OnTap Magazine

STYLE GUIDE “B arley wine is the biggest beer you can brew,” say Fal Allen and Dick Cantwell. And they should know – they literally wrote the book on it. is rich, viscous beer is rarely seen on South African shelves. It is tricky to brew and the extended ageing time puts many a brewer o . But when you pour that luscious liquid into a snifter glass and sit down to savour it, the stuck mash and 12-hour brewday all become worth it. Barley wine has a long pedigree, although it didn’t always go by its modern-day, slightly confusing name. Barley wine began life in England and was once simply known by the catch-all term of ‘strong ale’. ese beers were originally brewed within the walls of England’s stately manors, where pro t wasn’t the main concern and the landowners, lords and ladies could a ord to splurge on such an extravagant beer. Aged in wood for lengthy periods, the beers often took the place of wine on aristocratic English dinner tables in the 18th century. OLD ALE, NEW NAME Later on, commercial breweries also started to produce strong ales, which were referred to by all manner of wonderful descriptors: double double, crackskull, lift-leg and merry-go-down among them. More commonly, they were known as old ale, stock ale or perhaps least appealing of all, stale ale. ey were not the sexiest ways to describe a beer and indeed it was a marketing rebrand that gave rise to the beer we now know as barley wine. Historians disagree on the date, but they do agree that the term ‘barley wine’ was coined by one of the biggest breweries of the era, Bass. It was their strongest beer, Bass No. 1, that was given a new label and a new name – one that might have prompted drinkers of the day to wonder if the brewery had ventured into viticulture. Like most beer styles, barley wine was more a matter of evolution than creation. Indeed, it was simply old ale with a new name. e stronger ales were already becoming less popular by the end of the 19th century, in no small part due to the 1880 Free Mash Tun Act, which saw brewers taxed based on the original gravity of their wort and forced them into brewing beers with lower ABVs. By the time World War II arrived, beers in England were getting weaker still thanks to essential rationing and the gradual change in taste among drinkers that this caused. Even old ale began to get gradually lighter in ABV, although barley wine held out against the trend better than most. Eventually, that too dropped, rst in alcohol strength and then in popularity. But like many near-extinct styles, barley wine has been revived by craft breweries. CRAFT REVIVAL e rst American craft brewery to launch a barley wine was Anchor Brewing, with its Old Foghorn Barleywine Style Ale in 1976. Anchor’s owner Fritz Maytag was trying to appease the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms so opted for the rather clumsy sounding “barleywine style ale” over the British version “barley wine”. ese days American breweries use both although Maytag’s version is more commonly seen on labels. Here in South Africa, spotting a barley wine in a bottle store is a little like glimpsing a leopard and cubs in the Kruger. ey’re out there for sure, but encounters are few and far between. Ukhamba Beerworx brie y revived their 10% ABV Red Brick Shithouse last year, Soul Barrel Brewing Co. recently released their 12.4% ABV whopper, Old Cellar Barleywine, and Trigger sh Brewing in Somerset West regularly produces Stone sh, an English style barley wine which won a gold medal in the 2021 African Beer Cup. It’s a great example of the style o ering up a mouth- lling melange of toast, to ee, caramel and dried fruits in abundance. e end result is a rich and complex beer and it all begins with a malt bill that will stretch the average mash tun to its limits. You’d be forgiven for thinking that those rich, caramel-like avours originate with the caramel malts selected, but in fact speciality grains are generally used quite sparingly, for their unfermentable sugars would lead a big beer like this to end up cloying and di cult to drink. e intense to ee avours are in fact created during the boil – a two-to-three- hour marathon during which the pale malts caramelise, lending a beautiful copper hue and a rich taste of Wilson’s to ee. THE FIFTH INGREDIENT Hops are likewise carefully selected – those high in alpha acids are given preference, for it means you can reach the elevated IBU count without vast amounts of hop matter soaking up your precious wort. Hopping is of course where British and American barley wines part ways, with American versions often reaching the 100 IBU mark and exhibiting the signature avours and aromas of New World hops – citrus and pine among them. Every stage of barley wine brewing challenges the brewer, with fermentation in particular being a nail-biting time. e dense wort creates a di cult environment for yeast, so it’s wise to A beautiful copper hue and a rich taste of Wilson’s toffee BREW-IT-YOURSELF TRIGGERFISH BREWING STONEFISH Recipe courtesy of Eric van Heerden Nuts & bolts Batch size: 19 litres Method: All-grain Target OG: 1.109 Target FG: 1.025 Target ABV: 10.6% Target IBUs: 70 Mash ingredients 8kg SAB Pale Malt 500g Crystal 20 500g Crystal 60 250g Wheat Malt 150g Crystal 120 Mash for 75 minutes at 64.4°C. Fly sparge with 11 litres of water at 75.6°C. Boil ingredients 75g SAB T90 Blend [12.4 %] @ 30 min 20g East Kent Goldings [14.4 %] @ 10 min 15g East Kent Goldings [14.4 %] @ 0 min Boil for 60 minutes. Ferment ingredients 2 x 11.5g packets SafAle US-05, rehydrated Ferment at 18 - 20°C for 11 days. Brewer tips Check bubbling and gravity towards the end of fermentation. Leave on the yeast for at least two days after fermentation is complete. Gravity could drop as low as 1.013. If fermentation stalls, shake and raise temperature slightly. After fermentation, bottle and age at cellar temperature for at least 28 days. Thes  beers really become drinkable only after about three to six months. Don't be scared if it tastes like paint stripper after fermentation. Be careful, it carries a punch. Don't drink and drive! 56 | Winter 2021 | ontapmag.co.za