Gnome Brew Wheatwine
Story: I set a high bar for myself by brewing an American barleywine as my first homebrew after my first child was born. So when the second came along, I had to do something similar. And since I still had most of the barleywine in my cellar, I decided to do something “similar but different”, and brewed a wheatwine, which seemed like an excellent thematic companion and a flavorful counterpoint to the barleywine I already had a stock of.
The BJCP Style Guidelines don’t even have a category for wheatwine, and there aren’t many recipes out there. So beyond the bulk of advice I read online that said “make a barleywine with up to 50% wheat,” it seemed like I had free rein. I went back to the recipe for Old Froglegs Barleywine, and modified it with the goal of using almost half wheat and making an end product that was lighter and fruitier.
I split the base malt nearly in half with slightly more wheat than barley, and replaced the body malts with lighter versions (Munich with Vienna, Crystal 60 and 150 with Crystal 40 and Caravienne). Any high alpha hop would work, as the idea is to provide maximum bitterness and no real flavor contribution. And I really liked the added fermentability from the pound of piloncillo I added in the boil to Old Froglegs, so I added simple sugar to the kettle here in the form of light agave nectar.
Style: 23 Specialty Beer
Grist:
- 10 lbs White Wheat Malt
- 9 lbs 8 oz American Pale Malt
- 3 lbs Vienna Malt
- 8 oz Crystal 40L
- 8 oz Caravienne Malt
Hops:
- 2.5 oz Chinook (13% AA) at 60 minutes
Other:
- 1 lb Agave Nectar, light
Yeast: Safale US-05 (28.75 grams)
Mash Temp: 149°F
OG: 1.101
FG: 1.016
IBU: 87.1
SRM: 10
ABV: 11.3%
myBrewHome 