Belgian Barleywine

Beer Recipes
1

A while back I had some Konigs Hoeven Dubbel, and thought the flavor profile would be fantastic in an English Barleywine (I’m a huge Thomas Hardy fan). I ended up taking a clone recipe for the Konigs Hoeven dubbel and stepping it up/combining it with a recipe for Thomas Hardy. My biggest concern with the recipe is that I do want to end up with a fair amount of sweetness (I’m shooting for a Barleywine with some Belgian flavors, not a dubbel/BDS with some English character).

I haven’t brewed with the dark Candi Syrup before, so I’m not sure how much residual sugar that is going to leave. Anyone have any thoughts on the recipe below? My thought was to either add some Special B or maybe bump up the mash temp a bit, but I’m open to any suggestions.

[quote]HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Belgian Barleywine

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: English Barleywine
Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 2 gallons
Boil Size: 3.3 gallons
Efficiency: 65%

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.108
Final Gravity: 1.027
ABV (standard): 10.62%
IBU (tinseth): 62.14
SRM (morey): 25.43

FERMENTABLES:
4 lb - Belgian Pilsner (48%)
3 lb - Maris Otter Pale (36%)
0.67 lb - Belgian Candi Syrup - D180 (8%)
0.67 lb - Lyle’s Golden Syrup (8%)

HOPS:
0.67 oz - Ultra (AA 9) for 60 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil
0.67 oz - Willamette (AA 5) for 20 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil

MASH STEPS:

  1. Infusion, Temp: 152 F, Time: 90 min, Amount: 2.5 qt, Sacc rest

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
1 each - Whirlfloc, Time: 15 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil

YEAST:
Wyeast - Belgian Abby Ale II 1762

[/quote]

2

I recently brewed a quad (Denny’s 400th Batch recipe) with 2 lbs of dark candi syrup.

There’s definitely sweetness there, but it fermented out further than I expected (after a long stall in the mid 20s).  I may have gotten more attenuation than typical, as I pitched some more yeast from the yeast cake of a recent batch to get it going again.  Regardless, my experience is that the dark syrups are highly fermentable.

My other thought is that the Abbey yeast is going to give you a beer that is more BDS with some English character.

It’s been YEARS since I brewed it, but I did a strong ale previously where I fermented with a low-attenuating ale yeast (can’t remember which) and then transferred the batch onto a cake of 1762 to finish.  This gave some Belgian character, but not over-powering.  At the time, I was just looking to get it to ferment out to a lower FG and not looking for any specific character.

I’m not sure that it’s repeatable, or that it would give you what your looking for, but it might be another option to consider.

3

Thanks for the info. I think I’m going to stop by the LHBS and grab 1/4lb of either Special B or some English Dark Crystal.

To clarify a bit, I’m looking for the phenols/esters/flavors from the Belgian yeast and Candi Syrup, but the body/sweetness and sherry-like components of an English Barleywine. The only part of the Abbey yeast that scares me is that it might dry things out a bit too much for me. Hopefully by adding some crystal malt and maybe bumping the mash temp a few degrees will keep some sweetness.

4

Sorry to revive a dead thread, but how did this come out? I’m looking at doing something similar as a gift for my brother’s upcoming wedding, and I’ve never done a bw before. Thanks!

5

Missed this thread when it came out but if you use Special B or Belgian it tends to turn out tasting a lot like a dubbel or quad.

6

Actually, thanks for the post. I completely forgot about this beer. I’ll crack into one tonight to refresh my memory and post more details.

7

So out of curiosity, it wasn’t a quad proper and more a Belgiany barleywine ?

8

Awesome, let me know.

9

That’s what I was shooting for, at least. I was looking for an English Barleywine with some BDS-like flavors to it.

