Pro Tips for Brewing Barleywine
Time for a confession. This story was supposed to be a short “Tips from the Pros” column. It was straightforward: I’d find a couple pro brewers who make well-regarded barleywines, get some insight homebrewers can apply on their own systems, and turn it into two pages. That’s what “Tips from the Pros” is — some quick hitting info, ideally from brewers with different approaches on a subject. I ask the questions, they respond to each with a couple sentences, and I turn their answers into a column.
That plan went off the rails pretty quickly. I found four brewers whose barleywines are amazing and I wanted to include each. There was a good chance one or two wouldn’t respond to my emails, and I’d be all set with two or three brewers for the column.
Well, they all eagerly agreed to share their insights, and I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to hear what each had to say. That was the first factor in changing my approach. The second was they all had more to say than I anticipated, and it was all really great info. As I tried whittling down the answers to fit in the column space, I couldn’t do it. It was apparent each brewer spent a lot of time with their answers. Each has their own approach to brewing barleywine, and it was clear they all hold this style that is becoming harder and harder to find on store shelves close to their hearts.
So we had to change the plan. Scrap the column this issue, and instead transform it to an additional feature, as told by four brewers who aren’t afraid to fill their mash tons to the brink, extend boil times, throw a bunch of sugars into the boil kettle, and sometimes wait years before tasting the final result. I think you’ll agree with the decision to share their responses in full. As you’ll see, even pros approach this high-octane style in different ways.
How important is the choice of base malt for a style like barleywine that often relies so heavily on specialty malts, and what’s your preference?
John: Using your favorite pale malt is just fine. Barleywine can be any color you want except black. Unless it’s a black barleywine. Using some Munich in the 10+ Lovibond (°L) range can build up the toasty malt flavors in conjunction with your pale malt. If making a golden barleywine I would go for a darker pale ale malt and also Munich, and maybe some honey malt to really build that deep rich golden color
Ned: I prefer to split the base malt allocation in half between Maris Otter and 2-Row. For me, this helps reduce some earthy/dirty tones I pick up from an all-Maris Otter base malt bill.
Brad: I have had great results using all Maris Otter or all Golden Promise for the base malt. I have also used these malts in a blend with 2-row. For Munichwine, I use Munich malt (10 °L) as the base malt, which is super good too.
Bobby & Tyler: We’ve tried a variety of combinations when it comes to base malt, as we have made barleywines with 2-row, pale ale malt, Munich, and Maris Otter. They all tend to lend their own nuances to the beers. Most of the time we go with 2-row as our base malt and then add in more specialty malt (Munich and crystal malts) to bring the flavor and maltiness to the beer. We don’t see a ton of difference between 2-row, pale ale, or Maris Otter because when you are adding in specialty malt, you can lean on those malts to do the heavy lifting on the flavor. Specialty malts will mask the flavor contributions that Maris Otter provides when compared to 2-row. We have never brewed a barleywine with just straight base malt, but we believe this is where a malt like Maris Otter would shine and bring those flavors of a traditional malt barleywine to the beer.
How many/what specialty malts do you usually include in barleywine recipes?
John: Orange Giant, which just won Gold at the 2024 Great American Beer Festival, features a very rich orange hue. I have made others through the years that were more of a deep red color. These colors come from caramel or crystal malts. I find layering different Lovibond colors helps build the caramel flavors. Say 40 °L for a clean, light caramel and up to 80 °L for a rich flavor. Once you start using 120+ °L malts you must be careful about getting a burnt flavor, unless that is what you want. Using some Weyerman Carafa® dark malts can help bend the color without adding too much flavor in very low amounts. It really gets down to how much of the depth of caramel you are looking for.
Ned: Our barleywine, Chris Barley in a Little Coat, uses six different malts. We start with a 50/50 split of Maris Otter and 2-row. Beyond that it’s a combination of four different medium- to high-Lovibond crystal malts in rough increments of 5% of the grain bill each, which help to layer a bit
of complexity.
Brad: There is always some Munich, oats, caramel malt (120–135 °L) such as Simpsons DRC®, Dingemans Special B® or Weyermann Special W®. I will also use chocolate malt, honey malt, or aromatic sometimes. I work with about eight different barleywine recipes at Private Press, and they are all a little different.
