Bigfoot Barleywine Clone - Sort of...

So I'm planning to do a barleywine next weekend, making only a 3 gal. batch so it will fit in my system. I'll be putting in the primary on top of the yeast left from my 5 gal. of pale ale currently bubbling. I'm not trying to clone Bigfoot, but using it as a guideline. I have the clone recipe from Beer Captured and modifying it with information from the Sierra Nevada site. SN lists as follows:
9.6% ABV, OG 23 plato, 90 IBU, Bittering - Chinnok, Finishing - Cascade & Centennial, Dry - Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Malts - Two-row Pale, English Caramel, Dextrin
My recipe for 3 gallons:
11 lb. Pale 2-row
1 lb. Crystal 60

Hops: All Pellet
1 oz. Chinook 12% 60
0.5 oz. Cascade 6% 15
0.25 oz. Centennial 10.5% 15
0.5 oz. Cascade 6% 5
0.25 oz. Centennial 10.5% 5
0.25 oz. Chinook Dry
0.25 oz. Cascade Dry
0.25 oz. Centennial Dry

OG: 1.107
IBU: 92

Does the hop schedule look right? Should I use a darker crystal (90) to get the color closer? This will be my first barleywine so feel free to suggest any modifications. I plan on letting it sit in the secondary for maybe 6 weeks. Longer? Should it dry hop that long or rack to tertiary after dry hopping 2 weeks? I've got all week to tweak the recipe.

What sort of mashing strategy are you going to use? I would be concerned about the liquid content of your mash, and the efficency, as you will probably be making a rather thick mash, to limit the runnoff to 3 (or 4?) gallons. I wonder if a stepped mash, or some form of decoction might be helpfull in getting a good conversion? I would also consider planning on a longer boil (longer than 60 mins, perhaps 90 min?) for two reasons: first of all, with a wort as dense as yours will likely be, the hope utilization rate will probably be fairly slow (the thicker the wort, the less quickly the alpha acids will be disolved), plus it will allow for more evaporation (thus a larger run off from the mash) which should help the graivity reach your targets. Hope these suggestions help, and let me know how your brew goes (I suppose we won't know the results for several months ).
I wan't to try a true barley wine soon, and your recipe sounds pretty good (I especially like the hop selections - they look good!)
- Cheers!

oh, and you might want to try adding a bit of black pattent malt, like a few oz. or so, as I have heard that it gives an otherwise fairly pale beer a nice reddish hue.

You could use a "mini-mash" by substituting pale extract for half of your pale grain. This would make it easier to get good efficiency on the mash. My Old Bog Water was done that way. I also used some brown sugar.

Be ready for a major blowoff. The last Imperial I put "on the cake" blew up after less than an hour.

I know I can sub 3 lb. of light dme for 5 lb. of base malt, but I think I want to try it all grain. I was planning the mash to be a simple infusion at 154 for an hour. A longer boil will be no problem. If I end up with more than 4 gallons of runoff, I can go 90 miniutes on the boil. I plugged the recipe into promash and got the IBU from it so it should have taken the utilization from the gravity into account. The 3 gallons are going into a 6.5 gal. ale pail. Will it really go that much? I'll have the blow off ready just in case. Also, david, how much brown sugar did you use? Also to the dry hop question, how long is too long in the secondary?

3 gallons in a 6.5 probably won't blow.

I used 2 pounds of brown sugar. It all fermented out & left a slight molassas flavor.

Since I keg from the primary, I've had batches where the dry hops stayed in until the ale was gone. More than 6 months, didn't notice any changes past 4 weeks that I could tie to the dry hops.

Then I'll just keep the hops in the secondary the whole time. The 2 lb. of brown sugar was for a 5 gal batch right? I think I might go with 2 oz. of Chocolate or Black malt to add a reddish hue to the color.

Well, here's the grain bill since I bought it today.

11 lb. Pale Ale Malt
0.75 lb. Crystal 60
0.25 lb. Crystal 120
2 oz. Chocolate Malt

I'm still playing with the hop schedule, but it's definately chinook for bittering and cascade and centennial for flavor and aroma, with all three dry hopped in the secondary. I'm also still contemplating brown sugar. I'm thinking that if I do it will only be about 0.25 lb. Brew day is set for Sunday the 20th. Countdown begins...T minus 18hrs

Forgot some tentative details courtasy of promash:
3 gallons at 70% efficiency
OG: 1.101
SRM: 20.7
IBU: somewhere in the 90's

Well I brewed up the Barleywine today. Here are some of my notes.
Grain:

11 lb. Pale Ale Malt
0.75 lb. Crystal 60
0.25 lb. Crystal 120
2 oz. Chocolate Malt

Mashed grain in preheated 5 gal mash tun at 155 F for about 1 hr. at 1 qt. per lb. (3 gal). Filled tun about 4 gallons. Added 5 qt. boiling water to raise temps for mashout, all that would fit in tun. Was shooting for about 170 but came up a little low, no more room. Lauter, sparge with 170 water, collected 4+ gallons. Came to boil, and boiled for 30 min before hop schedule.

1 oz. Chinook 9.9% 60min
0.5 oz. Cascade 6% 15 min
0.375 oz. Centennial 9.9% 15 min
0.5 Cascade 5 min
0.375 Centennial 5 min

OG: 1.090
Est. IBU 98
Est. SRM 20

Chilled with immersion chiller and pitched on top of yeast from pale ale batch that was racked to secondary. Came to three gallons exactly. It's thick and sweet, and not as bitter as I thought it would be. I think promash estimated the IBU's too high. It's a nice rich brown color. If all goes to plan it should be somewhere over 9% ABV. I plan on primary for about 2 weeks and secondary dry hopping with 0.25 oz. of each hop for maybe 6 weeks, then bottling and letting it sit till next fall. I'll keep posting updates as it progresses.

Side note: 1 hour after pitching, constant bubbling from airlock!

Update: Transferred to secondary with 0.25 oz each cascade, centennial, chinook. Gravity came in at 1.020, making the ABV 9.3%. Tastes sweet with a hop kick to it, even without the dry hops. Nice and thick mouthfeel. I'll check in again in 6 weeks when it's done in the secondary and I bottle it.

6 weeks turned into 5 weeks. I bottled it just now. Nice and smooth, with some nice hop kick from the dry hop addition. It tastes great right now. I can't wait until i's ready. I plan on letting it condition for at least 6 months. If anyone has the Beer Captured book and is curious on trying the recipe for the bigfoot barleywine, give it a try. I didn't follow it exactly, but the resulting brew is mighty tasty.

Sounds good; I'm doing an extract version tonight.

I brewed a barleywine that I crafted after my first bottle of bigfoot about a month ago. Mine was similar to yours (1.100 and 100 IBU's) though I used a lot of simcoe and cascade after the 30 minute mark and magnum, warrior and cascade for bittering.

For me, part of the beauty of Bigfoot is the complexity of the oak flavor, so I just racked mine over onto 1.5 oz toasted oak chips...I will dry hop in another couple weeks, then bottle in a month and kiss it goodbye until next fall.