Brew House Barley Wine?

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Amity

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I've got an Old Ale in primary. I'm thinking of reusing the yeast cake for a English Barley Wine. (I mean, where else can you go up from an Old Ale?) I was looking at the Brew House kits (The brew house) and figured I could use one as an easy barley wine.

There are two options - Using the Cream Ale kit, without added water (15 L of concentrated wort). Keep in mind that these figures are for wort that would have 8L of water added, to make 6 US gallons

Code:
A west coast style Cream Ale with the perfect balance of malt sweetness and hop character. A great introduction into the world of richly complex beers, without the heaviness of darker beer. 

Colour: copper (Deg.Lovibond) - 10-12
Bitterness:	22 IBU
O.G.:	1.044
Malts: Canadian 2 row pale malt and crystal malt
Hops: Northern Brewer( bitterness)Goldings( aroma)

Alternatively, I could use the Pale Ale kit, also without added water:


Code:
Although there are many different examples of this beer style, our take is modeled after 'West Coast' Pale Ale - with emphasis on crisp, clean flavours and plenty of robust Cascade hop character and aroma.

Colour: amber (Deg.Lovibond) - 14.0
Bitterness:	30 IBU
O.G.:	1.050
Malts: Crystal 70L and Honey Malt
Hops:	Northern Brewer (bittering) Cascade (aroma)

I'd like to aim for 1.100 SG, with probably 80% attenuation, finishing at 1.020. I'd take the OG, and add some adjuncts as necessary. What would be recommended? Lyle's Golden Syrup?

Any other help?
 
I wish I could help you. I've been meaning to do stuff like this with Brewhouse kits. I have never brewed a barleywine. They vary in style, so you probably have a lot of choices. E.g., do you want the Cascade hops from the pale ale (you could even add more)?

First, I don't think they're actually listing all the grains being used. As far as Lyle's is concerned, I think there's some question whether that adds more than normal sugar would. Brewhouse's Duvel clone recipe boost the OG with sugar, but of course that's a Belgian which is supposed to be dry. You'd probably need a lot of additions to get to 1.100, and I don't think you'd want to do that with sugar alone. So should you add DME or LME?
 
I think it's a terrible idea to start with a cream ale and turn that into a barley wine. You need way more bittering power than those hops will provide, and you'll need plenty more malt as well. I think you should formulate a recipe from scratch, find a barley wine kit, or go find a good recipe, such as from Brewing Classic Styles.
 
Brewhouse kits are quality kits, so there's nothing wrong with doctoring those.

You can always add more bittering hops, that's not so tough. Pull 1/2 gallon of wort and 1/2 gallon of water and boil hops in it (I think boiling the hops in the straight wort would be less effective, as it's something like 1.08 already).

The problem is that the main vehicle for adding stuff to these kits is to steep or boil it in the top-off water, but if you add any top-off water you're working against your target OG. Maybe you could dissolve/boil sugar or DME in small amounts of water and add. But any hops or crystal need a little more water to work in.

Maybe 1.100 is too much of a stretch for these kits. But check out their Duvel recipe, which I think is ~1.08 but for 19L (not 15L) for ideas of how to go big in general.
 
Thanks, everyone. I might turn this into a partial mash. FWIW, the Brewhouse website states that the base grain for all kits is Pale Malt. I could mash a few pounds of Canadian 2 row, and add it to the Kit wort, or even use the LME that I have sitting around here. (Two cans of light LME).

I would add more bittering hops too.

Thanks.
 
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