Bobby & Tyler: Typically, we like to include anywhere from 3–6 specialty malts in our barleywine recipes, depending on the barrels we are using for aging. These malts will have an impact on the flavors and color contributions we want to come out in the finished beer. We will add 15% Munich or Vienna malt to add a touch of maltiness, 10% light crystal malt (10–40 °L) or honey malt to add a nice sweetness, 3–5% medium crystal malt (50–80 °L) to bring in caramel and toffee notes, and 1–2% darker crystal malts (90–180 °L) for more complex caramel and dried fruit flavors. Sometimes we have brought in 0.5–1% of pale chocolate or brown malt to give slight flavors of coffee or chocolate in the finish.
What IBU range do you target, and are hop additions simply for bitterness in this style, or do you do any late hop additions too?
John: The higher, the better. Orange Giant is just shy of two years old when released. IBUs over 70 will really allow the beer to age out. It makes for a sharp beer at release, but all the hops will meld over time with the malt character and really allow the beer to shine. Where you add them is a brewer’s choice. A good, stiff, upfront charge and a big whirlpool dose is what I like. Another thing to consider is dry hopping. A good 2 lbs. per bbl (1 oz./gallon or 7.5 g/L) will allow the hop flavor to help with the aging. If you plan on aging the beer in tank for a while it’s best to wait to do the dry hop
before packaging
Ned: A good target for IBUs in barleywine is roughly half of the intended original gravity (OG) decimal point number. This helps keep the beer from being too malty-sweet, and perceived bitterness remains subdued. For instance, if we plan the OG to be 1.090, then I would try to build our calculated IBUs to around 45. Most of the IBUs come from high-alpha acid, early boil additions, however, I don’t mind an end-of-boil addition of East Kent Golden (EKG). Chris Barley uses a 0.4 oz./gallon (3 g/L) end-of-boil addition of EKG. I like this because it provides noticeable changes in the drinking experience as it ages and that late addition fades away.
Brad: I shoot for around 25 IBUS, with just one hop addition early in the boil for bittering.
Bobby & Tyler: We typically aim for around 65 IBUs for the barrel-aged versions of our barleywines. We tend to use a standard bittering hop like Hallertau Magnum, which is added into the kettle for the last 60 minutes of the boil. We have done a couple barleywines where we have played around with a whirlpool addition of Galaxy® (20–30 IBUs) and we have gotten some great results. It adds a great citrus/ orange character to the beer, which was still quite prevalent after 18 months in the barrel. We haven’t tried any other type of hops but we feel like fruit-forward hops might work well here.
What OG are you usually targeting, and what approach do you use to help get there?
John: Some say you start with only pale malt and boil it for a couple days to get the color. That’s hard in a production scenario. I believe in getting terminal below 2.5 °Plato (1.010 specific gravity), 2 °Plato (1.008 SG) if you can. Do the math to figure out where your OG would be to hit target alcohol. I find 9% ABV is a good starting point for right away drinkability. If you want to age it out, push it above 12% ABV. I find a 2-hour boil is good for these beers.
Ned: Chris Barley comes in around 1.113 OG. We do use some light brown sugar and corn sugar to reach that high gravity. Combined, they make up about 14% of the fermentable ingredients by weight. Our boil is the same as any other beer we make,
60–90 minutes.
Brad: I am shooting for 32–35 °Plato (1.139–1.154 SG) for my OG. I always add some sort of sugar — brown, dried malt extract, liquid malt extract, honey, or maple syrup. I don’t boil much longer than 2–3 hours, so sugar is my friend.
Bobby & Tyler: We’ve found that our best results have been when we targeted a window of 1.132–1.144. To do this, it takes two brews to hit our gravity. We take the first runnings from our first brew, which is around 1.092, and start boiling that right away. We collect the second runnings on the first batch and use it for the mash water on the second batch. This bumps up the initial gravity on the second brew to around 1.116. On this next batch, we collect the first runnings and add it directly to the boil kettle. By this time, the wort from the first batch has already been boiling for around five hours and the combined wort is around 1.116–1.120. This is when we start our 3-hour boil timer and add all of the different sugars. We will add demerara or turbinado sugar (5%), and then sometimes we add dark Belgian candi syrup (5%). These will bring in those nice molasses-type characters that tend to go really well with the specialty malts. Depending on where we want our desired OG to land, we can either extend the boil or add golden light dried malt extract to bump up the gravity. Overall, our total boil time is usually around 8 hours for our barleywines.
