To my 2013 AmerEng Barleywine. I didn’t think I would ever like this style, but I had to make one to round out my brewing skills/palate/knowledge/curiosity. Well one year later and it’s truly delicious. It’s AmerEng because it’s American ingredients with an English yeast.
I saw a few posts about Barleywine lately so I thought I would post the recipe (as I’m sipping). The 037 adds a unique nutty bite that really makes it pop for me.
7.1G to 5.38G after boil
20# Breiss 2-Row
1# 80 Crystal
2 oz Chinook at 60 mins
2.5 oz Cascade at 15 mins
2.5 oz Cascade at 1 min
White Labs 037 (Sammy Smith) yeast because it is a beast!
Went form 1.100 to 1.012 or 88% attenuation for 11.69% abv.
Sounds great ! Excellent attenuation - I’m assuming you mashed that bad boy low, low especially with the crystal. I remember the first one I made (ok, made well) - I hated it for 7 or 8 months, then kinda liked it at 10 months, loved it @ a year. Go figure.
I haven’t had a BW in a while! Have one bottle from 2008 left.
Some age really mellows the style. My second batch was great at 30 days but then wasn’t that good to drink for another six months but a year later and it was even smoother and more complex. Unfortunately the carbonation had diminished somewhat.
Funny - I remember a good natured argument I had with a novice brewer buddy . I mashed a quad, my favorite strong style, at 149F. Now this was an 1.105 beer, but he didn’t get how much body was gonna be left even after mashing that low and using a Belgian yeast. I think he was expecting a dark tripel but was converted pretty quickly.