The Michaelis-Menten curve? What’s that doing here?
Here is an English-style barleywine with a complex malt character. The blend of English 2-row pale ale malt with Munich malt gives this ale a rich, malty character. A little bit of wheat malt and a very small amount of biscuit malt add some bready and cracker-like notes. The beer is full-bodied, but not overly sweet — and with less caramel flavor than is found in some English barleywines. The complex malt character and body is balanced by the hop bitterness (46 IBUs) and the “earthy” character of Fuggles hops. This is not the strongest English-style barleywine ever, but it really is flavorful and nicely balanced. (It’s also delicious, in my opinion.)
The procedures were designed to work well for stovetop extract brewers. In order to do a full-strength, full-wort boil, the wort is made in two shifts. In each shift, the brewer uses roughly half the ingredients and yields 2.5 gallons (9.5 L) of wort. This helps with the hop utilization, but also allows for the small amount of wort darkening that a barleywine should undergo in the kettle. (If you can can boil a full wort, just brew this normally. Double the size of the yeast starter, though.)
Why I named this beer Briggs-Haldane Barleywine is not hard to derive, but I won’t bore you with the details.
Briggs-Haldane Barleywine
by Chris Colby
Extract (partial mash); English units
DESCRIPTION
A fairly strong (7.5%), deep amber, English-style barleywine. Briggs-Haldane is richly malty and full-bodied, with a firm bitterness and earthy hop aroma from Fuggles hops. In order to boil the full wort at working strength, the wort is made in two shifts. This also allows for a smaller yeast starter to be made.
INGREDIENTS (for 5 gallons)
Water
carbon-filtered tap water
Malts and Malt Extract (for an OG of 1.083 and 21 SRM)
1.5 lb. English 2-row pale ale malt
1.0 lb. Munich malt
8.0 oz. wheat malt
8.0 oz. crystal malt (60 °L)
3.0 oz. crystal malt (90 °L)
4.0 oz. biscuit malt
2.0 oz. chocolate malt
8 lb. 4 oz. English light liquid malt extract (such as Muntons)
Hops (46 IBUs total)
Target hops (46 IBUs)
1.25 oz. (of 11% alpha acids), boiled for 60 minutes
Fuggles hops (0 IBUs)
1.5 oz. (of 5% alpha acids), added at knockout
1.0 oz. Fuggles hops (dry hop)
Yeast (for an FG around 1.025 and 7.5% ABV)
Wyeast 1968 (London ESB Ale) or White Labs WLP002 (English Ale) yeast
(1.5-qt. yeast starter)
Other
1/4 tsp yeast nutrients (second fermenter fill)
2/3 tsp Irish moss
4.25 oz. priming sugar (for 2.2 volumes of CO2)
PROCEDURE
Make your yeast starter 3 days ahead of brew day. Place the 4 lbs. of grains in a bag (or other container) and mix them together. In your brewpot, begin heating 3.0 gallons of water to a boil. Aim to reach boiling when the small mash is done. In a separate pot (4 qts. or larger) pot, heat 2.5 qts. of water to 163 °F. Place 2.0 lbs. of your crushed grains in a steeping bag and submerge in the second pot. Hold temperature around 152 °F for 60 minutes. This is a small mash. In a third pot, heat 1.25 qts. of water to 170 °F to use as sparge water. After the grains have mashed, place a colander over your brewpot, set the grain bag in it and pour the wort through it (to filter out solid pieces of grain). Then, rinse it with the sparge water. You should have a little over 3.0 gallons of wort. Stir in roughly half of the malt extract (a little over 4 lbs.) and bring wort to a boil. Once the boil starts and the first bits of hot break show, add half of your bittering hops and boil for 60 minutes, aiming to boil the wort down to 2.5 gallons. Add 1/3 tsp. Irish moss with 15 minutes left in boil. Add half of the aroma hops at knockout (i.e. when the boil ends). Chill wort to 68 °F and transfer to fermenter. Add water to make 2.5 gallons, if needed, and aerate thoroughly. Pitch yeast and begin fermenting the beer at 68 °F.
