Here is the original recipe for Storm in a Teacup Golden Barleywine by Michael Dawson, which was changed up a bit for the version seen brewed and sampled in our Chop & Brew episode. This recipe is from Dawson’s book, Mashmaker: A Citizen-Brewer’s Guide to Making Great Beer at Home, a collection of 64 witty and detailed homebrew recipes, each amended with options for the brewer to customize each beer.
Storm in a Teacup Golden Barleywine
Targets: OG: 1.140 | IBU: 55-60 | SRM: 9.0 | ABV: 14.5%
Chevallier is to modern English malting barley what Black Sabbath is to contemporary metal—today’s iterations all carry a bit of its fountainhead DNA. Apocrypha has it that it was selected (the barley, not Sabbath) in the 1820s by a Suffolk farmer from a landrace found growing in fields belonging to one Reverend Chevallier. Chevallier (the barley, not the reverend) became the first variety to be grown specifically for industrial-scale malting, and went on to dominate worldwide malt production for the duration of the 1800s. It fell out of use as its descendants, newer varieties that were easier to grow with better yields, overtook it; fortunately for us, it’s been revived as a heritage barley.
Organoleptically, Chevallier is a different beast than modern English varieties we’re familiar with (looking at you, Maris Otter and Golden Promise.) It’s less mild, with a more pronounced biscuit-grainy flavor. It’s more assertive in a dark grist, and adds depth in a pale grist—which will keep this high-gravity single-malt beer from eliding into one-dimensional boozy sweetness. The single hop for this recipe is Boadicea, a dwarf hop with good bittering power. It’s possessed of a great clovery fresh hay aroma that will be utterly lost in a beer this big and malty—unless, that is, one were to buy extra at the LHBS and reserve for dry hopping a bit before packaging day.
SHOPPING LIST
- 25 lbs. Crisp Chevallier Heritage Malt
- 3 oz. Boadicea
- Optional: 1-2 oz Boadicea for dry hopping (see Key Points, below)
- Your favorite high-ABV-capable English strain. Wyeast 1028 London, WLP007 Dry English, or Lallemand Nottingham would all be good choices
KEY POINTS FOR KEY PINTS
Make a yeast starter: That should go without saying for a beer this big. Or even better, brew a 1.035-1.040 OG bitter or mild with a single pack of yeast 7-10 days before, and reuse the second-generation cells from that fermentation for the big beer.
Second runnings = bumper crop bitter: By the time you collect enough wort for the boil, the specific gravity of the runnings will probably still be high enough to get a couple gallons of a bumper crop session ale. Cap the mash with 8-16 ounces of a pale or medium crystal malt (if so desired), then run in some more preheated mash water, and collect the second runnings to boil separately for a nice bitter or mild to enjoy while you wait for the main batch to mature.
That thing about dry hopping: We’re going to want to let this one chill out for a while post-fermentation to let time smooth out the rough edges. If we want to incorporate some of that clovery, fresh hay Boadicea quality into the finished product, get an extra couple ounces when you buy the brew day ingredients, and dose into the secondary a week or so before packaging.
BREWING
PREP
- Make a yeast starter 24 hours in advance, or ready the dregs from a batch of mild.
- Mill the grains.
- On brew day, collect and heat strike water to 163°F.
MASH & SPARGE
- Mash rest: Add grains to strike water, mix to 149-150°F, and rest for 60 minutes. Collect and heat sparge water.
- Mashout: Heat to 170°F for 5 minutes.
- Sparge and collect wort in boil kettle.
BOIL (75 minutes)
- T-75: 3 oz. Boadicea.
- T-0: Cool the wort, transfer to a sanitized fermentor, aerate well, and pitch yeast.
FERMENTATION AND BEYOND
- Primary fermentation: 60-65°F until the specific gravity is stable, then rack to secondary.
- Secondary fermentation: 2-12 months, depending on your own patience and how the beer develops.
- Optional dry hopping: 5-7 days before packaging, add 1-2 oz. Boadicea.
- Serve in a snifter in front of a fireplace with good book.