Help With an English Barley Wine

Hey Guys,

Planning on doing an English Barely Wine the day after Thanksgiving with my dad and brother, that will be ready for Thanksgiving in 2010. I have only done extract brew kits and this is the first recipe that I have created. Any input on the recipe would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Batch Size: 5.00 gal

Boil Time: 60 min

Ingredients

Amount Item
15.20 lb Pale Liquid Extract
1.50 lb Munich Malt - 20L
1.50 lb Victory Malt
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent - 60 min.
1.00 oz Fuggles - 60 min.
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent - 40 min.
1.00 oz Fuggles - 40 min.
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent - 20 min.
1.00 oz Fuggles - 20 min.
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent - 10 min.
1.00 oz Fuggles - 10 min.
2 Pkgs Nottingham Yeast (Lallemand #-) Yeast-Ale


Est Original Gravity: 1.113 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.026 SG

Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 11.47 %
Bitterness: 62.3 IBU
Est Color: 20.5 SRM

Primary Fermenter for 30 days at 62 F
Secondary Fermenter for 60 days at 62 F
Bottle Condition for 240 days

You may want more hops. With that much gravity and aging, there'll be little coming through in the end. You might also want to consider longer times in the primary and secondary; many have had better luck leaving bigger beers to bottle for later.

I'd actually say the hops are good, if not a little much, for an English style. American style would be less malty, more hoppy, but I'd definitely drink this.

Just bringing this up since you mention you've only done extract batches in the past - victory and munich malts both MUST be mashed. If you only steep them, you'll just be adding a bunch of starch to your beer that the yeast won't be able to ferment, and you won't get much/any flavor out of them.

Either do a mini-mash inside a grain bag, or buy some munich malt extract. Or you can just leave them out - plenty a fine barleywine has been made with extract/pale malt and crystal alone.

I think Munich is self converting, up to a point, no? So no need for any additional 2-row in the mini-mash, right?

Munich is definitely self-converting, so nah, I don't think you'd need to add any extra 2-row for enzymes. I believe victory malt has the same diastatic power as munich so same thing.

That really doesn't sound like a bad recipe at all! The hops look pretty bold in there, but you find that in some English Barleywines.

I would extend the boil time out to 90 minutes, though (or more, if you can hold that much wort in your kettle). Much of the complexity in an English Barleywine should come from a long boil. A sixty minute boil just doesn't quite make it.

Of course, you need to make some other adjustments to account for the longer boil.


TL

Well, thanks for the input. The hoppiness is definetly at the higher end for the style.

As for the victory and munich, I was planning on doing a partial mash (deathbrewer's system of partial mash) and than doing a full boil with that wort and the liquid extract. Never thought of extending the boil, but that sounds pretty interesting.

What do you guys think of adding oak cubes to the secondary?

Thanks again for the help.

While I personally find 'oaked' beers generally taste like ass soaked in beer (ex: oaked AB), I'd say if you do oak this you should try doing it on half the batch. This will let you compare the original recipe as well as the oak contribution. This might make a GREAT barleywine but a horrible oaked barleywine, or vise-versa, and you'd never know if it was the oak or the underlying recipe without comparing the two.
/2 cents