In the Fermentor: Kitchen Sink Barleywine

The Leftovers

It's time for a cleanup of leftover grains and partially used packets of hops from 2012. With the exception of the 2-Row base malt, everything in the recipe below has been sitting on the shelf, or in the fridge waiting to be used.

I had several open hop packages, some leftover toasted malts and a half-full bottle of malt extract too. I also had yeast cultured from my White House Honey Porter. My decision was to use almost all of my leftovers and make a partial-mash Barleywine.

The finished beer will be quite strong and quite bitter. A toasted malt backbone should nicely complement pine, spice and citrus hop flavors. Because of the beer's strength, it will not be ready for at least three months and should improve with age.

The recipe has been scaled up to five gallons from the 2.5 gallons I actually brewed:

Grains:

9 lbs Rahr 2-Row

8.5 oz Victory

7.5 oz Brown

Hops:

Bittering:

0.75 oz Chinook (11.1% a.a.): 60 min
0.5 oz Columbus (12.2% a.a.): 60 min

0.5 oz Sterling (9.0% a.a.): 60 min

Flavor:
0.5 oz Chinook (11.1% a.a.): 20 min

0.5 oz Columbus (12.2% a.a.): 20 min

Aroma:
0.5 oz Chinook (11.1% a.a.): 5 min

0.5 oz Columbus (12.2% a.a.): 5 min

Extras:

6.125 lbs Briess Golden Light LME

Total Boil Time:
90 min

Yeast:

Danstar Nottingham Ale

Mash Schedule:
Protein Rest: 125F for 20 min

Saccharification Rest: 150F for 60 min

Mashout: 168F for 15 min

Original Gravity:

1.094

Estimated Final Gravity:

1.020

IBU: 87

SRM Color: 12

Fermentation Schedule:

2 Weeks Primary

2 Months Secondary

2 Weeks Bottle Conditioning

Cost: $29 per case

Commercial Equivalent: Avery Hog Heaven: $80 per case
Savings: $51

Comments

Out of the Bottle: Oak Aged La Petite Orange

I said in my previous post that I'd saved some of Northern Brewer's La Petite Orange kit to age with Sherry Infused Oak Cubes. The aged beer is ready to go, so let's see what the Oak and Sherry did. I've had more than a few Barrel Aged beers that were completely dominated by the wood and whatever alcohol (Rum, Bourbon, Sherry, etc) the barrel originally contained. In my beer, the oak and sherry are subtle. That's what I was shooting for, so I'm quite happy with that. The flavors and aromas from the original beer are still present. There's no point in revisiting them. What I really care about is the changes the wood made. Vanilla is the most significant contribution. There's also a very mild almond note at work. The Sherry really cuts through in the aroma. It provides an extra helping of dark fruits, plus a little more alcohol heat. The beer is definitely more wine-like than before. On a side note, I took my own advice and bumped the priming su

Out of the Bottle: Big Beers and a Haze

I'm doing a 4-for-1 with this installment, and will be bundling my finished beers going forward, rather than writing a blog for each. That should leave me space for more brewing oriented posts. This month, I've got beers I posted the recipes for back in November, December and January. First out of the gate is Enchanted Nightmare Imperial Stout. This beer is an amalgamation of extra grains and hops I had that were combined with some 2-Row and additional hops to create a 9.95% ABV Stout for the depths of Winter. So what if it wasn't actually ready until the Spring Equinox arrived? A beer like this can't be rushed. My beer pours nearly pitch black, and has nice ruby highlights. The head could stand a touch more staying power, but is appropriately dense. In the mouth, the body is a little lighter than I expected. The carbonation is very soft, and feels just about right for this beer style. When I bottled this beer, I was slightly worried that the whiskey and oak were a li

Kitchen Brewing Part 3: Sparge and Boil

The mash emerges from the oven. Now that we're finished with Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, it's time to Sparge. As you can see from the photo, the grains have absorbed a lot of liquid. In a traditional all-grain setup, your Mash Tun has a valve at the bottom to release the first running of Wort. The grains are then rinsed with the sparge water to extract any remaining sugars. My stove-top method doesn't afford such luxury, so a different method is called for. The grains have gained a little weight. There are a couple of choices at this point. One choice is to lift the grain bag out of Pot A and place it into the sparge water in Pot B to steep for 10-15 minutes or more. The other is to lift the grain bag up, put a colander under it and slowly pour the sparge water through the grains into the original pot. I prefer the former, because I get a better extraction rate from my grains. All that absorption means that the grains weigh a lot more than they did going i

Colorado Kitchen Brew

Search This Blog