Barleywine
Barleywine has an undeniable mystique; it is unique as a style and experience. Each year’s vintage is anxiously awaited to sample and to savor. Each brewer has his own special methods, ingredients, and secrets that are guarded closer than anything else in brewing. It is a drink made as much for the brewer as it is for the public.
Barleywine is a fairly recent term, although the style has existed for hundreds of years. The style has evolved from earlier versions known as malt liquors, first sort. These are a distinct relation to aged old ales, which perhaps provided the impetus for the tradition of attaching “old” to the name of the brew.
The barleywines of the early and middle 19th century were dark, strong ales with a high degree of residual sweetness. They were often mixed with weaker, young beers. It wasn’t until the 1950s that barleywine was brewed, by Tennant’s, as a pale-colored beer. This beer became Witbread gold label and after a great deal of success gave rise to brews such as Fuller’s Golden Pride, Bass #1 (now, shamefully, discontinued), and many of the American craft barleywines. And not until recently have barleywines been brewed with a perceptible bitterness.
The flavor profile can range wildly from one brewery to another depending on a multitude of factors, including yeast, grain, temperature of fermentation, final gravity, and the amount of aging given to the barleywine.
An example of this is the comparison of Pike Brewing’s Old Bawdy and Rogue Old Crustacean. The Pike barleywine is brewed with peated malt, which gives the finished product a distinct smoky flavor and earthy quality. Head Brewer Fal Allen says the grain bill is a bit different each year, with 30 percent being the largest amount of peated malt ever added. The Rogue, on the other hand, has no peat but is highly hopped, creating the need for long aging to establish the desired balance. Furthermore, the Old Bawdy is darker than the Old “Crusty.”
Barleywines by design are in the 1.084 to 1.120 (21° to 30° Plato) range, with terminal gravities of 1.020 to 1.032 (5° to 8° Plato). Alcohol content varies from 8 percent to 13 percent by volume, with bitterness of 50 to 100 IBUs and color of 14 to 22 SRM. This month’s recipe lands squarely within these parameters. It starts at 1.108 to 1.112 (27° to 28° Plato) and finishes at 1.020 (5° Plato) to give approximately the same alcohol content, 11.2 percent, as the imperial stout.
The traditional bittering hop Bullion is used at medium levels (about 4.5 AAU per gallon) and Kent Goldings (about 2 AAU per gallon) are used in the finish for flavor and aroma. This is an English-style barleywine, so the flavor tends toward bitterness. If you want to give your barleywine more of an American edge with more bitterness, like the Rogue Old Crustacean (and to a lesser extent the famed Old Foghorn by Anchor and Bigfoot by Sierra Nevada), then use American-type bittering hops in place of the Bullion and as alternates for the Goldings. Goodbittering hops are Columbus and Chinook, among others, while aroma varieties for this beer include Liberty, Cascade, and similar types.
This will be a fairly light beer with a distinct copper color coming from the caramel malt and a long boil, along the lines of the classic Tennant’s Barleywine. For examples of a traditional dark barleywine, look for Young’s Old Nick and Anchor’s Old Foghorn.
The procedure for brewing this barleywine is a bit different than normal, starting with an extended mash. You will see from the recipes that the mash lasts 90 minutes to ensure good conversion and to extract all the flavor and color from the grain. The boil is longer than normal as well, with an extra 30 minutes to concentrate the wort (which is an extra one-fourth to one-half gallon more than normal). Because we are dealing with basically the same amount of grain as we are with the imperial stout, the same techniques for dealing with large mashes can be applied here.
The yeast is one that works well in high-gravity environments such as this beer and settles out well in conditioning to give a good, clear beer after aging and carbonation. This is by no means the only yeast to use, but Wyeast’s London profile is very nice and the fermentation performance is good, or try White Lab’s WLP002 (English Ale) or something similar.
Old Squirrely Barleywine
(5 gallons, all-grain)
This barleywine was named for the gray squirrel that got into the brewery the first day it was brewed. But you can name it anything you want.
Ingredients:
• 8 lbs. Marris Otter malt
• 5 lbs. ESB malt
• 1 lb. carapils or dextrin type malt
• 2 lbs. crystal malt, 20° Lovibond
• 1 lb. crystal malt, 60° Lovibond
• Up to 0.5 lb. lightly peated malt (optional)
• 3.5 oz. Fuggle hops (4.2% alpha acid) for 90 min. (14.7 AAUs)
• 2.5 oz. (5.4% alpha acid) Kent Goldings hops: 1.25 oz. for 15 min., 1.25 oz. at end of boil (13.5 AAUs)
• 2 pt. starter of Wyeast 1318 (London III) or similar
Step by Step:
Mash grain in 5.25 gal. of water at 150° F for 90 min. If your mash tun is too small, decrease the Maris Otter to 5 lbs., the ESB to 3 lbs., and add 5 lbs. pale malt syrup to the boil. Sparge with 168° to 170° F water to collect 6 gal. of wort.
Total boil time is 120 min. After 30 min. add Fuggle hops and boil 75 min. more. Add 1.25 oz. Kent Goldings, boil remaining 15 min., and add last Kent Goldings at the end of boil. Whirlpool and cool to 69° F to pitch starter. Aerate/oxygenate well.
Ferment for 14 days, then rack to secondary fermenter and continue for two months or until fermentation is done or gravity is about 5° Plato (1.020). Bottle and age until New Year’s Eve. Date and reserve a case for future drinking on New Year’s 2001.
70 IBUs
Old Squirrely Barleywine
(5 gallons, extract with grain)
Ingredients:
• 12 lbs. pale malt syrup
• 1 lb. carapils or dextrin type malt
• 2 lbs. crystal malt, 20° Lovibond
• 1 lb. crystal malt, 60° Lovibond
• Up to 0.5 lb. lightly peated malt (optional)
• 3.5 oz. Fuggle hops (4.2% alpha acid) for 90 min. (14.7 AAUs)
• 2.5 oz. Kent Goldings hops (5.4% alpha acid): 1.25 oz. for 15 min., 1.25 oz. at end of boil (13.5 AAUs)
• 2 pt. starter of Wyeast 1318 (London III) or similar
Step by Step:
Start with 5 gal. of 150° F water, steep grain for 30 min. Sparge with 168° to 170° F water to collect 5.75 gal. of wort.
Total boil time is 90 min. At beginning of boil, add Fuggles. Boil 75 min. more. Add Kent Goldings, boil remaining 15 min. Add last Kent Goldings at the end of boil. Whirlpool and cool to 69° F to pitch starter. Aerate/oxygenate well.
Ferment for 14 days, then rack to secondary fermenter and continue for two months or until fermentation is done or gravity is about 5° Plato (1.020). Bottle and age until New Year’s Eve. Date and reserve a case for future drinking.
