# Been a While But I Finally Brewed a Batch of Barley Wine (Beer View)



## alelover

Haven't been able to brew yet this year due to my wife getting 2 new hips and all. I figured since I didn't have a helper I better build something so I don't need help. Plus all that lifting ain't helping my old back none. So I finally got off my lazy butt and built me a brew stand. Going to brew 6 gallons of Simcoe Barley Wine. My good friend gave me 40 pounds of Maris-Otter and 12 oz. of Simcoe flower hops. He said if I brew it I can have half. This is the first batch. I will make another one later with a different yeast. I had to split it because I can't fit 45 pounds of grain and 10 gallons of water in my mash tun.








Heating up the water that will be mixed with the barley malt to 180°F.







It hit 190 so I'll let it cool down a bit.







20 lbs. of Maris-Otter. England's finest 2-Row malt. 1 pound I cold smoked with Alder dust for about 6 hours in a cardboard box.

Also have .5 # Crystal 120, .5# of Carapils and .5# of Belgian Special-B.







Using the Fuller's yeast. WLP-002. Made a big old starter.







Lots of yeast.







Barley and hot water mixed. Aiming for 156°F.







155°F. Excellent.







Man this smells so good.







Wrap it with some towels to hold the heat. Let it sit for 90 minutes while the starch turns to sugar.







Start heating the sparge water. Aiming for 190°F.







It's been 90 minutes. Time to recirculate to set the grain bed and filter out the solids.







Let the sparging begin. This is where we rinse all the sugars from the grain into the brew kettle. The arm spins while spraying water on the grain.







Hopefully it's going in to the kettle at the same rate the sparge water is going into the grain.







Three Tier Gravity feed system is what we call it.







We have wort. AKA unfermented beer.







Getting ready to boil.







 Boiling for 90 minutes. Making 5 one ounce additions of Simcoe along the way.







5 ounces Simcoe hops.







My cat is supposed to keep the mice out of the brewery.







This my immersion chiller. 50 ft. of copper tubing.







25 ft. of pre-chiller in ice bath.







Chilling the wort.







We have chilled to 70°F. Time to put it in the fermenter. 6 1/2 gallon glass carboy.







Blast some pure O2 into it and pitch the yeast. Into the basement to ferment at 68°F. Original gravity is 1.090.

Should be around 9.5% alcohol when done.







12 hours later she is fermenting very vigorously.







Closer view.







Should be ready to rack to the secondary in about 10 days. Thanks for watching.

See ya.


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## solaryellow

I like what you did for the airlock.

I have never brewed beer but have some idea of how it works. What is the final gravity you shoot for Scott?

Nice setup too!


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## irie

amazing!!! I cant wait to see how it looks when its done. This is a heck of a good look into the world of home brewing. Very cool man!


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## alelover

Thanks. I'm shooting for a final gravity around 1.016. That should give me 9.5% ABV. I had to use a tube to let the foam escape. This is a fermenting mofo and it's just spewing out foam right now like it's going out of style. I already filled 2 bowls.


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## bluebombersfan

Wow that looks like quite teh set up!!!  I got into making beer a bit but the novelty wore off.  Sure does make me think I should try it out again!!!


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## alelover

This was so much easier with the new brew stand. No heavy lifting required. My back felt much better Monday morning.


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## michael ark

Thats one hell of a set up you got.Mr.beer got nothing on you.


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## SmokinAl

Man that's quite an operation you have there!


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## Bearcarver

Thanks Scott !!!

I never had a good look at what it takes to do what you do----Very interesting!!!

Great BeerViews!!

As soon as I saw the copper coil, I started looking for the Revenuers!!!!  
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





Thanks Again Scott---Very Cool !!!!

Bear


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## oldschoolbbq

Very interesting post, wish I could still enjoy a good Brewsky now and then....
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





  partied too hard earlier in life I guess ,now it's  
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





.


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## alelover

Thanks. You know that soda will kill you too Stan.


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## sound1

What time did ya say you were coming over?? I'll get the rack-o-ribs on!!


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## africanmeat

Wow it looks interesting must  be a lot of fun and  it is your own beer , must taste heavenly .


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## bratrules

Nice setup my brew rig is ghetto but it gets the job done!!! i am going to brew a APA in the next few days i have done one in awhile. Man its going to be a few months before you can taste that barleywine but i bet its going to be good. i myself have been wanting to brew one but i want to wait till i start kegging.


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## alelover

I'll be bottling the barleywine in about a year probably. IPA is next on my list. I usually keg but for some beers they need to be laid down for a while to age.


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## irie

wow a year??? thats a long time! I would imagine the reward is well worth the wait though.


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## alelover

I had one once that was 6 years in the bottle before it tasted any good. It was 13% alcohol. This one will only be 9.5%.


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## michael ark

Dang 13%.Did you use turbo yeast?


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## alelover

Actually it was a belgian strong ale yeast. Lots of it.


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## irie

wow, and I thought I was patient! You have a really bad ass set up I would love to try home brewing one day but until then please keep making threads!!!


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## slownlow

Nice job.  Looks good.  Thanks for sharing the journey with us.


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## alelover

It's not over yet. I still need to transfer it to another carboy for clarification and aging. Then bottling. Then more aging.


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## justpassingthru

Wow Scott,

That's really interesting, nice set  up with genuine ingenuity, thanks for showing us your set up and how it's done.

Gene


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## alelover

Today we racked the beer. Wanted to do it last week but things come up. You don't want it sitting on the yeast too long or autolysis can occur. In biology, _autolysis_, more commonly known as self-digestion, refers to the destruction of a cell through the action of its own enzymes. This is where the still living yeast start eating all the dying yeast. That can produce off flavors in the beer.








6 gallons of Barley Wine. Will let this clarify and age for a couple of months then bottle it. Should end up around 10 % alcohol.







See you in a few months.

Thanks for watching.


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## Bearcarver

Verrrry In-ter-est-ing!!!

Cool, Scott !!

Bear


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## alelover




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## Bearcarver

LOL---That's exactly what I was thinking about when I typed that !

Bear


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