Specialty Malts for a Barleywine

[Loetz]

Hey, All:

I'm trying to put together a recipe for a barleywine and I'm wondering if you guys could suggest some specialty malts for me. I listened to Jamil's show on the topic and he pushes crystal 120 lovibond as being very important. He says that these malts will give off a lot of plum and fig traits as they age which is exactly what I'm looking for in my beer. I want it to also have some black cherry, orange, dark rum-soaked dates and toffee if that's possible too.

I'm shopping around on various sites like The Malt Miller and I'm not really sure what to buy. So far I haven't even seen anything that says crystal 120, but I haven't spent a lot of time searching yet. Let me know if any of you have any suggestions!

 

[Aleman]

I'm shopping around on various sites like The Malt Miller and I'm not really sure what to buy. So far I haven't even seen anything that says crystal 120, but I haven't spent a lot of time searching yet. Let me know if any of you have any suggestions!

How About Dark Crystal which is 200-400EBC (so 100-200Lovi more or less). Or the Extra Dark at 340 EBC . . . not use in fairly small qty as they can be cloyingly sweet otherwise.

Another possibilty is Dingemanns Special B whihc came to mind when you said you wanted Plummy and Raisiny notes

 

[phettebs]

I keep a little C120 on hand but have pretty much switched to C60. I used to use C120 a lot but I found it to be just a bit too much in the color and flavor categories. One of the more popular homebrew barleywine recipes is Denny Conn's "Old Stoner" barleywine. I've brewed it several times and it is great.

http://www.tastybrew.com/brews/view/50

He doesn't use any 120 in there. It ends up being a deep ruby color.

The big commercial barleywine over here is Sierra Nevada's "Bigfoot." The clone receipe I have for that uses just pale malt, C60, carapils, and wheat malt. I've never brewed that one but I collect and cellar each year's commercial release.

Baz

 

[Loetz]

How About Dark Crystal which is 200-400EBC (so 100-200Lovi more or less).
Another possibility is Dingemanns Special B whihc came to mind when you said you wanted Plummy and Raisiny notes

Yea, I saw that Dark Crystal malt but I was surprised at the range it gave in color. Is that normal, or are there other maltsters that produce something more consistent?

What about a combination of the Dark Crystal and the Special B? What percentages of which grains would you go with? Keep in mind that I have Belgian pale malt on hand, so I'm not going to get that Marris Otter character.

 

[Loetz]

I keep a little C120 on hand but have pretty much switched to C60.

The big commercial barleywine over here is Sierra Nevada's "Bigfoot." The clone receipe I have for that uses just pale malt, C60, carapils, and wheat malt. I've never brewed that one but I collect and cellar each year's commercial release.

Hmm, that is tempting because I do have C60 on hand, but I'd rather go for more of an English style than an American. I want it to be more malt forward than the Bigfoot is. I think I'll try to do a Bigfoot clone later.

 

[zgoda]

I think this 50 ebc makes much less difference when comparing 300 and 350 ebc malts.

I use both Special B and Caraaroma, and one very dark crystal made by DMG, it's ~700 ebc and it's not roasted at all.

 

[RITiger1060]

If you can't find Crystal 120. I recommend using Special B malt or Thomas Fawcett's Extra Dark Crystal Malt (120 Lovibond) 2 - 3% of the total malt grist.

I've had success brewing an English-style barley wine with a blend of specialty malts including Amber Malt (1.25%), Crystal 120 (3%), Caramunich Type I (3%). Also, I've added up to 3% wheat malt for head retention.

A fairly hard 120 minute boil is required to cause mailllard reaction giving complexity and rich flavor to your beer.

Have you given consideration of blending your base malt too? I've recently made a Imperial Stout with (2/3) Maris Otter and (1/3) Vienna Malt. You can do any combination of base malts to tune down the intensity of the Maris Otter. Just a thought.

Let us know what you decide to use.

Cheers

 

[Loetz]

Have you given consideration of blending your base malt too? I've recently made a Imperial Stout with (2/3) Maris Otter and (1/3) Vienna Malt. You can do any combination of base malts to tune down the intensity of the Maris Otter. Just a thought.

Let us know what you decide to use.

Cheers

I'm going to use belgian pale malt for the base, but I'm still thinking about those specialty malts. Thanks for the tips.

 

[JKaranka]

I'm about to bottle one where I used maris otter, some spare mild malt, normal crystal (L70) and a tad of chocolate malt. Ah, also some golden syrup. It's been tasting good and warming this far so I assume it will only improve with conditioning.

 

[John_Henry]

I'd have thought dark crystal would be the obvious one.