Barley Wine Problems

[arthur]

Hi everyone, sorry should prob introduce myself in the appropriate forum sometime. Quickly... Im adam, 25 and a uni student in falmouth. Iv got loads of my dads old brewing gear so thought I would give it a go.

I bought a barley wine kit, followed instructions and bottled it on the 26th of June.

Opened a bottle last night for my friends 21st, just to see how it was coming along really.

It taste similar to barley wine but...

1, Its very sickly sweet to drink
2, had a chemically after taste (cant remeber exactely what though, possibly slightly acidic, but I did have a few more pints of skinners after that!)
3, There was some mild carbination but not alot, had cleared nicly and small amount of yeast on bottle bottom.

Process (every step I sterilised equipment with 5 campden tablets / gallon water (gonna try videne no rinse next time, seems much less fidly).
Put wort into FV, after five days transferred to a bucket (sealed lid, no airlock) to get it off the lees, waited another five days (some yeast present in bottom of bucket), measured sg = 1.007, it stayed at this 24hrs later so decided to bottle it. Primed each 500ml bottle with 1/2 teaspoon of castor sugar, and used a sypon tube to fill bottles.

What went wrong? Can I rescue the barley wine, maybe refermenting, its so sickly sweet.

Thanks Adam

[Mogwyth]

Barley Wines are often sweeter than you would expect, more so than normal ales, also how long did you leave it after priming before moving to a cooler place.

From Beeradvocate:

Ah ... barleywine the sweet elixir worthy of a beer god. Lively and fruity, sometimes sweet sometimes bittersweet but always alcoholic. A brew of this strength (most around 8-13% abv) and complexity can be a challenge to the palate, young ones can be rough to the taste buds with the 3 to 4 times the amount of hops to flavour and bitter the brew other can been sweet to the tongue

Cheers

Bill

[arthur]

Thanks for the replies.

I hadnt treated the water before use, will definately do that on my next brew. Have read about stuck fermentation on the forum today, the kit was quite old, so perhaps the yeast wasnt up to scratch.

Iv tried barley wine before, yes it is sweeter, normally a really malty drink, which I like very much. My brew taste really sweet, I drink tea without sugar this is like having two suagrs in your tea but in you beer instead!

So far it hasnt been moved anywhere cool, other than the one bottle I drank which went in the fridge for an hour before hand. So its been in a warm room for 8 days now.

Should I put it in the shed and allow to mature before giving it another taste

or

Pour all the bottles back into the FV, add a campden tablet, sit for 24hours, bung in some new yeast and ferment out the remainging sugar, then reprime and bottle?

Cheers Adam

[floydmeddler]

If the chemical taste you detect is chlorophenols (often described as a tcp/band aid flavour) you're stuck with it i'm afraid.

I had to tip out 40 pints because of exactly this during the week.

[Mogwyth]

I don't take any chance with the water and use something like eden falls from Asda 5 litres for less than a £1.00 and the 5 litre containers make useful demijohns

Cheers

Bill

[arthur]

Thanks guys, some good advice.

Will definately be treating my water from now on, the taste is slighlty antiseptic!

Iv left the bottles in a cool place now for a week, carbination seems better, not great but better and its not as sweet tasting any more, guessing the 2nd fermentation was not finished. Its good enough for me to drink, wont offer it to friends though its not good enough. I will leave the bottles a month or so before trying again, seems like a good maturing period will help the taste.

Lessons learnt from this brew.

1. Treat Water before use.
2. Get more air into the wort before adding yeast.
3. Use a good yeast, rather than the supplied kit yeast.
4. Keep an eye on temperatures (Have purchased some stick on strip thermometeres to go on the equipement).

Thanks again

Adam

[mshergold]

Hi. Completely non-related to your post I know, but I greaduated from Falmouth in 1998. Things have really changed since. What are you studying?

[arthur]

Hi. Completely non-related to your post I know, but I greaduated from Falmouth in 1998. Things have really changed since. What are you studying?

Im part of the exeter uni side, I Study Conservation Biology and Ecology, yeah things have changed a lot since then, wish I had seen it at tremough before exeter joined!