R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Barleywine James Perkins 11/18/2000 Feedback? Write james@loowit.net This should make a barleywine of frightening porportions, well worthy of respect: a hefty amount of malt extract fortified with loads of honey. We'll be committed to watching this baby perk for 6-12 months. This recipe was inspired by Revenge, a recipe posted by Bryan Schwab on Cats Meow 3. It makes 5 Imperial gallons (about 6 US gallons). 15 lb. Alexander Extra-Light Malt Extract 14 oz. Crystal Malt 20L 10 oz. Dextrin (Cara-Pils) Malt 2 gal. distilled water for boiling grains 4 gal. distilled water to sparge/top up 2 oz. Chinook Hops, Alpha Acid 12.2 (boiling) 2 oz. Cascade Hops, Alpha Acid 5.0 (boiling) 2 oz. Yakima Goldings Hops, Alpha Acid 3.7 (flavoring) 1 Tbsp. Irish Moss (last 20 min of boil) 8 lb. Blueberry Honey Wyeast Labs Pitchable Yeast #1098 British Ale Red Star Pasteur Champagne Yeast 8 oz. corn sugar (bottling) Place the crushed, malted grains in a teflon bag and place in 3 gal. room-temperature distilled water. Bring up to 180F. Leave the lid off during this heating. Steep grains at this temperature for 30 min. Remove grainbag and squeeze into the water (I two large stainless steel mixing bowls and trap the grain bag between them like so -- )o) -- where ")" is a bowl and "o" is the grain bag. Bring to full rolling bowl. beware of it foaming over... if it looks like it is going to do so, remove from heat until it subsides, then put it back. I didn't have foam (rarely do). Add all the malt extract syrup, stirring while adding to keep it from sticking and burning on the bottom. Return to full boil, watching carefully for it possibly foaming up. The boil is for 60 minutes, with the lid on, heat reduced a bit but keeping it at a rolling boil. Add hops per this schedule: 60 min - add half the Chinook and Cascade hops 40 min - add rest of Chinook and Cascade hops (hydrate the Irish Moss in 1 cup water) 20 min - add all Yakima Goldings + Irish Moss While you're waiting for it to finish, pour the honey in the bottom of the primary fermenter. When the buzzer goes off, hold a (sanitized) large kitchen strainer over the fermenter and scoop pintfuls of hops and wort into the strainer. When the strainer's nearly overfull I smush the hops to drain the extract, and pour a cup or two of cold water through it to sparge, then plop the hops into a container to later throw into my garden compost. Repeat until done. Top up the primary fermenter to 4.5 (imperial) gal. liquid. Cover securely and let it sit overnight. Measure the temperature. When it gets down around 75F, add the last 0.5 gal. water to readch 5 I. gal. Stir vigorously (to get lots of air dissolved in the wort). Measure the specific gravity (I have 1.128 -- 17% potential alcohol!). Pitch the ale yeast in over the surface of the wort. Keep covered, place in a 75F room and wait for fermentation to get really going. This took almost two days for me: I discovered that in topping off the wort with tap water, after a day it was still a chilly 65 F. I put a heating pad underneath it and spent a day raising it to 75F, at which point it started fermenting, went nuts, and raised up about a 12" head of foam in 6 hours. After 7 days of ferment, I hydrated the champagne yeast in a quarter cup of 95 F water, and pitched it into the wort. The plan is that the hardy champagne yeast will eat up residual sugars that the ale yeast can't get, giving a much drier result. Fermentation in similar recipes takes 3-6 months. Similar recipes finish with a specific gravity around 1.020, although I expect more like 1.030 for mine -- which would give me about 13% alcohol. Eeek. On day 8 (11/27) the specific gravity is 1.060 and the wort tastes quite sweet (not cloyingly so, but definitely sweet). Day 16 (12/5) no signs of life. 1.060. warmed the wort from 66F to 76F, aerated it, and pitched some WyEast Eau De Vie liquid yeast, in hopes that it will complete the fermentation. Day 18 (12/7) It appears like I have signs of some slow but significant fermentation (small mellow dustings of bubbles distributed here and there across the surface of the wort). Day 31 (12/20) Racked the wort into a glass secondary to get it off the residue. Still sweet and yeasty. :( Going on two week vacation... Day 52 (1/9) signs of life, for at least the last couple of days... rising bubbles and a the bubbler active every 5 minutes or so. I don't know for how long this has been going on. There is expansion in the liquid, forcing me to remove about 4 oz. from the liquid. Specific gravity 1.048. Temp 76F. Still sweet. Blueberry taste of the honey is noticeable, lots of suspended gunk from the activity. Distinctive yeasty taste. :( Day 93 (2/19). Have had tiny bubbles rising off and on... the bubbler clicks still every once in a while. Bizarre! Nice and clear though. Have kept it at room temperature. It's a sweet mead taste presently, no yeasty taste. Temperature 70F, Specific gravity 1.050. Going to call and consult with the experts.