too. More reading to come...
This weekend I am going to go simpler and brew a Fat Tire Clone.
More on the idea of boiling more. This is a bit trickier than it sounds because you add your hops at specific times. With that said I have been using the following calculator at Brewer's Friend:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/dilution-and-boiloff-gravity-calculator/
There is also a tool in the BeerSmith software to help with this too. Using a tool like this will help determine how much more you need to boil off before you hit your gravity. Knowing how much you need to boil off, and the rate your system boils off wort, you can determine the amount of time it takes. For example I use 1.8 gallons per hour of boil off, so if the software tells me I have 1.8 gallons left to go, then I know I have 1 hour left.
As you can see there are some moving parts here. Ideally you hit your pre-boil gravities so you don't have to modify along the way and you end up with the exact volume you are hoping. However you have to be flexible to hit your numbers. Remember the bitterness of hops are balanced by the sweetness of the beer, so if you get either too out of balance you may not like the results.
So far the fermentation is going well. I made a huge starter and pitched it a couple of days after the brew. I of course wanted to pitch it on brew day but the starter being so big took a big longer than expected. If you are solid in your cleaning and sanitizing, then there should be no issues with simply holding the wort ready to ferment in a closed container (in theory, though adds risk).
What I learned from last time is to aerate the wort well. Immediately after pitching the yeast I ran oxygen for as long as I could before it started to foam over. I let it settle a couple of hours, then did it again. I let that settle a couple of hours, then did it again.
If you watch the above video John Palmer discusses that really what would be better is to pitch the yeast at high krausen. This is something I am going to read and learn more about. Previously I've been allowing the starter to complete, then settle, then decant off the top beer leaving the slurry. I then swish the slurry around to stir it all up and pitch. There seems to be debate online regarding pitching the spent beer which is why I decant it off. However in order to pitch high krausen you have to pitch the fermented beer too. More reading to come...
This weekend I am going to go simpler and brew a Fat Tire Clone.
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