My extract kit came in wrong.

I got 9 lbs of gold LME instead of 12 lbs of amber LME for a barleywine recipe.

NB is fixing it, but I'm leaving for a deployment on Sunday. The replacement LME won't be here in time.

I was hoping to brew this with my wife before I left so it'd be aged for ~7-8 months in secondary before bottling. I'm thinking of cutting the batch to 3.5 gallons and pressing forward.

Should I reduce hops or leave them? I do love me some hoppy IPA's.

2 oz casade for 60 min
1 oz williamette for 15 min.

Brew it with the wife any way you want. Probably won't have as much of that hoppy aroma left by the time you get back. The main thing is, brew with your wife and enjoy the time together before you take off. Thank you for you're service, it is greatly appreciated and stay safe. Also by the time you get back any beer is gonna be pretty damn good.

I would do the smaller batch and keep all the hops. mmmmm... hops

Cascade and Willamette aren't very strong so yes definitely include them all. I would use even more if you have them. Hops mellow a lot over time.

Yeast starter... started. wyeast 1098.

Copbrew133 said:

Thank you for your service, it is greatly appreciated and stay safe.

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I strongly second this. Brew away, with all the hops at your disposal. Let us all know how awesome it tastes when you return.

Shakybones said:

I strongly second this. Brew away, with all the hops at your disposal. Let us all know how awesome it tastes when you return.

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Will do, and ya'll are welcome.

Do you have any caramel malts on hand? That should make up the difference for not using amber extract if you have some.
Also, make sure your wife is prepared to use a blow off tube

No opinion to add on the beer, but I just wanted to say be careful, and thank you for your service.

inflictor-of-grimness said:

Do you have any caramel malts on hand? That should make up the difference for not using amber extract if you have some.
Also, make sure your wife is prepared to use a blow off tube

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Nope, second 5 gallon extract brew ever, and we just winged it.

We brewed per recipe with a bit of extra light DME we had for our yeast starter. Ended up with 1.092 and a little less than 4 gallons.

It smells good, so we'll see what it looks like in about 8 months.

Good luck with the beer.

More importantly...thank you for all you do, stay safe and return home soon to enjoy that brew with your wife.

No help with your brew but thank you for your service.

Brew it anyway! If nothing else, you'll have a good bonding experience with your wife before you go.

Thanks for your service and stay safe!