Brett dregs in American barley wine

[stigman]

Hi chaps my next brew is Gona be the Greg Hugh's American barley wine. I was thinking about splitting the batch into 3 gallons straight up bottled then 2 gallons in dj's with the dregs from this buxton tsar Bomba and some oak chunks. How should I go about stepping it up, and how much oak would you add and for how long.

 

[Dutto]

I don't know anything about what you are asking with regard to oak chips, but I would strenuously try to avoid using a yeast that has been bottled for nearly four years in a 10% ABV brew!

If you can get it to successfully ferment then how "true" will the harvested yeast be when compared to the original? Will it brew to 10%? Will it taste the same?

It's a massive gamble but my advice is still "Go for it!" if you like the original, and keep us posted.:thumb:

 

[stigman]

Thanks dutto I am going to pitch a big starter of wlp001 and add the bottle dregs for the Brettanomyces in secondary apparently this came from a 1978 bottle of courage imperial stout.

 

[strange-steve]

@Dutto I think he's only adding the brett dregs after fermentation, in which case only a small amount is needed (edit to add: sorry stigman got there first). Tbh in a small batch of only 2 gallons I'd be tempted to just pitch the dregs without culturing, though a small starter would probably be better.
The brett will take longer to finish than the oak, so I'd recommend waiting a few months before adding the oak cubes (about 10-20g for a few weeks is a good starting point).

 

[stigman]

@Dutto I think he's only adding the brett dregs after fermentation, in which case only a small amount is needed (edit to add: sorry stigman got there first). Tbh in a small batch of only 2 gallons I'd be tempted to just pitch the dregs without culturing, though a small starter would probably be better.
The brett will take longer to finish than the oak, so I'd recommend waiting a few months before adding the oak cubes (about 10-20g for a few weeks is a good starting point).

@Dutto I think he's only adding the brett dregs after fermentation, in which case only a small amount is needed (edit to add: sorry stigman got there first). Tbh in a small batch of only 2 gallons I'd be tempted to just pitch the dregs without culturing, though a small starter would probably be better.
The brett will take longer to finish than the oak, so I'd recommend waiting a few months before adding the oak cubes (about 10-20g for a few weeks is a good starting point).

Thanks Steve that's kind of what I had in mind. Next question is ibu's just put the recipe into wort app on my phone and 71g of chinook, 13.3aa 70 min boil gives 105 ibu. the book states 61.7 Brewers friend gives 106.

 

[Wouter]

Generally speaking you don´t really need to pitch much of any non-yeast based strain.

Thanks Steve that's kind of what I had in mind. Next question is ibu's just put the recipe into wort app on my phone and 71g of chinook, 13.3aa 70 min boil gives 105 ibu. the book states 61.7 Brewers friend gives 106.

You need to calculate the IBU with your own hops. Your hops have different % of alpha acids.
Input those values into your brewing software. Then you can adjust the amount of hops to get the desired IBU. Generally I leave any end hop the same and just adjust the bittering hop.
Because the end hop has more impact on the flavour of course.

Also a bit depends on the brewing software used. Important is to the use the right method of estimating bitterness! Especially high SG beers have a problem of giving a huge difference between methods. Rager or Tinseth? Thats your question.

 

[stigman]

Thanks @Wouter I don't have the hops yet I just put the same alpha as in the book and there is a massive difference 105 ibu puts it just outside of the style guidlines I'm presuming this must be a mistake in the Greg Hugh's book.

 

[Wouter]

Thanks Steve that's kind of what I had in mind. Next question is ibu's just put the recipe into wort app on my phone and 71g of chinook, 13.3aa 70 min boil gives 105 ibu. the book states 61.7 Brewers friend gives 106.

It is probably correct and the result of multiple things.

For fun I took a quadrupel in my database and threw out the hops and inserted your chinook in it :). For the first one I used 71g of chinook for 25L (I don't know the recipe so its just an example!). Chinook is between 11.5-15%, so I try that next.

%13.3 AA:
Rager: 102 IBU
Tinseth: 73 IBU
Mosher: 63 IBU

%11.5 AA:
Rager: 88 IBU
Tinseth: 63 IBU
Mosher: 54 IBU

You see? The difference reaches 50 IBU when you have a different AA and method.

 

[stigman]

Here's the recipe from the book. Has anybody else done this before.

 

[Wouter]

Like I said, just looks like he uses Mosher for calculating IBU :).
Perhaps the method for calculating bitterness is in the beginning of the book somewhere?

 

[stigman]

Like I said, just looks like he uses Mosher for calculating IBU :).
Perhaps the method for calculating bitterness is in the beginning of the book somewhere?

OK thanks pal I'll just brew it as is then I think.

 

[Wouter]

OK thanks pal I'll just brew it as is then I think.

Sounds like a nice beer by the way. I am envious already...