Barleywine Help

OK about a month ago I brewed a barleywine with a couple friends. One of them is a great homebrewer and has even earned his way into becoming an assistant brewer at a big craft brewery. Well I am into my boil when I remembered I needed something from the store. I asked him if he would watch my boil while I ran to the store. He said yes and I told him that the next hop addition is Northdown 2oz. I also said there was a hop bag over there to put them in. Well, he kinda misunderstood what I said, and dumped the entire, unopened 4 oz package of Northdown (9.7%) into the kettle at 60 min left of boil. Initial hops were 2 oz Magnum (13.5%).

Well, at this point in time, it became a giant experiment. We added 4 pounds of light DME we had to increase the "maltiness" of it. This was a good choice as I did not get the boil off I expected and my volumes were higher, and the extra DME bumped me up on my OG and helped decrease the IBU's of the brew.

Well, after 2 weeks on London III it plateaued out on the fermentation front, so I racked it and pitched Wyeast Pacman as it has a higher ABV tolerance (this with a starter). Now I have reached my OG. I am going to age this for 4 months in an oak cask that has had rum in it.

I just sampled a few drops when checking the SG and it has a strong upfront hop bite. Will this mellow with aging in the oak barrel? I plan to bottle condition for 3-4 months also.

Thanks

Yes, hops age out quite a bit with time.

all i know is the beer sounds awesome - and yes, hops will significantly decrease in taste perception over time.

digging the rum barrel - nice idea.