JZ barley wine

I would like to brew JZ's barley wine. My mash tun is the HD 10 gallon cooler, which can't handle all that grain. Would it turn out just as good, if I used LME? I know it should, but given the aging, I want to know if I should do the all grain and pick up a keggle mash tun.
Opinions?

You'll be fine. I recently brewed two batches of beer with a friend (One all-grain and one with extract supplemented). Both were the same recipe and both tasted very very similar. Imperial Amber.


EDIT: I meant to throw out there that it's been bottled for about 8 months now. So I guess I shouldn't have used the word recently.

That's what I thought, I've been brewing for 2 years now, and I wouldn't want to brew something that won't turn out to be an excellent brew.

I would use as much grain as you can fit into the mash tun and then substitute DME or LME for some of the base grain to hit your target OG.

I did two mashes when i made my barleywine then combined into my kettle. It prolonged the brew day by a few hours but thats not a big deal.

Greyhound said:

I would use as much grain as you can fit into the mash tun and then substitute DME or LME for some of the base grain to hit your target OG.

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This is your best option. Use as much grain as your cooler will handle and supplement with DME or LME. Mike McDole brewed his IIPA using this method and he won the Sam Adams Longshot competition. It's definitely a method that can yield great results.

i think i can fit most of it in there, so i shouldnt need too much DME or LME.

eppo said:

i think i can fit most of it in there, so i shouldnt need too much DME or LME.

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If you use BeerSmith or ProMash or any of those calculators, put 100% of your specialty grains and x% of your base grains to get the max amount of grains your tun can handle. Then increment the DME or LME until your recipe hits the numbers of the original recipe. Shouldn't be too much of a hassle. Is it the recipe from BCS?

When I made a barleywine a couple months ago I hit like 63% efficiency, after usually averaging 82%. I missed the OG by a long shot, and added DME. In hindsight and thinking about it a long time, I'm pretty sure it was the smaller sparge volume compared to my usual sparge for 50 to 60 GU batches. I fly sparge, so maybe batch sparging it could be a little bit different, dunno. Even with some DME, the barleywine is already excellent by the way.

barrooze said:

If you use BeerSmith or ProMash or any of those calculators, put 100% of your specialty grains and x% of your base grains to get the max amount of grains your tun can handle. Then increment the DME or LME until your recipe hits the numbers of the original recipe. Shouldn't be too much of a hassle. Is it the recipe from BCS?

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yes it is from BCS. i've brewed the ESB, and Belgian Dubbel from there and they turned out awesome. i think i might brew this on my 35th birthday, and try some every year until my 40th. see how it changes over time.

eppo said:

i think i might brew this on my 35th birthday, and try some every year until my 40th. see how it changes over time.

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Great idea! You may want to make more than the standard 5 gallons to help make it last that long!