Smoked & Oaked English Barleywine - help wanted!

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bianco152

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Smoked & Oaked English Barleywine

% LB OZ MALT OR FERMENTABLE °L
63% 15 0 Pale Malt (Maris Otter) 3
17% 4 0 Munich Malt 9
6% 1 8 Briess Cherrywood Smoke Malt 5
6% 1 8 Honey Malt 25
4% 1 0 Special B 118
4% 1 0 Caramunich I 33
24 0

Batch size: 6.0 gallons
Original Gravity
1.109 / 25.7° Plato
(1.098 to 1.114)
Final Gravity
1.025 / 6.3° Plato
(1.022 to 1.027)
Color
20° SRM / 40° EBC
(Light Brown to Medium Brown)
Mash Efficiency
75%
hops
USE TIME OZ VARIETY FORM AA
boil 90 mins 2.0 Magnum pellet 10.0
boil 5 mins 1.0 EKG pellet 5.0
boil 5 mins 1.0 Willamette pellet 5.5
Boil: 6.0 avg gallons for 90 minutes
Bitterness
43.7 IBU / 20 HBU
ƒ: Tinseth
BU:GU
0.40
yeast
White Labs Edinburgh Scottish Ale (WLP028)
ale yeast in liquid form with medium flocculation and 77% attenuation
Alcohol
11.2% ABV / 9% ABW
Calories
358 per 12 oz.

I recently brewed a wee heavy w/ 88% MO, 9% Munich, 2% roasted barley and 1% peated malt. Finished at 1.024 and it is deliciously malty. First time I used WLP028 and I was very impressed with the complexity and maltiness of this brew. After a long hop kick...this beer turned me on to a malt kick...and made me want to brew a rich, malty barleywine.

Any thoughts on this recipe are welcome! Please critique!
 
I made an English barleywine last year and now it is fantastic! One suggestion I'd make is a bit of sugar, maybe a lb or two to help ensure you get enough attenuation for a 1.100+ beer. There is going to be plenty of sweet with MO and Honey malt....
 
Come on people...Some specific advice needed:
1. Dry hop or no and with what hops?
2. Too much honey malt or no?
3. Too much smoked malt or no?
4. Late hopping? Yes or no?
 
*BUMP*

Settled on this recipe...going to brew it next weekend...going for a malt-centric barleywine at 30-50 IBUs. Any suggestions for hops or yeast? Looking for some feedback on this recipe

% lbs oz Malt/fermentable
73% 17 8 Maris Otter
13% 3 0 Munich Malt
6% 1 8 Briess Cherrywood Smoke Malt
4% 1 0 Special B - 118L
4% 1 0 Gambrinus Honey Malt
24

Original Gravity
1.102 / 24.2° Plato
(1.091 to 1.106)
Final Gravity
1.026 / 6.6° Plato
(1.023 to 1.029)
Color
18° SRM / 36° EBC
(Light Brown to Medium Brown)
Mash Efficiency
70%
 
Come on people...Some specific advice needed:
1. Dry hop or no and with what hops?
2. Too much honey malt or no?
3. Too much smoked malt or no?
4. Late hopping? Yes or no?

1. Why dry hop a BW. Flavors from dry hops fade quickly. If you keep this beer for a while, the flavors will be gone. Dry hopping can also add cloudyness to a beer.
2. Yes. Why have any.
3. No. Cherrywood smoked malt is fairly mild. You could double that amount without any problems.
4. Yes.

Other comments:

- As NT noted, I would replace some grains with a couple of pounds of table sugar to help dry the beer out. I would also add it after the main fermentation to help the yeast out.
- Mash low. If it ends up too sweet it is going to be tough to drink.
- I'd try to get the beer to end up somewhere between 1.010 and 1.015. Starting at 1.102 will give you somewhere around 11/5 and 12% abv.
- I don't know if that yeast is going to be man enough to finish off that beer.
- You will probably need to use a high gravity yeast for bottling (WLP099, a Belgian, or Champagne).
- I'd increase the IBUs. Probably double them to somewhere around 80.
- Where is the oak?
 
I just made a wee heavy that started at 1.100 and finished at 1.024 at with WLP028 and it is amazing. I was hoping for a similar malty finish but a less scotch-ale-ish grainbill, a slight increase bitterness and a little bit of sweet smokiness. Will the specialty malts here make this undrinkable with that much residual sugar? BTW the wee heavy I made is 25 IBUs and it is not cloying.

Good call on the dry hopping, that will probably take me in the opposite direction than where I want to go.

Threw the honey malt in there for some malt complexity. I've read good reviews on it. Will it detract from the quality of this recipe?

I have a medium plus american oak infusion spiral. I plan on aging the beer on a spiral in secondary for a few weeks.

thanks for the feedback btw!
 
I think the recipe looks interesting. The ibu's should be fine. Bump em much and you'll start finding yourself in American Barleywine territory. I very much like honey malt and don't think the combo of that and the Special B will be too much. It will be a big sweet/malty brew which sounds like what you're looking for and is appropriate for the style. That much cherrywood smoked should be fine to give you a hint of smoke. It is a soft mild smoked malt. I would second the suggestion to possibly add some more fermentable sugars to this to make sure it attenuates low enough. Above 1.024 or so and this won't just taste sweet and malty, sweet could be the defining character. Just my thoughts.
 
I don't think I'll have issues achieving a 1.024-1.026 FG (where I want it). When I brewed the wee heavy my grainbill was:
88% Maris Otter
9% Munich
2% roasted barley
1% peated malt

I had a 1.100 O.G. I hit 1.024 after mashing in at 160 and letting the temp drop steadily.

I even boiled 1.5 gallons of the first runnings down to about a half gallon and added it to the rest of the (90 min) boil about 30 mins into it

...I did pitch a 3L starter...maybe that was the deciding factor there...although that wouldnt affect the % of fermentable sugars
 
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