With summer halfway done, it's time to start brewing those big winter beers so they'll be ready to give away during the holidays, and enjoy in the first part of next year. Getting a bit of a late start on this one, so hopefully it'll be drinkable by New Years.
A modified version of Sam Calagione's "Big Momma's Barleywine" recipe I doctored up in iBrewmaster based on available/local ingredients and my preferences, this called for:
- 12lb of Ultralight LME
- 2lb of light brown sugar
- 2lb of 30L Crystal for steeping
- Additions of Warrior, Amarillo and Cascade during the 60 min boil
And, a first time for me ... Raisins. Several versions of the Big Momma's I came across looking for a good extract BW recipe called for doing a boil of a pound of golden raisins along with a half-ounce of whole Cascade, blending until smooth, then adding to the last 15 minutes of the main boil. I'm not sure what specific flavors it'll contribute, but it sure made the house smell nice.
Pitched a big starter of American Ale (Wyeast 1056) , and I'll pitch some Champagne yeast with a little more brown sugar after a week.
A few notes about the process and some new equipment:
- The Blichmann Boilermaker is nice. Very. very nice. Bend back the corners of that heatshield though or you'll end up nicking your shins pretty bad.
- The Blichmann burner is also so much better than the orange-flamed camp-stove I've been using.
- The local Safeway only carries golden raisins in a 15 (15?!?!?) oz package. No pounds for you!
- My hydrometer only has gradations to 1.100 -- the calculated OG on this beast is nearly 1.110 without the raisin concoction!
