The New Barrel Recipe

[Bubbles]

After lots and lots of discussion last night in the DH, most of the signed-up barrel contributors (Bubbles, Shanna, Rossa, Brewtus, David, Cathal, Beerfly, Shiny) have agreed on a rather unique strategy for our second fill of the barrel. We're going to brew an English barleywine, but instead of striving to achieve consistency across everyone's batches, we're going to do exactly the opposite... 

Everyone who wants to contribute will brew an English barleywine to his own recipe. After fermentation and conditioning, the beers will be rack to our rinsed out barrel and aged for as long as it takes to extract the oak flavors. The recipes will be unique and our finished beer will certainly be unique. A real collaboration of brewers.

So, to summarize what was discussed and (mostly) agreed last night..

While the recipes will be individual and designed according to each brewers vision, there are certain things which can't be changed. The original gravity, bitterness and yeast strain will be standard across all batches. We're going to shoot for an OG of 1.100 (targeting an FG of 1.024 and an ABV of just over 10%), and an IBU of 63. Yeast will be Nottingham with a recommended pitch of 2-3 sachets, depending on batch size. Mash temp 66C to keep the wort reasonably fermentable.

The grain bill should be around 95% English pale ale malt and no more than 6% crystal malt. We can also sub a small percentage of the pale malt for toasted malts - pale chocolate, amber, brown, biscuit. If using roasted malts like chocolate malt or roasted barley, we should keep the additions very small.

Flavour hops should be strictly English varieties, though we can use a high-alpha American variety for bittering, as long as it's a clean bittering hop, something like Magnum.

By the way, the target gravities, bitterness, grain bill percentages above are based on Jamil's English Barleywine in Brewing Classic styles.

You don't have to come up with your recipe independently, if you think you need guidance on your own brew, just shout on the forum. In any case, I think it's a good idea to post the recipes on the forum before brewing so that we make sure we're all on the right track.

There was a discussion last night around the use of extract. I know my own mash tun might not cope with the amount of grain for a recipe like this, so I'll certainly be a using a portion of extract to bump the gravity up.

Below is a modified version of Jamil's recipe which I punched into BeerSmith. It would be good to use this as a reference. My recipe is a lot hoppier, which I think is advisable in order to protect the beer against any nasties.

None of this is set in stone, by any means. I'm just trying to put a bit of shape on last night's discussions. So please respond with any suggestions/corrections you have.

Cheers.

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BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: South Dublin Brewers English Barleywine
Brewer: Bubbles
Asst Brewer:
Style: English Barleywine
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 25.40 l
Post Boil Volume: 23.40 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 19.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 17.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.103 SG
Estimated Color: 27.2 EBC
Estimated IBU: 64.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 71.1 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
9.750 kg              Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC)         Grain         1        94.5 %       
0.284 kg              Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (78.8 EBC)    Grain         2        2.8 %         
0.284 kg              Caramel/Crystal Malt -100L (197.0 EBC)   Grain         3        2.8 %         
56 g                  Challenger [7.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min      Hop           4        51.0 IBUs     
0.50 Items            Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins)        Fining        5        -             
50 g                  Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min         Hop           6        5.5 IBUs     
50 g                  Goldings, East Kent [6.90 %] - Boil 10.0 Hop           7        7.6 IBUs     
2.0 pkg               Nottingham (Danstar #-) [23.66 ml]       Yeast         8        -             


[Shanna]

Hi Conor,

Think you missed your calling as a writer if the brewing does not work out. Recipe and description pretty much nails what we talked about last night.

My own take on the recipe is as below.

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English Barley Wine: English Barleywine (19 B)
Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 21.00 l
Boil Size: 28.96 l
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 24.96 l
Final Bottling Vol: 21.00 l
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage
Date: 28 Mar 2014
Brewer: Shanna
Asst Brewer:
Equipment: Shanna's Equipment
Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 80.0 %
Taste Rating: 30.0
Taste Notes:
Prepare for Brewing
Clean and Prepare Brewing Equipment
Total Water Needed: 42.23 l
Mash or Steep Grains
Mash Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
10.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 93.0 %
0.30 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (157.6 EBC) Grain 2 2.8 %
0.25 kg Amber Malt (43.3 EBC) Grain 3 2.3 %
0.20 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC) Grain 4 1.9 %

Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 30.54 l of water at 74.5 C 66.0 C 75 min

Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 15.73l) of 75.6 C water
Add water to achieve boil volume of 28.96 l
Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.089 SG

