r/Homebrewing • u/tsein • Jun 23 '26
Question Super dry barleywine?
So, this was a bit unexpected: first try at a barleywine, started from an OG of 1.085 and just under 5 weeks later I have an FG of 1.004.
It smells a bit bready, tastes very harsh. Strong notes of paint thinner, slightly sour, maybe a hint of fruit in the end like orange peel? I might be imagining that last point, I'm not sure my sense of taste will return to normal for the rest of the day after sampling this.
Is this worth bottling and hoping it improves with age? Is it... still barleywine or does the low FG mean I accidentally made something else? XD
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u/PostRedditComment Jun 23 '26
Is there a pellicle visible? Could be infected with other microbes or cross contaminated with STA1 yeast. What beers did you brew in this fermenter previously?
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u/OnlyEntertainment814 Jun 23 '26
the paint thinner notes and that FG dropping so low does point to either an infection or maybe a diastaticus contamination from previous batch, both can chew through dextrins that normal yeast leaves behind
if there's no visible pellicle it could still be diastaticus since it doesn't always show signs, worth checking what you fermented in that vessel before
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u/spersichilli Jun 23 '26
kveik can chew through beers so the FG makes sense, a high abv beer fermented warm (with what i'm assuming isn't great yeast health) is going to taste like paint thinner/fusel alcohols 5 weeks in like that. Doubt it would be infected
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u/lifeinrednblack Pro Jun 23 '26
(replying to u/tsein here as well)
I'm more concerned with the apparent attenuation being 94%. That's quite a bit over expectations. But to your point, if it was fermented really really really warm voss could potentially hit it. And OPs description does match the notes id expect voss to throw if it over expressed.
While I disagree with the "all high abv beers need months to mellow to be drinkable" go to (if you handle fermentation properly, you should have a completely drinkable beer regardless of abv before conditioning and aging), I think in this case with the odd yeast choice and fermentation temps , OP should just leave it in the fermenter (and stop opening the fermenter) for a few months to see if it gets better.
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u/spersichilli Jun 23 '26
Yeah exactly that’s why I specified the warm ferm and likely poor yeast health. Pro’s/“advanced” homebrewers will be able to manage the fermentation appropriately to make the beer drinkable without need for extended conditioning time
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u/lifeinrednblack Pro Jun 23 '26
Yes (I was agreeing).
If I was OP I WOULD wait and check the gravity again in a week or two though. And if it drops at all again, I'd put it down to an infection
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u/tsein Jun 23 '26
I'm more concerned with the apparent attenuation being 94%.
That's my main concern, as well, I haven't had this happen with any other brews so far, kveik or not (in winter it's cool enough to experiment with other yeasts), and from what I've read of barleywines it doesn't seem to be normal (searching earlier I couldn't find anyone reporting such a dry barleywine).
The last thing I brewed was a Braggot which also came in around 10% in the end and was drinkable pretty much immediately (though OG and FG were both much higher--the only thing I've brewed so far which actually reached a FG of 1.0 was a guava cider, but that also wasn't as harsh as the barleywine).
OP should just leave it in the fermenter (and stop opening the fermenter) for a few months to see if it gets better.
Duly noted :)
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u/lifeinrednblack Pro Jun 23 '26
Did you hit your mash temp?
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u/tsein Jun 23 '26
pretty sure... probably... close, at least XD
My first couple of brews definitely suffered due to mistakes with mashing, but I've been improving. There is probably still room for improvement there, though, haha.
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u/lifeinrednblack Pro Jun 23 '26
It may also because you hit your mash temp pretty low... I'd still be suspicious. I'd check gravity again in a week or two, and if it's moved at all, I'd think you probably have an infection. If it's the same, I'd lean more towards it just being the yeast and fermentation temp
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u/tsein Jun 23 '26
Yeah, I'm doing everything on the stove with a candy thermometer so my current mashing process is generally:
- Heat the water to a couple degrees above the target mash temp
- Add the grain (in a bag). If the temp is a little low, heat to the desired temp (it's often pretty close and a couple times adding the grain landed the temp at exactly the right spot).
- Check the temperature again after 30 minutes. Depending on the weather that day it might still be at the temperature I left it or it might be a couple degrees low so I'll heat it up again (slowly, to avoid the bottom getting cooked).
I think this is pretty inexact compared to what a lot of people are doing. My kitchen is also pretty small so sparging takes a lot of time and I usually have to sparge the mashed grain in small batches to get through it all. During that time it's certainly sitting at a lower temperature on the counter. I'm not sure how much of an effect that has, though.
