Barleywine

Barley wines range from amber to deep copper-garnet in color and have a full body and high residual malty sweetness. Complexity of alcohols and fruity-ester characters are often high and counter-balanced by hop bitterness and extraordinary alcohol content. American interpretations tend to have a much more pronounced hop character than English versions. Hop aroma and flavor are at medium to very high levels. Very low levels of diacetyl may be acceptable. A caramel, toffee or vinous (sometimes sherrylike) aroma and flavor are part of the character. Chill haze is allowable at cold temperatures.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound medium crystal malt

• 1/2 pound malto-dextrin

• 6 pounds light DME

• 3 pounds amber DME

• 4 ounces Northern Brewer hops

• 2 ounces Cascade hops

• 1 teaspoon Irish moss

• Wyeast 1098 British Ale yeast

• 1-1/4 cup corn sugar

Instructions:

1. Place the crushed specialty grains in a nylon hop bag and steep them in 1 gallon of preheated 150º water for 30 minutes.

2. Drain and discard the spent grains.

3. Bring at least 3 gallons of liquor to a boil, remove the brew kettle from the heat source then stir in the extract, the malto-dextrin and 3 ounces of the Northern Brewer hops.

4. Return the brew kettle to the heat source and boil for 45 minutes, then add the rest of the Northern Brewer hops, 1/2 ounce of the Cascade hops and the Irish moss.

5. Boil for an additional 15 minutes, then remove the brew kettle from the heat source, cover it and drop the temperature of the wort as quickly as possible to 77º F.

6. Once the wort has cooled to below 77º F, take an original gravity reading, pour the wort into a primary fermenter through a funnel with a strainer and add enough cool water to create 5 gallons.

7. Once the wort has been transferred to the primary fermenter, pitch the yeast, stir the wort vigorously, seal the fermenter with an airlock and ferment at 68º-72º F for a week.

8. Rack the beer to a secondary fermenter, dry-hop the remaining Cascade hops and allow the beer to finish fermentation.

9. Once fermentation is complete, rack the beer to a bottling bucket, prime with the corn sugar and bottle and condition as usual.