Brewed: Worm Burner Barleywine

By scot in Home Brewing on Tuesday, November 6th, 2012

This is the second time that I am brewing Worm Burner. I brewed it 11 months ago for the first time. This time around the goal is to put it in the bourbon barrel. The recipe changed a small amount from the first time (I will put both below) as I used this brew day to use up grain odds and ends.

The real story begins with me making a starter for this beer three weeks ago, with plans to have brew two weeks ago. Per typical life got in the way, causing my brewing plans to become skewed. I was building the yeast twice, the first time I have ever done so. On October 21st, I did the first build up: 2 liter starter. A few days later (Wednesday to be exact), I split the yeast in two and did two, 2 liter starters. Both were placed in 1 gallon jugs. Mistake! When I came home from work the next day, both starters had oozed out of the jugs. I didn’t think this was all that bad outside of wondering if there was going to be enough viable yeast cells. I figured I would know in a couple of days, post brewing.

Fast forward three weeks. The yeast sat around all that time only covered by tinfoil, which had become one with the bottle from the drying of the oozed out yeast. Of course I didn’t know this until I was ready to pitch the yeast. Yes, a lot of neglect put me in the position of finding out the yeast had went bad.

What to do now? I know I can let the cooled wort sit but I really don’t know for how long and, after a long brew day, I wanted fermentation. 🙂

Dry yeast! I thought I had a couple in the basement but wasn’t sure. Crap, only one and the yeast calculator says I need two. Chuck comes through again. One packet of Nottingham and one packet of S-05. Fermentation was noticeable the next morning (<12 hours after pitched). General Information (II)
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Nottingham, S-05
Yeast Starter: none
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.50
Original Gravity: 1.098
Final Gravity:
IBU: 24.1
Color: 7.5 SRM
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Alcohol by Volume: 5.7%
Primary Fermentation: 30 days @70*F to 78*F
Secondary Fermentation: 2 months @70*F with Brett strains and Mango

Grain Bill:
10.00# Pilsner (German)
0.50# Oats
0.25# Special B

Mash:
Saccharification Rest @ 150*F for 75 minutes.

Hop Bill:
1.00 oz Fuggles (4.5%) @ 60 min
1.00 oz Fuggles (4.5%) first wort hop
1.00 oz Amarillo/Citra dry hop

General Information (original)
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: S-05
Yeast Starter: none
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.50
Original Gravity: 1.104
Final Gravity: 1.014
IBU: 94,9
Color: 13.3 SRM
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Alcohol by Volume: 12.0%
Primary Fermentation: 30 days @70*F
Secondary Fermentation: 6 months @58*F

Grain Bill:
18.00# 2-Row
1.00# Crystal 10L
1.00# Crystal 60L
0.25# Special B

Mash:
Saccharification Rest @ 150*F for 75 minutes.

Hop Bill:
2.50 oz Warrior (15.0%) @ 60 min
1.00 oz Amarillo (8.5%) @ 10 min
2.00 oz Centennial (10.0%) @ 0 min
1.00 oz Amarillo (8.5%) @ 0 min
2.00 oz Centennial dry hop

Other:
1.00# Table Sugar

The rest of the day, which came before the yeast fiasco, was uneventful by comparison. I did pick up 10 gravity points from the mashing process (did some research since last brew that I put in place – hopefully another entry). Enjoy!

Updates:
2013-02-24: Bottled after seven weeks in a used bourbon barrel (48, 12 ounce bottles)

Useless Fact: Most American car horns honk in the key of F.