First Barleywine recipe, suggestions?

I want to brew a really big barleywine that I cold age for many years. I am planning on brewing this very soon, before my son is due to be born, inspired by the idea of aging for 21 years. This is going to be a pricey batch to put together and I want it to be good so please give any input. I am going for a flavor profile of earthy burnt sugar.
This is what I was thinking:
5.5 gallon batch
14# pils
7# light DME
2# Turbinado
1.5# Carapils
.5# Biscuit
.3#Choc malt
.3#aromatic
.3# crystal 30
.3# crystal 60

Mash @ 158 (Encouraging dextrine, thick mouthfeel). Batch sparge.

Hops
1oz Nugget 90'
1oz Northern Brewer 60'
1oz Eroica 60'
1oz Northern Brewer 15'

Boil 120' to encourage carmalization

Yeast: S05 (until it dies) then repitch with Champagne to finish

Efficiency 75%
OG 1.163
FG 1.041
ABV 16.3%

Age on 4oz of well used oak chips for ~1 year.

I admittedly have little experience with brews of this magnitude, but isn't 75% efficiency a bit optimistic for that many specialty grains mashed at such a high temperature? I'd think that mashing in the 152-153F range would help efficiency much and still give you a pretty hearty mouthfeel.

I'd also suggest oak cubes instead of chips; the latter can get *really* overpowering for extended aging periods, whereas cubes tend to give you a better overall experience, so long as you have the patience for them. It sounds like you do . Any plans on steeping them in bourbon or something?

EDIT: Also, don't forget to pitch one hell of a starter, and pick a fermentation vessel with a ton of headspace; otherwise you'll be losing a good 1-2 gallons to blowoff alone.

Yes, very true, I just adjusted my calculations to 65% efficiency and increased some grains and turbinado to still achieve the ABV. I figured the efficiency optimistically because the DME and turbinado are not factored in since they will be added in the boil.
I will likely soak the oak in something, maybe scotch to stay with an earth (peat) flavor profile.

Is this realistic to be able to finish a beer at 16%?
Should a 6.5 carboy with big blowoff tube be big enough?

That's a big beer. I'd also mash low, around 150 or lower, so you don't end up with syrup. This beer is going to be big enough without a high mash temp. I'd also hold off on the turbinado until you pitch the champagne yeast. Champagne yeast is unlikely to eat anything but simple sugars, and you don't want the ale yeast to die on you with the complex sugars remaining. Then you're leaving nothing for the champagne yeast to do.

Again, I'm inclined to agree with Guld with regards to temperature; I'd go with 150F myself, but if you're really concerned with body, I wouldn't go higher than 152. I've had a couple end up as straight syrup because of those differences, and they weren't anywhere near this magnitude .

Champagne yeast should handle 16% fairly well, but I'd agree that adding the simple sugars as a really late addition might help things along. Regarding the size of the fermenter, a 6.5 might be enough, but given my druthers and considering this is a batch that you want to keep as perfect as possible, I'd consider splitting it between two buckets/carboys just in case. I've fermented a couple RISes in 6.5gal vessels before and they've still blown off 1-1.5 gallons, easily.

Thanks for the input. Those are all things I hadn't considered. I will hold the sugar until adding the champagne, I will mash at ~150, and I have 2-6.5 carboys available. Splinting the batch will be especially helpful so that I can shake the bottle to aerate.

definitely don't mash @158 for this, espcially with all that carapils. I wouldn't go over 150F if you want 16% to be feasible. However, I would ditch all of the carapils tho. It's already in your extract and body isn't really an issue in barleywines, plus 1.5lbs is way too much to begin with.
If you want this to get to ~16%, I'd use WLP099 over champagne yeast, since like Guld mentioned, it can only eat the simple sugars. S-05 should be able to take it near 15% alone though.

also, in case you haven't read it yet, check this out: http://beerdujour.com/Howtobrewabigbeer.htm

and here's a recipe he did of similar size: http://beerdujour.com/Recipes/ImperialEnglishBW63.htm

Since I began all grain brewing I have had some problems getting the mouthfeel that I want, and I want this to be a big chewy thick beer. That said I've never done anything this big, so I will take everyone's advice and reduce mash temp to 150 and trade the carapils for slightly more aromatic, biscuit, and pils.
Is this too much specialty grain? Should make for more complex barleywine, right?

marqoid said:

Is this too much specialty grain? Should make for more complex barleywine, right?

Click to expand...

Well, yes and no. If you check out the Kate the Great clone recipe, you can see that they use a TON of different types of grain. The result is an amazing beer. That said, most homebrewers (at least in my experience) tend to go nuts with this concept, expecting that tossing *everything* in there will result in *everything* emerging in some way, eventually. (And I'm as guilty of this as anyone).

That's not always the case; people tend to forget that those very huge recipes are products of massive amounts of experimentation and tweaking, generally over the course of years. It's incredibly difficult to just jump straight into a complicated grain bill and have it randomly work out perfectly, no matter how much experience you have.

But this is your beer. Make it as you want; in your shoes, I would actually suggest performing that same experimentation process that the big guys do. Brew this batch the way you want it with the bill you think feels right; you'll end up with 4-5ish gallons, depending on boiloff/blowoff/sediment consumption. Bottle and age it for a year. On your son's 1-year birthday (or rather, the day before), crack a bottle and see what it's like. Note what you love and hate about it, and use your additional year's worth of experience to make adjustments. Then brew it again the following day with your "fixes" in place. Repeat this process for subsequent years until the recipe is "perfect" or, more likely, his 21st rolls around and the cycle is broken .

As time passes, you'll have yourself a fun annual tradition, not to mention one hell of a vertical tasting set up for that big day 21 years down the road .

EDIT: Forgot to add "And also, since you will have *so* many bottles, mail one out here, where it can be 'properly' dealt with!"

Revised my recipe to include:
60% 17 # Pilsner Malt
21% 6 # Light Dry Malt Extract
11% 3 # Turbinado
3% 12 oz Biscuit Malt
2% 8 oz Molasses
2% 8 oz Aromatic Malt
1% 5 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L
1% 4 oz Chocolate Malt
1% 4 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L

Mash @150
Hop schedule and yeast remain the same.
Turbinado sugar will be added after S05 quit and Champagne is added.