Modern Homebrew Recipes (23 page)

•
Old School Barleywine
– An American style barleywine loosely like Sierra Nevada Bigfoot. Big malt and big hops make this an aggressive style. I won an NHC silver medal with a beer based on this recipe in 2010; it was a blend of five year old beer with a little bit of one year old beer (to freshen the hop aromatics).

•
Belgian Barleywine
– There is no BJCP style for Belgian Barleywine; it’s usually found in the Dark Strong Ale category or as a type of
Quad.
This is a concept beer inspired by the strong amber artisanal beer, Bush (Scaldis in the US).

•
English Dark Barleywine
– The classic English style, which favors darker beers. Uses fairly traditional English ingredients but no crystal malts.

•
English Gold Barleywine
– A modern development, golden barleywines are like the classic Thomas Hardy’s Ale. However, that
beer hasn’t been made since the late 1990s. They brought it back in the 2000s in a different brewery, but the beer wasn’t the same. I use that classic beer’s style parameters as inspiration this recipe.

•
Golden Promise Barleywine
– An experiment for me, I decided to push the limits of Golden Promise malt and see what I could brew. I guess I didn’t reach those limits because I got a delicious English barleywine as a result. This is likely my new favorite, and not modeled after any commercial beer.

•
Nightstalker Barleywine
– My first barleywine, which lasted 14 years before it was finished. I must have learned good bottle filling and capping practices because it wasn’t oxidized at all. Bottle-conditioned and stored in a proper cellar environment, it developed many additional layers of flavors and complexity as it aged.

•
Wheatwine
– What do you brew when you need to use up a sack of wheat malt? That’s right, a barleywine-strength wheat beer.

•
Old Ale
– A pale, barleywine-style old ale made from pale malt and invert sugar only. Very well-suited to cask aging. Old ales don’t have to be dark, and don’t need dark fruit flavors. They just have to have to be at least moderately strong and capable of aging well.

•
Winter Warmer
– A moderately strong, dark, chewy beer suitable for shaking off the cold of winter without the power of a barleywine.

•
English Strong Ale
– A broad category covering those beers stronger than a big bitter but smaller than a barleywine. This version is a chestnut-colored strong ale with a powerful hop bite.

•
Malt Liquor
– There are many kinds of strong American beer, and the name
malt liquor
is quote often derided due to its perceived audience. Historically,
Stock Ale
is probably more accurate name, and these days I might try using the somewhat amusing
Imperial Cream Ale
as a description.

•
Strong Scotch Ale
– Also known as Wee Heavy, I provided a recipe for a higher alcohol beer of this style in
Brewing Better Beer
. This version is more modest in strength, which means it’s ready to drink sooner. I’ve also been known to use it as a blending batch for making a braggot (a blend of mead and beer).

OLD SCHOOL BARLEYWINE

I won a silver medal at the 2010 NHC with a five-year old beer based on this recipe. I was using the general balance of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot as a template: a barleywine with a strong malty backbone and a big American hop nose. It’s much better when it has several years on it (which is the same opinion I had of Bigfoot when I first started drinking them in the 1990s, even though recent vintages seem more ready to drink).

Style:
American Barleywine (Classic BJCP Style)

Description:
A classic American barleywine with big malt and big hops, requiring some age to balance. It’s a deep amber color. The emphasis on malt is one of the major differentiators between this style and American double IPAs.

Ingredients:

Water treatment:

RO water treated with ¼ tsp 10% phosphoric acid per 5 gallons

2 tsp CaSO
₄
and 1 tsp CaCl
₂
in mash

Mash technique:

Infusion, mashout, crystal malts added at
vorlauf

Mash rests:

152°F (65°C) 90 minutes

168°F (76°C) 15 minutes

Kettle volume:

6.5 gallons (24 L)

Boil length:

75 minutes

Final volume:

5 gallons (19 L)

Fermentation temp:

68°F (20°C)

Sensory description:
Full body with a strong hop character throughout. The late hops are bright and citrusy. Complex bread and caramel base with a moderate fruitiness. Clean fermentation with a strong alcohol punch, this needs some age to let the alcohol and hops come back into balance.

Formulation notes:
I don’t like using all Maris Otter in American beers since it has such a strongly biscuit flavor, so I cut it with two-row. The crystal malts add complexity. This beer is designed to age so the hops may seem out of balance when it’s young (just as the alcohol may seem too forward).

Variations:
You can adjust the recipe to try to make it servable at a younger age, but I like the flavors of this kind of beer when it gets several years on it. If you feel that the hops have lost too much over time, blend in some of a newer batch.

BELGIAN BARLEYWINE

I visited the Debuisson brewery in Belgium in 2006, and really enjoyed their Bush beer. Loosely modeled on English barleywines, the Belgium inspired variant is unique. It can get lumped in with Belgian Dark Strong ales, but this doesn’t have the strong yeast character of those beers. It’s a malt-driven beer primarily, and fairly well attenuated.

Style:
Clone Beer (New BJCP Style)

Description:
A dry and malty Belgian interpretation of a barleywine. Limited late hopping allows for some yeast character, but it’s mostly malt-driven.

Ingredients:

Water treatment:

RO water treated with ¼ tsp 10% phosphoric acid per 5 gallons

1 tsp CaCl
₂
in mash

Mash technique:

Infusion, mashout, crystal malts added at
vorlauf,
no sparge

Mash rests:

152°F (65°C) 60 minutes 168°F (76°C) 15 minutes

Kettle volume:

9 gallons (34 L)

Boil length:

90 minutes

Final volume:

6.5 gallons (25 L)

Fermentation temp:

72°F (22°C)

Sensory description:
Malty clean base with an intense richness and restrained caramel. Dry finish, warming, with a light hop character. The
yeast profile is fairly clean with just a little bit of Belgian character; don’t expect a massive Trappist-like yeast profile.

Formulation notes:
My starting concept was a scaled-up Belgian pale ale recipe. I think I used the Pils malt because I ran out of pale; either would work as a base malt. The bittering hops can be anything. I picked what I had on hand that had a high AA%. If I went out to buy hops, I’d probably go for something like Magnum to keep the bitterness even. The Antwerp yeast is fairly clean. The sugar is a must in order to get the attenuation. You can play around with the character malts as well; I was using up small bits of malt with this recipe, so that’s why I used so many. Notice the low efficiency because of no sparge, and also note the volume reduction (this beer need a very vigorous boil).

Variations:
A good beer to try aging on wood; Debuisson also makes Bush Prestige, which is barrel aged. If you’re trying to match the Bush beer closely, lighten up the color; this is darker than their beer (deep copper rather than deep amber). As with most Belgian beers, you can change the character significantly using different yeast. Try Wyeast 1762 Abbey II yeast, White Labs WLP510 Bastogne yeast, or Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes yeast and compare the differences. The beer would probably do well with the Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale yeast that can bring some apple and pear esters. An attenuative English yeast strain such as Wyeast 1028 London Ale yeast could also be used, particularly if you want to rely mostly on the malt flavors to carry the beer. If you want to make it darker and bring in additional flavors, try substituting Belgian candi syrups or even Lyle’s Golden Syrup for some of the white sugar.