The Wookiee & the Ewok
Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 10:13AM Big and little, tall and short, high-gravity and session, barleywine and pale: a parti-gyle brewday from Episode 26.
For two beers, approx. 5 gallons each:
The grist:
- 20 lbs Gambrinus ESB malt
- 1 lb Briess Caramel 60L
The Mash:
- 149 F - 75 min.
- 168 F - 5 min
1st Gyle: The Wookiee
Target OG: 1.090-something (achieved 1.092)
Collect first runnings to preboil volume (7 gallons on my system).
- 2.5 oz Summit (pellets) @ 60"
- 2 oz Centennial (homegrown) @ 10"
- 2 oz Centennial (homegrown) @ 0"
2nd Gyle: The Ewok
Target OG: ??? (achieved 1.044, ymmv)
Continue sparging w/ H20 to preboil volume or desired gravity.
- 0.5 oz Summit (pellets) @ 60"
- 2 oz Liberty (homegrown) @ 10"
- 2 oz Liberty (homegrown) @ 0"
Fermentation:
- Wyeast 1272 American Ale II, 65 F
- Wookiee gets additional O2 @ 24 hrs. and 1 lb of Ames Farm Minnesota honey @ 48 hrs
Extract?
Can't parti-gyle an extract brew, but here are single-batch approximations for each beer:
Wookiee (extract):
Steep 1 lb. Caramel 60; sub 12 lbs Northern Brewer Gold malt syrup for the Gambrinus ESB base malt. Boil as much volume as you can - kettle and fermentation additions as above.
Ewok (extract):
Steep 0.5 lbs Caramel 60, and use 6.3 lbs Northern Brewer Gold malt syrup. Boil additions as above.
For more parti-gyle brewday rundowns:
Reader Comments (12)
Hey there,
I'm really keen to try this recipe out, but I'm a little concerned about the amount of bittering hops in the barley wine.... When I whip this recipe into Beertools Pro, the IBU I get is 172, which seems pretty off the scale!
Is this the intended bitterness (or in the ballpark?).
Cheers
S
p.s. Great show btw - I've been watching from EP 1. Totally loving it!
p.p.s. Greetings from New Zealand, whoop!
Hey Stu,
Given 18.2% aa for Summit pellets and guessing at 10% aa for my homegrown whole Centennial; allowing for the pellet/whole utilization difference, plus a preboil gravity of 1.084 and a 60 minute boil, I had 135 IBU using Tinseth's formula. Which is technically too high for the style, but that was by design - what with the high OG, low-ish attenuating yeast with selective pressure for flocculent cells (top-cropped for 3 generations), and a cool fermentation, I was anticipating having to offset a high FG.
Throwing math out the window and considering that from the standpoint of the taste buds, IBUs above a certain level are pretty theoretical, it tasted very hoppy but not totally out of balance at racking (for what that's worth).
ps - Thanks! You just volunteered your couch when and if we come to NZ!
pps - Go All Blacks!
Cheers for the reply Dawson, I'm totally gonna dive in and rock this beer.
The couch is ready and waiting!
Dawson or other fellow brew dudes and dudettes,
I have the Wookie figured out at being 11.5% abv which is higher than the 10% advertised by Wyeast as tolerable by American Ale II. I am figuring about 65% efficiency. This is my first "big gravity" beer so I am wondering how or if at all this is an issue. I will of course be making a double sized, 1/2 gallon starter. Second, what do you suggest as the bottle priming sugar?
Steve
3 Blondes and a Brunette Homebrewery
Steve,
Your culture of 1272 may top out at 10%; mine might too - as I mentioned to Stu above, the recipe is formulated with a potentially high FG in mind. Having said all that, my experience has been that with lots of TLC, it's possible to coax yeast to exceed specs. YMMV. Re: priming sugar, whatever floats your boat ... I will probably use corn sugar.
Hey dudes, sorry I'm late. I brewed the extract version of the Wookiee with about 5 oz. of CaraRed malt thrown into the steeping grain bill, pitched a seriously amped-up starter of Wyeast 1272 American Ale II, and the exact same Ames Farm honey @ 48 hours into fermentation. The beer is a beast. I'm on day 14 of primary fermentation and it's still glugging about every 50-60 seconds. Didn't hit the gravity I had hoped... got around 1.082, but it's already down to 1.019 at last check two days ago! And the color is a beautiful reddish-orange, which was my intention with that CaraRed. I have thus dubbed it the Red-Headed Wookiee. Think I'll rack it this weekend and let it rest in secondary for a while through the chilly winter in the basement. No reason to rush this one, right? May all your Wookiees turn out super-hairy! (Chip W. / BTV)
PS - Those Summit pellet hops just may be the best smelling hop in the world. Super dank! Good call, Dawson!
I have recently gotten back into Barleywine and am looking forward to trying this one out. On a related note, I had an absolutely FANTASTIC one recently here at Free State Brewery in Lawrence Kansas. I highly recommend it if you or any other fans are in this neck-of-the-woods. Thanks again for a killer site, and a great episode.
Hello from Utah. Just did this parti-gyle brew yesterday. Ended up og1.101 on the barley wine and 1.041 on the smaller beer. Just wondering how long you kept the barley wine in secondary.
@Kris - kind of an involved story ... I split the batch and dry-hopped half for consumption after a 2 month secondary; the other half stayed in secondary for 8 months, at which point it got wet-hopped with some fresh 2011 cones from my backyard. I still have a couple bombers of that half left which I'm trying to save for its 2 year birthday.
Thanks Dawson! I'm soaking 3 oz of medium toasted oak cubes in maker's mark which I plan to add to the secondary...I was thinking 3-4 months. I remember the wet wookie from another episode, I think I'll have to try that when my cascade cones come in!
Good to know the little beer wasn't a Wookie Dookie instead of the Ewok.