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Marty Scott, barrel program manager at Chicago’s Revolution, shares this recipe for their bourbon-barrel–aged barleywine blended from a younger, drier component and an older, sweeter one. Note that this recipe represents the drier component, “and anyone brewing to those targets will be sorely disappointed at the resulting beer,” he says.
For the older, sweeter one, kick up the gravity to 1.150–1.160 (34–36°P), aiming to finish around 1.032 (8°P). Barrel-age it for at least a year, then blend with a drier one aged about six months. For an unblended variation instead, Scott recommends targeting 1.130–1.140 (30–32°P).
For more on how today’s brewers are designing big beers meant for oak-aging, see Bound for the Barrel. Plus, for more resourceful perspective from Scott, see A Second Chance for Barrels.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.110 (26°P)
FG: 1.016 (4°P)
IBUs: 20
ABV: 11.6%
MALT/GRAIN BILL
19.8 lb (9 kg) Rahr Pale Ale
1.1 lb (500 g) Dingemans Cara 45
4 oz (113 g) Château Special B
HOPS SCHEDULE
0.45 oz (13 g) Chinook at 90 minutes [14 IBUs]
0.55 oz (16 g) Centennial at 15 minutes [6 IBUs]
YEAST
Wyeast 1968 London ESB
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash in at 145°F (63°C). Raise to 150°F (66°C), rest 60 minutes, then raise to 170°F (77°C) and mash out. Recirculate until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge and top up as needed to get about 8 gallons (30 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 3 hours, adding hops according to the schedule. Chill to about 66°F (19°C), oxygenate the wort thoroughly, and add a big, healthy yeast starter. Ferment at 68°F (20°C) until activity begins to slow from high kräusen, then raise to 70°F (21°C) until complete and the gravity has stabilized. Rack to a freshly emptied bourbon cask, or to a glass or stainless fermentor with bourbon-soaked oak cubes, for 6 months before blending and packaging.
BREWER’S NOTES
Mash enzymes: We don’t use them. Attenuation should come from a huge pitch of happy yeast. At this OG range, we usually pitch roughly 4 million cells/ml per °P—that’s a lot of smack packs! (A big starter is best.) Any unfermented simple sugars will take us into cloying territory in a hurry. All residual sugar should be long-chain!
Gravity: If it’s running too low as you go into the kettle, you can reduce the volume or adjust with dextrose or other sugars as needed.