10

So here’s the final recipe as I brewed it:

[quote]Title: Belgian Barleywine

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: English Barleywine
Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 2 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 3.2 gallons
Efficiency: 75% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.124
Final Gravity: 1.031
ABV (standard): 12.23%
IBU (tinseth): 58.16
SRM (morey): 29.31

FERMENTABLES:
4 lb - Belgian - Pilsner (46.6%)
3 lb - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (34.9%)
0.67 lb - Belgian Candi Syrup - D2 (7.8%)
0.25 lb - Belgian - Special B (2.9%)
0.67 lb - N/A - Lyle’s Golden Syrup (7.8%)

HOPS:
0.7 oz - Ultra, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 9, Use: Boil for 60 min
0.7 oz - Willamette, Type: Pellet, AA: 5, Use: Boil for 20 min

MASH GUIDELINES:

  1. Infusion, Temp: 152 F, Time: 90 min, Sacc rest

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
1 each - Whirlfloc, Time: 15 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil

YEAST:
Wyeast - Belgian Abby Ale II 1762
[/quote]

This was one of my first All-grain brews, so I was off a bit on my target numbers, but I just let it ride. I ended up with 2.4 gallons of 1.110 OG wort, and finished at 1.026 for roughly 11% ABV. I brewed this beer on 7/26/2012, so it’s about a year and a half old now. I pretty much forgot about this batch and haven’t had one in almost a year.

Gratuitous pic:

Belgian+Barleywine.jpg
Belgian+Barleywine.jpg901×1600 158 KB

One the nose I mainly get fruity notes. Black cherry is probably the closest descriptor, but there’s also some black plum and maybe red raspberry. There is some bready malt in the background and a touch of raisin. As the beer warms I get an increase in the raisin as well as a bit of caramel. As it warms further I start to pick up the alcohol on the nose with a hint of Belgiany banana/circus peanut way in the back.

On the palate there is more of that black cherry/plum fruitiness. The cherry evolves a bit to dried cherries/raisins along with some biscuity notes and a touch of dark toast. There’s not a lot of sweetness here, but it’s definitely not dry like a Quad, either. Body is medium, on the lighter end of the range for an English barleywine. There’s definitely a vinous, red wine character to it. It’s pretty smooth at this point. You don’t get much alcohol/heat unless you take a big sip. Which is surprisingly tempting for a beer this big. There is only a hint of banana as the beer warms up.

So in my mind I was shooting for a sipping barleywine in the sherry-like Thomas Hardy style accented with some of the flavor components you get from a dubbel. I didn’t hit that, and I foolishly wrote this beer off as a “miss”. What I ended up was something closer to a fruity red wine than a sherry. And coming back to it a year later with no expectations I can say that this is actually an awesome brew. I would definitely brew it again as-is.

It’s more English Barleywine than Quad, but that malty MO note is turned way down. I think the combination of the 1762, Candi Syrup and Special B is really pushing the black cherry flavor, while the Pils malt is bringing a grapy/winy thing.

11

Sounds really good !  I love 1762 for most all my Quads.

12

This looks good. Can you tell me if you used a starter for the yeast, and also how much corn sugar for bottling? I’m not an expert but do ok if I have the ingredients right.
Thanks man!

13

Yes, you always need a starter for a beer this big. I don’t recall the size of starter, but I assume I did whatever Mr Malty told me to do.

For bottling, I always use a calculator ( such as http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/ )to determine the correct amount of sugar given the temperature and volume of beer I will be bottling. I believe I carbonated to the 2.2-2.3 volumes of CO2 range.

One more thing to keep in mind is that this beer is just finally coming into its prime now, a year and a half after I first brewed it. This is definitely a beer that is going to need some age.

14

Thank you Brewmaster General sir! Sorry one more ? At what point of the boil did you add the syrups?
Have good day!

15

No prob. I add them at about 10 minutes left in the boil, when I normally add Yeast Nutrient, Whirlfloc, etc. That lets you get a little better utilization from your hops.

16

Gonna brew this this wknd. But ya must have yer own garden with ultra hops, wanna send me some. LOL. kidding. What would be a good sub for the ultra hops? I’m thinking Sterling or Hallertauer M but would value yer opinion. Thanks again!!!

17

I have a few pounds of Ultra that I picked up on sale from Hops Direct the past few years, so they’ve become one of my default noble-type hops for Belgian brews. Any noble type hop will be fine as a sub. Sterling, Hallertau, Saaz, Styrian Goldings, etc. will all be fine.