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As Seen In |
Pilot Brewery Report: The Barleywine Project BY Bruce L Brode (Published in the April 1997 Brews and News)
I have a thing for anniversaries, particularly for a club as well-established and as highly accomplished as the Maltose Falcons Home Brewing Society. It turns out that, as near as anybody can figure, come 1999 our club will be 25 years old! That got me to thinking (dangerous, I know): we'll certainly be celebrating our efforts at maintaining this great organization over that period of time (even though great organization isn't always one of our hallmarks), but we'll need some appropriate brew for the celebrations, right?. An "old" club, the oldest in the country no less, ought to have some "old" beer for that purpose. No other style is going to age as gracefully as Barleywine, and after all it is one of the ultimate beer styles, so why not brew some and age it for the occasion? Thus was born The Barleywine Project, which took place on Febrewary 22 (it was Washington's birthday, I cannot tell a lie. No cherry beer for this one, I'm afraid). I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I was fortunate enough to inspire myself for this brewing experience by attending the opening day of the 4th annual Barleywine Festival at the Toronado Bar in San Francisco, the day after our visit to Anchor Brewing Company. Believe me, this is the one time and place in the universe to be if you're a fan of Barleywine. Count 'em, 49 officially on the list, all on draught and 3 from wooden cask pulled by handpump. A judging had taken place that morning which Jerry Macala can tell you about, but the ones that impressed the judges were: 1st Place, Big Head 95, brewed by R. J. Trent at Barley and Hopps in San Mateo (12.5% alcohol by volume!); 2nd Place, Cheshire Cat from Humboldt Brewing Co. in Arcata (a nice sweeter/maltier styled brew); 3rd Place, Old Dipsea 95, brewed by Grant Johnston when he was at Marin Brewing Co. (excellent balance); Honorable Mention to Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 95 brewed by Steve Dressler at their Chico, CA brewery (a hop-filled delight). was also impressed with Old Crustacean, from former Falcon John Maier at Rogue Brewing Co., Newport, OR (wonderful combination of strength, malty chewy caramel backbone, and balancing hop bitter); and Anniversary Ale 95, brewed by Kevin Cox at Butterfield Brewing Co. in Fresno (superb hop character throughout, played against a nice solid malt structure). Now back to the realities of brewing the stuff. For our Barleywine Project, the goal was 15 gallons of 1.100 original gravity wort, highly hopped, from primarily first runnings of the lauter, and whatever we could get from the second runnings for a low to moderate gravity ale that would mature much faster. Never having done this on such a scale before, I feared that it was easier said than done. Nevertheless, I arrived at the Shop on an absolutely beautiful Saturday morning (a good omen?) and found Doug King and Dick Watson already hard at work. As the morning progressed, several others came, including (in no particular order) Todd Etzel, Brian Vessa (The Prez!), Bill Richelieu, Mondell Metz, Tom Wolf, Jim Raymond, David Janss, and yes, even Doug Harlan, who made a special effort to get back from San Francisco where he was retrieving the remains of his car recovered after being stolen from near the Anchor Brewery and, well, that's another story for Doug to tell. We also had visits from Peter Sheppard, who prepared a stupendous lunch of Pozole (Mexican chicken/vegetable/hominy stew) and quesadillas and brownie-style chocolate chip cookies for dessert (see what you missed?), and MB Raines-Casselman who brought a large mass of the Brewers Resource British Draught Ale Yeast, harvested from the womens' brew Porter and ready for pitching. Thanks to you both for your wonderful and most helpful contributions. Speaking of contributions, our president Mr. Vessa kept us going through the afternoon (despite a nagging chest cold) with a great contribution of excellent beers. Even the Master Brewer, Brent Wilson, came by to offer suggestions from his vast brewing experience. This was truly a club event, covering novice brewers to those with more than 20 years' worth of brews under their belts. Of all the