Kegged up an American Barley-wine today, tasted savage straight out of the fermentor! I bottled up 5 bottles and plan to leave the rest in the keg to bulk age for six months or so.
Then gonna dry hop it for a week or so and bottle from the keg. Do ya reckon it would be better to leave it at room temp or put it in the fridge for the 6 months, what difference do ya think there would be if any?
Gonna try a bottle every month or so and see how it's developing and decide when to bottle the rest.
QuoteKegged up an American Barley-wine today, tasted savage straight out of the fermentor! I bottled up 5 bottles and plan to leave the rest in the keg to bulk age for six months or so.
Then gonna dry hop it for a week or so and bottle from the keg. Do ya reckon it would be better to leave it at room temp or put it in the fridge for the 6 months, what difference do ya think there would be if any?
Gonna try a bottle every month or so and see how it's developing and decide when to bottle the rest.
As no-one else has had a go at this, here goes:
I don't know is my answer!
However lets think about it.
A fridge is used to slow things down like yeast growth, spoilage bacteria growth, changes in taste.
If you put your keg in the fridge for say 6 months there may be very little maturation ( mellowing of and blending together of the flavours)
If you leave it out you should certainly expect to see some changes. So keep the bottles with the keg and the monthly tastings will show the way.
When you think you are getting near and its still to early to bottle or drink from keg then its into the fridge with it at say 0C. Don't worry with that amount of alcohol in a barley wine it won't freeze!
HTH
Just on aging a barleywine. I'm trying this at the moment as I have 16L or so in a corny.
OG was 1.100 and FG is 1.30 so 9.19% abv. For those who've brewed this style before do you recommend adding a wine yeast or other high-alcohol tolerant yeast to try it out further or is it OK to leave as is?
I've done my fare share of big barley wines and never needed to add any extra yeast.
I bottle and age in my beer press that sits at a constant 16-17c. I've never cold conditioned any on my batches and found they only get better with age. I have a few bottle conditioned ones coming up on 5 years old now and they are kinda nice.
Age for an absolute minimum for 6 months and try resist opening for a year or 2. You'll thank yourself later.
I do one a year so I can taste the difference as they age.
I would of expected just a bit closer to 1020 but it was big to start with that and the sweetness shouldn't be as apparent because of the alcohol. What does it taste like?
GCB have just pulled Gordon Strongs American Barley Wine medal recipe out of a Bushmills barrel, as Nigel says big beers a month a percent but for me its a 3-5yr min project, even Gordon himself is tasting some of his he did 13 years ago!
You can use cbc1 http://www.danstaryeast.com/company/products/cbc-1-cask-bottle-conditioned-beer-yeast from HB Shops if you wanted to re-seed but beware its fecky and you need to get your ratios right.
No question that they condition better in larger volumes rather than bottles so I guess leave in the keg as long as you dare just break off the liquid post ;).
Quote from: CH on February 22, 2016, 06:29:47 PM
I would of expected just a bit closer to 1020 but it was big to start with that and the sweetness shouldn't be as apparent because of the alcohol. What does it taste like?
Like boozy toffee! Actually I was quite pleased with how it tasted out of the fermentor just wondering if the high final gravity could become an issue in some way.
Quote from: CH on February 22, 2016, 06:29:47 PMNo question that they condition better in larger volumes rather than bottles so I guess leave in the keg as long as you dare just break off the liquid post ;).
So what you're telling me is i should get more cornies is it?? :P
Could be worse you could have to store "Imperial" Cider as well :D