Half-mashed barley wine

Just got the ingredients for some Old Bog Water:

5 lbs pale malt
1 lb Crystal 80L
4 oz Rye malt
2 oz Peat smoked barley (used 1/2 lb in 2003 batch. Bad idea)

Single infusion mash @152F 2 gallons pH 5.2 60 minutes
Batch sparge at 165F two or three times to get 6 gallons

6 lbs Pale LME
2 lbs brown sugar

2 oz Columbus pellets &
1 oz Cascade 15 minutes after Hot Break
1 oz East Kent Golding after 45 minutes
Additional 30 minutes boil

WLP051 California V
(re-aireate ten minutes every hour for six hours)

Split for secondary
1 gallon test for Distiller's yeast @ 60F
Rest in keg with dry champaign yeast

Stash until late 2006

That champaign yeast is going to take you to some new heights.

Is there an easy converstion from extract to whole grain? And what would be the difference in using champagne yeast vs. a barley wine yeast? Taste?

There are a number of calculators that will convert extract to grain and back. I'm using both mash and extract because my tun is too small to get the OG I want.

High gravity ale yeasts start dying when you hit 8-9% ABV. The champaign yeast is good to about 18% and adds nothing to the flavor, so I use it to finish the fermentation.

What is the difference between barley wine and beer?

What's the OG on that?

Barley wines are complex high ABV ales (OG's as high as 1120). I believe they are called wines just because of the high ABV. Long ago, most brewers did batch sparging and barley wine was brewed from the first run. The second run made the ordinary ales, the third and fourth runs produced small beers.

I haven't had a chance to do this yet, but the OG should be 1080-1090.

Friday 10 a.m. Finally, got this started. I decided to cut the Columbus to 2 oz and add 1 oz of Cascade. Also, I changed the yeast to California V.

Got it in the can. OG 1091 @ 5 gallons. I was expecting 5.5 gallons, but the long boil cut it down. Lots of yellow jackets zooming around. Don't think there are any in the wort. The Yeast sprayed all over the place when I cracked the seal, hope I didn't lose too much.

Samples consumed:

During the mash: 2003 barley wine,
Wet hop IPA
During the boil: CoC Brown
Black & Blue (4 parts Palmer Porter, 1 part blackberry cider)
After brew: Roque Mocha Porter

Weird ferment, very slow bubbler, but it's down to 1030 in less than 72 hours.