Pilot Brewery sessions I have participated in, this one was the most fun, the biggest challenge, and maybe the most successful, with lots of folks lending support and assistnce, expertise and interest. Homebrew Club of the Year, indeed! Now for some of the nitty-gritty details of recipe and technique. While a first-runnings/second-runnings brew is pretty simple in concept (hey, no sparging!), it's a real challenge to get the right combination of volume and original gravity. We augmented the Pilot Brewery with a 100-liter kettle and propane burner, another counterflow wort chiller, and a 100-quart cooler chest lauter tun, all belonging to Brian and myself, so that we would have capacity for 80 pounds of grain and two brews. We did two mashes, two lauters and two boils simultaneously. Yeah, we were some tired puppies at the end of the day, but it was worth it. Recipe specifics are listed below, but the result: 14.5 gallons of Barleywine wort (was closer to 15 gallons after yeast addition) at O.G. 1.106 (yes!) and 13 gallons of Bitter at O.G. 1.044. Brian, Doug King and I each took 5 gallons of the Barleywine home to ferment, dryhop, age and have available at one of the 3 Falcon fests in 1999. The Bitter may well show up at the 1997 Mayfaire on April 19 and the So. Cal. Homebrewers' Festival on May 3, courtesy of the fermentation management skills of Todd Etzel and David Janss. Look for photos of the brewing session by Peter and myself (with a little help from Doug Harlan) posted in the clubhouse at the shop. I want to thank all who participated, including John Daume for putting up with all of us; I think everyone who tasted the deep shimmery red Barleywine wort agreed that it will be a very rich and special beer to savor, something the Falcons can be proud of! Here's the recipe: 25th Anniversary Washington's Birthday Full Moon Rising Barleywine, and First In Our Hearts Second Runnings Bitter Ale: Grains: 56 lbs. (70%) Great Western Malting Klages/Harrington (North) American 2-row Pale Malt, from the club bulk buy. 16 lbs. Crisp Maltings English Maris Otter Pale Malt (20%). 3 lbs. 3 oz. Briess 40 L. American Caramel Malt (4%). 3 lbs. 3 oz. Hugh Baird 90 L. Scottish Caramel Malt (4%). 13 oz. DeWolf-Cosyns Belgian Special B Caramel Malt (1%). 13 oz. Hugh Baird Scottish Chocolate Malt (1%). Mash procedure: Dough in with 130 F. water at rate of 1.25 quarts per pound, strike 122 F., rest 30 min. Heat to strike 150 F., rest 120 min. with occasional temperature maintenance. Heat to mash out at strike 170 F. and transfer to lauter tuns preheated with hot water to cover the pipes, stir and rest 20 min. Recirculate until (relatively) clear, run sweetwort off to kettle, about 65 liters collected of the first runnings at 1.084 gravity. Refill lauter tuns with water at 170 F., stir and rest for 15 min. Collect initial 20 liters of the second runnings to the Barleywine kettle for total collection of 85 liters, the balance to the Bitter kettle (with maybe a gallon of additional water infused during runoff) for total collection of 14 gallons. Boil the Barleywine down to 75 liters. Hops for the Barleywine: 80 IBU total, as follows: 55 IBU Nugget pellets at 14.2% Alpha Acid, 98.5 grams; 25 IBU Northdown leaf at 9.1% A.A., 69.9 grams; both added at 75 liters. Continue boiling to 65 liters (took about 90 min.), adding 42.5 grams English Challenger pellets at 7.2% A.A. for the last 10 min. of the boil. Mineral addition during boil: 1.5 teaspoons Gypsum, 1 teaspoon table salt, 0.5 teaspoon Epsom salt. Plan will be for each 5-gallon fraction to be dryhopped with a different hop variety, probably Cascade (Brian), East Kent Goldings (Bruce), and ??? (Doug). Hops for the Bitter Ale: 25 IBU Bramling Cross pellets at 7.1% A.A., 59.5 grams boiled for 60 min. (will be a bit less than 25 IBU as I was calculating for an O.G. of 1.040 and it came out at 1.044). 56.7 grams East Kent Goldings leaf at 4.0% A.A. added post boil, steeped for 20 min., for aroma. Mineral addition during boil: 0.5 teaspoon table salt. Total boil time 75 min. Yeasts for the Barleywine: For each 5-gallon fraction: Wyeast #1056 American Ale (Brian), Wyeast #1272 American Ale II (Doug), Brewers Resource British Draught Ale (Bruce), slurry or large-volume starter in each instance. Yeast for the Bitter Ale: Brewers Resource British Draught Ale slurry. |