Sixteen to 24 hours later, make your second batch of wort. To do this, repeat the instructions above, using up the rest of your ingredients. Add yeast nutrients with 15 minutes left in the boil. Once the second wort is cooled, rack it into the already fermenting beer. Do not aerate the wort at this point. Continue to ferment at 68 °F until beer is finished. Let beer sit on yeast for 3 days after primary fermentation is done. Then, rack to keg or secondary fermenter and dry hop for 5–8 days. Carbonate to 2.2 volumes of CO2 in keg or bottle and carbonate to this level.
Higher attenuation option:
You can use Wyeast 3787 (Trappist High Gravity) or White Labs WLP530 (Abbey Ale) yeast, with a 1-qt. (1-L) yeast starter, for a somewhat more highly attenuated version of this beer. The fermentation may finish as low as SG 1.018, giving you a slightly stronger beer (~8.3% ABV). To preserve the balance of the beer, decrease the amount of buttering hops so the bitterness of the beer is around 35 IBUs.
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Briggs-Haldane Barleywine
by Chris Colby
Extract (partial mash); metric units
INGREDIENTS (for 19 L)
Water
carbon-filtered tap water
Malts and Malt Extract (for an OG of 1.083 and 21 SRM)
680 g English 2-row pale ale malt
450 g Munich malt
230 g wheat malt
230 g crystal malt (60 °L)
85 g crystal malt (90 °L)
110 g biscuit malt
57 g chocolate malt
3.7 kg English light liquid malt extract (such as Muntons)
Hops (46 IBUs total)
Target hops (46 IBUs)
35 g (of 11% alpha acids), boiled for 60 minutes
Fuggles hops (0 IBUs)
43 g (of 5% alpha acids), added at knockout
28 g Fuggles hops (dry hop)
Yeast (for an FG around 1.025 and 7.5% ABV)
Wyeast 1968 (London ESB Ale) or White Labs WLP002 (English Ale) yeast
(1.5-L yeast starter)
Other
1/4 tsp yeast nutrients (second fermenter fill)
2/3 tsp Irish moss
120 g priming sugar (for 2.2 volumes of CO2)
PROCEDURE
Make your yeast starter 3 days ahead of brew day. Place the 1.8 kg of grains in a bag (or other container) and mix them together. In your brewpot, begin heating 3.0 gallons of water to a boil. Aim to reach boiling when the small mash is done. In a separate pot (4 L or larger) pot, heat 2.4 L of water to 73 °C. Place 910 g of your crushed grains in a steeping bag and submerge them in the second pot. Hold temperature around 67 °C for 60 minutes. This is a small mash. In a third pot, heat 1.2 L of water to 77 °C to use as sparge water. After the grains have mashed, place a colander over your brewpot, set the grain bag in it and pour the wort through it (to filter out solid pieces of grain). Then, rinse it with the sparge water. You should have a little over 11 L of wort. Stir in roughly half of the malt extract (a little over 1.8 kg) and bring wort to a boil. Once the boil starts and the first bits of hot break show, add half of your bittering hops and boil for 60 minutes, aiming to boil the wort down to 9.5 L. Add 1/3 tsp. Irish moss with 15 minutes left in boil. Add half of the aroma hops at knockout (i.e. when the boil ends). Chill wort to 20 °C and transfer to fermenter. Add water to make 9.5 L, if needed, and aerate thoroughly. Pitch yeast and begin fermenting the beer at 20 °C.
Sixteen to 24 hours later, make your second batch of wort. To do this, repeat the instructions above, using up the rest of your ingredients. Add yeast nutrients with 15 minutes left in the boil. Once the second wort is cooled, rack it into the already fermenting beer. Do not aerate the wort at this point. Adjust volume to 19 L with water, if needed. Continue to ferment at 20 °C until beer is finished. Let beer sit on yeast for 3 days after primary fermentation is done. Then, rack to keg or secondary fermenter and dry hop for 5–8 days. Carbonate to 2.2 volumes of CO2 in keg or bottle and carbonate to this level.
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