Boil Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
45.00 g Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 42.7 IBUs
1.11 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 -
50.00 g Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 7 5.5 IBUs
50.00 g Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 6.1 IBUs

Estimated Post Boil Vol: 24.96 l and Est Post Boil Gravity: 1.107 SG
Cool and Transfer Wort
Cool wort to fermentation temperature
Transfer wort to fermenter
Add water if needed to achieve final volume of 21.00 l
Pitch Yeast and Measure Gravity and Volume
Fermentation Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2.0 pkg Nottingham (Danstar #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 9 -

Measure Actual Original Gravity _______     (Target: 1.107 SG)
Measure Actual Batch Volume _______     (Target: 21.00 l)
Add water if needed to achieve final volume of 21.00 l

Fermentation
28 Mar 2014 - Primary Fermentation (4.00 days at 19.4 C ending at 19.4 C)
01 Apr 2014 - Secondary Fermentation (10.00 days at 19.4 C ending at 19.4 C)


Shanna

[DEMPSEY]

Sounds like you had a good meet last night with a good discussion on your barrel project. If that was the liffey brewers meet we would need the discussion done early because later on the night descends into a general session of craic and good beer.

[Shanna]

Sounds like you had a good meet last night with a good discussion on your barrel project. If that was the liffey brewers meet we would need the discussion done early because later on the night descends into a general session of craic and good beer.

Ditto ourselves, last night part of the craic was mighty with loads of discussion of how the SD barrel beer did in the competition. Consensus was that part of the reason the beer turned out so well was the different approaches from the different brewers.

Shanna

[Bubbles]

I can't believe I remembered so much given the amount we put away! Must have been early in the evening... :-/

Shanna, that recipe looks really good. Can't go wrong with the amber malt.

[Shanna]

I can't believe I remembered so much given the amount we put away! Must have been early in the evening... :-/

Shanna, that recipe looks really good. Can't go wrong with the amber malt.

In fairness no complaints from me, especially considering you took on board my whinge about the hops ;-) I only have one type of crystal malt (load of it though) so I thought a bit of amber would not go astray. I have some special B malt that I was tempted to put in but given its used for Belgian beers I think it might be out of place.

Shanna

[Shane Phelan]

I have enough amber to feed Africa, I will bring it to the next meet if anyone wants any.

[Shanna]

I have enough amber to feed Africa, I will bring it to the next meet if anyone wants any.

Ditto on crystal

Shanna

[Bubbles]

Just some more thoughts...

I'm thinking of keeping this one really simple. Normally I tend to go a bit overboard on the specialty malts, but I think I'm going to use a recipe not dissimilar to Jamil's above. Or maybe I'll use a bit of amber in it... Dunno yet.

I also normally keep a close eye on those darker crystal malts. I think 284g of 100L crystal would be really overwhelming in a "regular" beer, but in a long-aged barleywine, I think those darker flavours will age really well.

Anyone have any thoughts on using simple sugars? At 1.100 it's probably not necessary as you want lots of sweetness in a barleywine.

[Bubbles]

Also, because we're mashing at a relatively low temperature (66C) it's probably a good idea to do a 90-minute mash, instead of the more usual 60. That way you can ensure good conversion.

[John_C]

Sounds good lads, count me in for 15 or 30 liters.

[Shanna]

Sounds good lads, count me in for 15 or 30 liters.

30 would be great if you can manage it as we will need some extra to top up the barrel from what gets absorbed and what gets extracted for sampling.  Other thing is that i will probably need to get an extra corney from someone (any volunteers? I will have 40 litres of Russian imperial Porter coming out of the barrel that i will need to store so i won't have any spare kegs.

Shanna

[Bubbles]

Shanna, I've plenty of kegs doing nothing so I'll sort you out there. But I'll be looking for a blast of CO2 to seal my corny, just until I get my gas bottle sorted. Ta.

[Shanna]

Shanna, I've plenty of kegs doing nothing so I'll sort you out there. But I'll be looking for a blast of CO2 to seal my corny, just until I get my gas bottle sorted. Ta.

That is mighty generous of you Conor,  hope everybody appreciates this. I am assuming you will take this RIP away in one of your kegs? I should have Co to sort you and others out with no problem.

Shanna

[Bubbles]

Yep, I'll seal 18 litres or so in a corny until I get my kegging and counter-pressure bottler sorted. I should have a few litres over so I'll stick that in a demi-john for bottle conditioning. Or blending, like I was talking about the other night.