Had one of my Xmas Barley wines started at 1.085 on 16 Feb tonight.
Had to pour it into a 2L jug as it was so fizzy (bottled @ 1.012).
Was it a nice, drinkable beer - yes albeit a bit strong
Was it worth the effort - hell NO - it was made by doing a parti-gyle (PG) in the GF so took semi-forever then was boiled down to 10L on the stove and I ended up with 12 bottles in the posh bottles that have gushed with everything, plus a few samplers.
On the plus side, the other brew from the PG was a very simple Cascade single hop beer into which t I chucked one of the last Coopers kits from Tesco's failed toe-dip into the HB market. That was really good, a fabulous advert for partial mash brewing.
I do feel that there is sort of "law of diminishing returns" with brewing strong beers. 5% to 6% is fairly easy to brew, 7% needs a fair bit of sugar and beyond that you are looking at extra malt extract, or at the extremes, loads of faffing around - re-iterated mashes, PG brewing and all that stuff.
Will I be brewing a Barley Wine again - yes, perhaps, but not before I have thought very carefully about why TF I bothered with one. It has been a complete arse ache all the way to breakfast time.