As a homebrewer, would you (or did you) approach brewing a barleywine differently than you do now?
John: There’s not really any difference. Your equipment will limit you. If you have no refrigeration, keep the beer under 77 °F (25 °C) during fermentation at max. If you have temperature control then 70–72 °F (21–22 °C) is good.
Ned: As a homebrewer on a smaller brewing system, I think I would entertain the idea of a longer boil time than what we can do and have time for on our production system. Smaller systems have a faster boil-off rate, and possibly achieve a harder boil as well depending on heating source. I think that would be a good way to yield some complexity in the malt flavors. Or they could try only collecting the first wort runnings and stick with that for a high-gravity style like this.
Bobby & Tyler: As a homebrewer, I never had the opportunity to barrel-age my barleywines in an actual barrel. Typically, I would brew the beer, give it around 10 days to ferment out completely, then I would crash the beer to try and get all the yeast out of suspension. After a couple of days at 32 °F (0 °C), I would transfer the beer to a Corny keg that had been purged very well with CO2 and add my oak cubes (1–2 oz./5 gallons or 30–55 g/19 L). I preferred using medium- to heavy-toast American oak that had been soaking in some of my favorite whiskey/Bourbon for a couple of months. I would let the oak cubes sit in the Corny keg for a couple of months at ambient temperature, then I would place the beer in the cooler. I would clean, sanitize, and purge another keg and transfer the beer into the new keg. There might be a bunch of sediment in the initial tank if the beer was not clarified, so be sure to pour through that before filling up the new keg. After transfer, I would adjust my CO2 regulator to around 6.5 psi and let it force carbonate to around 2.2–2.3 volumes for a week and then enjoy it.
Do you have a preference for English/American yeast? What characteristics do you look for from the yeast?
John: Chico yeast has been great to get a clean ferment and good terminal gravity. Pitch twice as much as you usually do.
Ned: I think both are very similar, to be honest, especially in a big beer like a barleywine where the strengths of the other ingredients are going to be most noticeable. I would suggest using the variety that favors the barleywine style you are aiming for — American vs. English. We’ve used English with great results.
Brad: I like using a combination of Chico and Wyeast London Ale III. About 75% Chico, 25% London III, which keeps the fermentation moving and doesn’t throw too much green apple, even at 68 °F (20 °C). There are some recipes that use all London Ale III, which I ferment at 64 °F (18 °C).
Bobby & Tyler: Our go-to yeast for barleywine is London Ale III, which is also our house yeast for hazy IPAs, as we prefer the smooth caramel flavors and low bitterness of the English-style barleywines. We tend to ferment barleywine at around 66 °F (19 °C), which is on the lower end of the range for this yeast, but it adds great mouthfeel and also brings some nice esters that go really well with the specialty malts. We tend to mash around 144–148 °F (62–64 °C) due to the lower attenuation (60%) of this yeast when fermenting these bigger beers.
Do all of your barleywines get barrel-aged? And how long do they age prior to release?
John: Not all need to be barrel-aged. If you do barrel-age yours, make sure to save a portion of straight barleywine so you can compare how the two different versions aged out. The best barrel-aged barleywines, say in Bourbon barrels, take at least 11 months. What happens is at first you get the heat and fire of the Bourbon. Some will pull off then, and the beer is harsh. You need months, say 5–11, or more, to get all the wood character in the beer. Oak, vanilla, smoke, they all
take time.
Ned: No, we usually don’t mess around with barrels. We have done so in the past, but the barrels were rather neutral and contributed very little barrel characteristics to the final beer. If anything, it might have helped give the beer a more velvety mouthfeel.
Brad: I do not release any barleywines that are not barrel-aged. My barleywines range from 10–30 months spent in barrel.
Bobby & Tyler: We have never released a barleywine that hasn’t been barrel-aged. The amount of bitterness that we put into the barleywines does not lend well to a non-barrel-aged version. If I were to make a non-barrel-aged version, I would probably bring the IBUs in around the lower 20s.
Our barleywines age for 18 months at a minimum, but they have gone as long as 36 months. We sample the barrels twice during the 18-month period. After sampling, we decide if the beer should sit longer or if we are going to rack it into another barrel or package the beer with or without adjuncts. We have done some double and triple barrel-aging, which adds to the complexity of flavors as well. When barrel-aging for this long, you will have to account for barrel loss (the angel’s share). We do not top up our barrels, so as the water evaporates it concentrates the flavors, raises the ABV, and adds to the mouthfeel of the beer.
