Strong Ale

Classification: strong ale, barleywine, all-grain

Source: Rob Bradley (bradley@adx.adelphi.edu), HBD Issue #1098, 3/16/93

Back in December, I posted a speculative article about brewing in the traditional British "three runnings" method. To summarize, using information from Dave Line's _Big_Book_of_Brewing_ and a little algebra, it appeared that one could make:
Strong ale @ 1072
Pale Ale @ 1046
Shandy @ 1043

by using, per US gallon of final yield for each of the three, 5 pounds UK 2-row malt and 2.2 US gallons of mash water.
As a variant, I scaled the recipe up to 2 gallons and collected and brewed the first runnings according to the posted recipe. I decided to sparge afterwards and collect what amounted to the second and third runnings together. Given the desirability of a 5-gallon batch size, I figured I'd add a little water and malt extract to the kettle to stretch the brew length up to 5 gallons. (No all-malt fixation here :-)

Summary: overall success!! As I suspected, I got more yield in the first runnings than predicted from Line's figures. And that was despite cutting the mash water down to 2 gallons. I compensated by adding a little more than a pound of dry malt extract.

Ingredients: (for 9 quarts)

10 lb Munton & Fison 2-row mild ale malt
1 pound dry light extract
1 1/2 oz Willamette whole hops 60 minute boil - 4.2% alpha acid
1/4 oz Willamette whole hops 30 minute boil - 4.2% alpha acid
1/4 oz Willamette whole hops 10 minute boil - 4.2% alpha acid
Wyeast 1056 (second generation, half of a one-quart starter)

Procedure:

Mash with 2.5 gallons water at 151-154F. Mash-out at 172F. Transfer to lauter tun with 1.5 gallons foundation water at 172F. Recirculate, let settle 30 minutes. Draw off first runnings (a little more than 2.5 gallons).

Specifics:

O.G.: 1080
Primary ferment: 7 days
Secondary ferment: (length not specified)
Bitterness: 38 IBU