As the title says, I plan on brewing my first American Barleywine next month. Below is a my recipe which I plan on using all Chinook for this brew (using Beersmith). I have done a lot of reading on adding some sugar to the wort so there are some simple sugars for the yeast to munch on too. I also have 2oz of oak chips that have been soaking in bourbon since March. I plan on bottling the beer and letting it age, depending on how long I can keep my hands off of it.
Grain:
Maris Otter - 94.5%
Corn Sugar (Dextrose) - 5.5% added with 10 minutes left in the boil
Hops:
All Chinook with IBUs coming in around 120.7
Yeast:
WLP001
Estimated Numbers:
OG - 1.111
FG - 1.017
ABV - 12.6%
Does the percentage of sugar being added to the boil seem ok? Should I add more or less? 5% seems like a sweet spot for most other styles I have read about. Instead of using dextrose, would table sugar work just as well? Should I use some other ingredient, such as honey, brown sugar, etc... to impart some other flavor to the beer? Also, should I add any simple sugar to the fermenter while there is active fermentation? If so, how do I go about that and figure out how that affects the OG & FG?
I know there is no right answer to this, but to those who have used chips, cubes, spirals, etc... How long do you usally let the beer sit on the wood? I was thinking a good 2-4 weeks easily. I would place the oak in a keg, rack the beer onto the keg and purge the headspace, then bottle off my beer gun to free up the keg. Or I might just leave it in the keg and pull samples off as I want or if I get lazy. Should I add the extra bourbon from the jar which the chips are soaking in to the keg too? I'm concerned if I dump it all in the keg it may be too much, but I know it would mellow out with age too, which is the plan.
Lastly, I know you need a lot of yeast for any big beer. I could do a big yeast starter for the beer or rack onto a yeast cake from a 1.055 Pale Ale I have going on right now. I assume there is no wrong answer here, but I was curious to know if anyone had any additional input on this one. Lastly, I do have an oxygen stone which I will use. How long should I blast the wort with oxygen? i.e. 30 seconds, 60 seconds, etc...
Thanks in advance everyone!
Grain:
Maris Otter - 94.5%
Corn Sugar (Dextrose) - 5.5% added with 10 minutes left in the boil
Hops:
All Chinook with IBUs coming in around 120.7
Yeast:
WLP001
Estimated Numbers:
OG - 1.111
FG - 1.017
ABV - 12.6%
Does the percentage of sugar being added to the boil seem ok? Should I add more or less? 5% seems like a sweet spot for most other styles I have read about. Instead of using dextrose, would table sugar work just as well? Should I use some other ingredient, such as honey, brown sugar, etc... to impart some other flavor to the beer? Also, should I add any simple sugar to the fermenter while there is active fermentation? If so, how do I go about that and figure out how that affects the OG & FG?
I know there is no right answer to this, but to those who have used chips, cubes, spirals, etc... How long do you usally let the beer sit on the wood? I was thinking a good 2-4 weeks easily. I would place the oak in a keg, rack the beer onto the keg and purge the headspace, then bottle off my beer gun to free up the keg. Or I might just leave it in the keg and pull samples off as I want or if I get lazy. Should I add the extra bourbon from the jar which the chips are soaking in to the keg too? I'm concerned if I dump it all in the keg it may be too much, but I know it would mellow out with age too, which is the plan.
Lastly, I know you need a lot of yeast for any big beer. I could do a big yeast starter for the beer or rack onto a yeast cake from a 1.055 Pale Ale I have going on right now. I assume there is no wrong answer here, but I was curious to know if anyone had any additional input on this one. Lastly, I do have an oxygen stone which I will use. How long should I blast the wort with oxygen? i.e. 30 seconds, 60 seconds, etc...
Thanks in advance everyone!