Barleywine

2/18/03 - Barleywine. Ya gotta love brewing at a time and place in beer history when you can say, "Man, those 80 IBU's just weren't enough!" I'll take all the blame - on the first batch of the Barleywine I wimped out. However, for the second batch we did bump the hopping up to a respectable Big Beer level of 100 IBU's. The grain bill (except for the 2-row pale malt) was all done with Belgian specialty malts. We recently switched to Dingeman's for our Belgian malts and they really seemed to shine in this beer.

Wanting to hit a starting gravity of 25°P or higher we took steps to ensure the beer would finish dry enough to avoid being over satiating. This was achieved both by mash temperature profile and adding 200 lbs of brown sugar into the boil. We mashed in at 148 °F and rested for 20 minutes and then raised the temp to 158 °F and again rested for 20 minutes. The other things we changed from a regular brew were a quick sparge of only 100 gallons and extending the boil to 2.5 hours.

Both batches began around 26°P (our more accurate hydrometers only go up to 25.) and finished around 5 °P. At over 10% alcohol this beer is a pleasure to drink on the cold snowy days of winter. The nose is ripe with alcohol, raisins, and a hint of port. The dry hop character doesn't come through as well as we'd like, but dern it, we're working on solutions. The body is sweet as you'd expect but the hopping does add a nice citrusy touch to the flavor profile. The tail is where the hopping comes through the best with a nice dry finish. This beer is certainly young right now but in a few months should start to reveal itself as a fine product. (back to top of page)

Malt:
2-Row Pale Malt
Pale Ale Malt
Caramunich
Aromatic
Special B.
Brown Sugar

OG 26° P
TG 5.0° P

Hops:
Magnum Bittering
Magnum Flavoring
Cascade Flavoring
Amarillo Dryhop