Barley Wine MAsh Temp Question

[graysalchemy]

Hi All

Going to brew 40l of barley wine tomorrow I am going to use this recipe.

Old Jake barley wine


Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Pale Malt 5 EBC 27 lbs. 10.0 oz 12530 grams 82.7%
Crystal Malt 130 EBC 1 lbs. 0.3 oz 460 grams 3.1%
Wheat Malt 3.5 EBC 1 lbs. 7.3 oz 660 grams 4.4%
Sugar, Demerara 0 EBC 1 lbs. 7.2 oz 660 grams 4.4%
Chocolate Malt 1050 EBC 0 lbs. 11.7 oz 330 grams 2.2%
carapils 5 EBC 1 lbs. 1.5 oz 495 grams 3.3%


Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Challenger Whole 7.9 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 4.2 oz 115 grams 64.4%
Golding Whole 5.7 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 2.7 oz 76 grams 29.6%
Golding Whole 5.7 % 10 mins 0 lbs. 1.6 oz 45 grams 6%


Final Volume: 40 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.087
Final Gravity: 1.019
Alcohol Content: 9% ABV
Total Liquor: 61.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 36.2 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 65 EBU
Colour: 89 EBC

The recipey was decided after an a thread earlier on in the year.

However my question is what temp should I mash at. I normally mash at 66C but I was wondering if I should drop it a few degree to make it a little more fermenatable. I am worried that with a high gravity beer it will end up too sweet, hence why I have included carapils instead of just crystal.

Any help most appreciated.

 

[Aleman]

Given the amount of sugar you have 4.4% I would drop the mash temp to 64C and probably no higher . . . mashing for around 2 hours possibly even a bit longer to ensure decent attenuation.

Just over 6% Crystal . . .shouldn't affect the attenuation too much, but the carapils will help prevent it being too sweet.

I'd be tempted with a hochkurz mash schedule with my HERMS 60 minutes at 62C and 60 minutes at 68-70C followed by 74C for lautering

 

[graysalchemy]

Thanks for that Tony. Since I haven't got a Herms set up (yet) I will go with the 64c. Should I perhaps increase the demerara sugar? I have got a kilo of it.

 

[Aleman]

At nearly 1.090 10% sugar would not be out of the question, if you look at some of the Belgian Doubles and Triples they are using up to 30% sugar to aid digestibility and increase attenuation

 

[graysalchemy]

I will up the sugar then :thumb:

Cheers Aleman