milkflakes
Member
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2021
- Messages
- 23
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- 9
I'm a new brewer and have only done a few kits but I want to start consuming mostly my own beers. I started brewing because I found a Brooklyn Brew Shop kit and kettle on the sidewalk after Christmas 19 and figured why not. Made a couple IPAs for my mom which she really liked, some failed ciders I couldn't even ask anyone to drink, and now I have a chocolate porter and hopefully not failed cider in primary while I plan some other things.
Last year a coworker of mine gave me a can of Nightmare Brewing's Torn Apart By Trees, which is a "15% barleywine with birch and black cherry bark, sarsaparilla, ginger, dandelion root, and licorice root aged on Tahitian vanilla." It was really amazing and to be honest in my memory just tasted like big boy Dr. Pepper.
I want to make a similar brew and don't want to screw it up by adding gross stuff or overloading it with birch or something. I took a look at some guides on barleywine and saw that Northern Brewer's regular barleywine extract kit maxes out just over 9%. It comes with 12 lbs amber malt syrup plus 2 oz Cascade and 1 oz Willamette hops. I figure my options here are to do something like boost the kit with like 6 pounds of amber DME while cutting it down to 4 gallons or make my own very similar recipe using the same syrup plus extra DME and probably add about 4 oz of Fuggle hops to have a BU:GU of like .6. Either way I want to use WLP099 and make a starter. I don't know how long it will take to ferment so I'll be checking at around a month with my refractometer to see if I start getting constant readings.
What I mainly am wondering about is adding those Dr Pepper-y flavors. I thought it would be best to pare it down to vanilla, black cherry, and birch. Possibly some ginger. I have never flavored a beer before but I am planning on putting raspberry Brewer's Best in a cream ale before I do this one. I also wanted to avoid secondary if possible since I don't have canned CO2 or anything.
My idea was to do this: put 2 pounds of dried cherries, an ounce of crystallized ginger, and a scraped out vanilla bean in enough vodka or maybe everclear to submerge the day before brewing. Then just pour the wort (4 gallons) over this mixture in the fermenter before I pitch. When bottling, add birch beer extract just until I can taste it. An ounce or two? As well as priming sugar and a bit of extra yeast (I'm planning on banking to cut costs) from a mini starter of 100 ml or so. Then I'd taste in 6 month intervals. The worst case scenario I want to avoid is having overpowering or artificial flavors in it, since this is going to be pretty expensive to make. If I end up without a ton of extra flavor and just have a nice barleywine I'll be happy too and I can just make another batch and adjust amounts. I was thinking of using actual birch bark, maybe in the boil, but I don't know where to source it, it looks like health people online are selling it as a supplement and that seems like something to avoid.
tl;dr, how does this sound:
4 gal water
12 lbs amber LME
6 lbs amber DME
2 oz Cascade/1 oz Willamette (Cascade for 60 mins, Willamette for 15) OR 4 oz Fuggle (Fuggle would be split evenly for 60/15 mins)
In primary:
2 lbs dried black cherries
1 oz crushed crystallized ginger
1 scraped vanilla bean
WLP099 from starter
When bottling:
2.5 oz table sugar
small amount of WLP099
1 oz birch beer extract (or more until I can detect it)
Age and taste at 6 month intervals.
Any advice to either help with flavoring or cut unnecessary costs is super welcome as well as anything I'm mistaken about here or possible issues. Also, would it be rude to message the Nightmare brewing guy and see if he'll give me more info about the process/ingredients?
Last year a coworker of mine gave me a can of Nightmare Brewing's Torn Apart By Trees, which is a "15% barleywine with birch and black cherry bark, sarsaparilla, ginger, dandelion root, and licorice root aged on Tahitian vanilla." It was really amazing and to be honest in my memory just tasted like big boy Dr. Pepper.
I want to make a similar brew and don't want to screw it up by adding gross stuff or overloading it with birch or something. I took a look at some guides on barleywine and saw that Northern Brewer's regular barleywine extract kit maxes out just over 9%. It comes with 12 lbs amber malt syrup plus 2 oz Cascade and 1 oz Willamette hops. I figure my options here are to do something like boost the kit with like 6 pounds of amber DME while cutting it down to 4 gallons or make my own very similar recipe using the same syrup plus extra DME and probably add about 4 oz of Fuggle hops to have a BU:GU of like .6. Either way I want to use WLP099 and make a starter. I don't know how long it will take to ferment so I'll be checking at around a month with my refractometer to see if I start getting constant readings.
What I mainly am wondering about is adding those Dr Pepper-y flavors. I thought it would be best to pare it down to vanilla, black cherry, and birch. Possibly some ginger. I have never flavored a beer before but I am planning on putting raspberry Brewer's Best in a cream ale before I do this one. I also wanted to avoid secondary if possible since I don't have canned CO2 or anything.
My idea was to do this: put 2 pounds of dried cherries, an ounce of crystallized ginger, and a scraped out vanilla bean in enough vodka or maybe everclear to submerge the day before brewing. Then just pour the wort (4 gallons) over this mixture in the fermenter before I pitch. When bottling, add birch beer extract just until I can taste it. An ounce or two? As well as priming sugar and a bit of extra yeast (I'm planning on banking to cut costs) from a mini starter of 100 ml or so. Then I'd taste in 6 month intervals. The worst case scenario I want to avoid is having overpowering or artificial flavors in it, since this is going to be pretty expensive to make. If I end up without a ton of extra flavor and just have a nice barleywine I'll be happy too and I can just make another batch and adjust amounts. I was thinking of using actual birch bark, maybe in the boil, but I don't know where to source it, it looks like health people online are selling it as a supplement and that seems like something to avoid.
tl;dr, how does this sound:
4 gal water
12 lbs amber LME
6 lbs amber DME
2 oz Cascade/1 oz Willamette (Cascade for 60 mins, Willamette for 15) OR 4 oz Fuggle (Fuggle would be split evenly for 60/15 mins)
In primary:
2 lbs dried black cherries
1 oz crushed crystallized ginger
1 scraped vanilla bean
WLP099 from starter
When bottling:
2.5 oz table sugar
small amount of WLP099
1 oz birch beer extract (or more until I can detect it)
Age and taste at 6 month intervals.
Any advice to either help with flavoring or cut unnecessary costs is super welcome as well as anything I'm mistaken about here or possible issues. Also, would it be rude to message the Nightmare brewing guy and see if he'll give me more info about the process/ingredients?