Barleywine

2/1/05 - Barleywine - Barleywine Time! Easily my favorite beer. We were quite happy with the 2004 version and receive a bunch of positive feedback from ya'll. The Celebrator was also in agreement as they ranked our beer with the best of the barleywines they tasted last year. We sent some more bottles out this year and though I haven't seen the issue I believe we have once again been well ranked. The two aspects of last years beer that we decided to alter was bitterness and mouthfeel. We felt the beer a tad over hopped and so dropped the IBU's from 90 to 80. We also added CaraHell into our malt profile to add a bit of the residueals this dextrin malt leaves behind.

The nose is a bit understated and we'll work on bumping up the dry hopping next year. Can never add too many dry hops. I definitely like the hop and malt balance better this year. Could it perhaps use a tad more body? The flavors linger beautifully with that great warming in the ol' belly. I look forward to meeting this beer again next fall after it's had a chance to grow up and mature a wee bit.

Malt:
Pilsner Malt
Pale Ale Malt
Caramunich
Aromatic Malt
Special B
CaraHell
Brown Sugar

SG - 23° p
TG - 3.4° p

Hops:
IBU 80
Simcoe - Bittering
Santiam & Cascade - Flavoring
Santiam - Aroma
Warrior - Dry Hopping