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u/lifeinrednblack Pro Jun 23 '26
Nope that sounds like a solid mash process, and more than a lot of people do.
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u/tsein Jun 23 '26
Not sure about the pellicle, I don't have a good way to look inside the fermenter without completely opening it up to the air. I can check later, though.
The last thing I used this fermenter for was either a Longan mead or a black pepper braggot (I have two identical fermenters so I'm not 100% sure which one the barleywine went into--the fermenters were both new before those batches, though and both the mead and braggot turned out well).
One potential concern is I live in a tropical climate and I don't have any temperature controls (just using kveik yeast and hoping for the best). Temperatures recently have varied between about 25C and 35C, which I think may cause the fermenters to "breath" a bit day to day...
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u/tsein Jun 23 '26
No pellicle, but there are more bubbles than I'm used to seeing at the end of a batch. I had one previous beer batch that had some decent head just in the hydrometer sample before bottling, though, so this doesn't look concerning to my amateur eyes (but of course if anyone here disagrees I'd be glad to be corrected haha).
It smells better than the hydrometer sample I took earlier (bucket drains from the bottom, maybe it pulled in some of the yeast cake).
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u/PostRedditComment Jun 23 '26
Yeah that looks normal to me. The only concerning thing to me then is that it got down to 1.004. That’s out of the norm unless the recipe had a lot of pure sugar or other non grains that would ferment out completely, or if you used enzymes etc. If there were no other off flavors and it is simply hot or yeasty and the gravity has been stable Id come back in 6 months. Usually with barleywine I like to get them in bottles carbonating naturally if the abv allows for it and then try to forget about them because they really do shine during long term aging.
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u/tsein Jun 23 '26
Yeah, I was definitely not expecting to get down anywhere near 1.0 haha. The recipe did include 500g of pure sugar (for a 10L batch) which I thought seemed a bit high, but it's my first try with this style so the only change I made was to use Kveik yeast (the recipe called for CBC-1).
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u/PostRedditComment Jun 23 '26
That might actually explain the lower FG number then. I wouldn’t expect that in a Barleywine.
That is very odd on the yeast. CBC-1 is a cask conditioning yeast that I’ve only ever heard of using for bottling. Its what I bottle Barleywine, Imperial Stout, and traditional sours with actually.
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u/tsein Jun 23 '26
I think the expected FG according to the recipe was supposed to be around 1.020 (I misplaced the recipe sometime over the past month so can't be sure, though). I think the attenuation rate for CBC-1 is lower than kveik as well, maybe they chose it for this recipe specifically to encourage it to stop at the right point?
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u/Puzzled_Scallion_319 Jun 23 '26
Even if brewed with temp control, I would leave a barleywine for 6 months before drinking. Since you stated 25-35C, plus finishing so low, its likely going to be pretty harsh for at least the next year I would guess.
If its infected then... no idea! It might turn out amazing or might turn into a dumpster fire!
I would take a small sample if you can and chill it in the fridge. Once cold, give it a little taste and report back :)
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u/tsein Jun 23 '26
I would take a small sample if you can and chill it in the fridge. Once cold, give it a little taste and report back :)
I did try this with the hydrometer sample. The bready smell almost entirely went away, and it was less physically painful to drink, but still very harsh.
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u/spersichilli Jun 23 '26
brother just bottle it and forget about it for a year and see how it is.
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u/36HertzMastering Jun 24 '26
Exactly this - barley wine always takes like nail varnish remover when its first brewed.
Bottle it up and leave for 6 months, see what its doing if it still tastes like rocket fuel come back in 6 months etc etc
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u/200pf Jun 23 '26
I would guess that the yeast started getting stressed by the high gravity/temps and started producing more side products instead of ethanol. like everyone else is saying it should mellow out. Kveik has a high attenuation so the low gravity should really not be too surprising.
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u/tsein Jun 23 '26
Could be. I've also fermented meads which didn't come out this way, but in those batches I also added in some yeast nutrients (which I left out of this batch since the recipe didn't call for it).
Googling I saw Kveik supposedly has a max attenuation of 85%, and it seems I'm hitting around 95% which surprised me (though I also found at least one other thread on reddit of someone getting over 90%). Although perhaps the high temperature also helped increase attenuation in this case.
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u/Temporary_Stranger39 Jun 25 '26
5 weeks? Barleywine at 5 weeks isn't even Barleywine, yet. It's "going to be barleywine".
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u/lauterPope Jun 23 '26
5 weeks is not enough time for a BW to reach maturity. It took about 8 months for my BW to mellow out. Leave it alone and forget it exists for a few months and you’ll see/taste the difference. Barelywine is not a quick turn over beer.