What changes do you taste in these beers as they mature over months or years?
John: The beer will start to oxidize, and if all goes right, only in the good ways. The caramel flavors will get richer and the hops mellower. Late in 2023 I tapped a 1998 Full Sail Old Boardhead barrel-aged barleywine keg. Perfect aging conditions. It was outstanding and surreal at 25 years old.
Ned: As mentioned before about the late hop addition we add, the younger the beer is the more that is noticeable at the start. Within six months or so, the late-hop character gives way and more of the malt depth comes through. In terms of years, I tend to notice the perceived sweetness continues to climb. After a few years or so, I don’t notice any notable changes.
Brad: I look for oxidation to calm the intensity of the base beer and the barrel. There is a zone where the beer becomes softer and more palatable, which is what I look for.
Bobby & Tyler: Beers that have aged in barrels that are younger tend to be more spirit-forward and have woody character. Barrels with a lighter toast tend to have more fresh wood, hints of vanilla, coconut, and even some herbal notes. Medium-toast barrels have more spice notes like cinnamon or nutmeg, and caramel, toffee, and dried fruit characters such as fig or dates can also be present. Heavy toast brings out more of the chocolate, coffee/espresso, spice, campfire, marshmallow, and tobacco characters. American oak tends to have more vanilla character than French oak. Aging a beer for a longer period in barrels will allow the beer to extract more flavors and layers of complexity. Knowing what a certain barrel’s character will give you will not only help with deciding if the beer is ready to package or spend more time in another barrel, but also with recipe development.
Any unique spirit barrels you’ve aged barleywine in that you’d recommend homebrewers try to replicate?
John: Bourbon or a dark spirit barrel is good. Gin barrels that had Old Tom are good as well.
Brad: Bourbon always works! Cognac has been fun, and Port can be a nice blending component as well.
Bobby & Tyler: One of our most unique releases was a barleywine that we aged in French oak barrels with a medium-toast level. These barrels were first used to age Port wine and then Bourbon. The outcome was complex flavors and aromas of dark fruits, berries, dark chocolate, a hint of espresso, almond, vanilla creaminess, cinnamon, and toffee. Additionally, the tannins from the Port gave it a slightly dry finish. We also aged a barleywine in oak barrels that contained Bourbon, then aged maple syrup. This imparted huge flavors and aromas of maple syrup, butterscotch, cinnamon, campfire, and marshmallow with a sweet candy character finish. If you wanted to try to replicate these at home, but didn’t have access to barrels like these, we’d recommend soaking oak chips or cubes in Bourbon for a good length of time, then soaking in Port wine or maple syrup.
Any other barleywine brewing advice for homebrewers?
John: Keep the tradition going. It’s hard to find these beers nowadays.
Ned: 1. Try to stick with ingredients originating from the country for the style you wish to brew.
2. Use a variety of specialty malts in different Lovibond colors to layer complexity. Stay away from roasted malts though.
3. Mash in at 150–152 °F (66–67 °C). The beer will already be malty and sweet, so you don’t want to promote under-attenuation with a higher mash temperature.
4. Pitch incredibly healthy yeast and lots of it, and maybe even consider a second pitch once fermentation is 50% done. And use yeast nutrients.
5. Don’t be afraid to boil longer if needed to reach a higher OG. Or add sugar. You don’t want to leave yourself with too low of an ABV in the end, especially if you plan to age the beer for a year or two.
Brad: Don’t overthink it. Barleywine is more about the age, oxidation, and depth. It is not about hop profile, adjuncts, or genetically modified yeast. Start with high-quality European malt and take your time with it.
Bobby & Tyler: Try different types of wood. Make a 5-gallon (19-L) batch of barleywine and split it into five different 1-gallon (3.8-L) batches, each on a different type of wood, different toast level, or with oak alternatives aged in different spirits. You will be able to see what each version brings to the table and which you prefer.
If you use a small barrel, like a 5-gallon (19-L) barrel, you have to remember you will have a bigger oak surface area and it will take less time to extract all the barrel characters you are looking for. Be sure to purge out the barrel with CO2 before you rack the beer to prevent initial oxidation.
Another thing to try is experimenting with different sugars. There are a lot of sugars out there that have very unique flavors to them, which could add a nice complexity to a barleywine.
