Double DBA Imperial Special Bitter

I am trying to come up with something similar to the Firestone Walker Double DBA Imperial Special Bitter. I plan on aging this for about 11 months in a used Woddinville Whiskey bourbon barrel. This is a recipe that blends a barleywine and an ESB while incorporating some notes that I have read describing the ingredients and brewing method for the Firestone Walker version.

Here is the 8 gallon barrel: http://www.woodinvillewhiskeyco.com/barrels/

If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it. I brew frequently but am not typically very original when it comes to creating a recipe.


8 gallons

Partial Mash

1.129~OG→1.040~FG→11.6%ABV
26 IBU
34.1°L SRM

Yeasts
Wyeast 1945 - NB NeoBritannia 2 packets

Fermentables
32 pounds

Malt - Maris Otter
34ppg, 7°L 18 pounds
56%

Malt - Amber
33ppg, 10°L 9 pounds
28%

Crystal 90L
32ppg, 90°L 2 pounds
6%

Munich (Light)
34ppg, 10°L 2 pounds
6%

Chocolate
28ppg, 350°L 1 pound
3%

Hops
6 ounces

Goldings (Styrian)
5%, Pellet 2 ounces
33%

Willamette
5%, Leaf 2 ounces
33%

Fuggles
5%, Leaf 1 ounce
17%

Magnum
14%, Pellet 1 ounce
17%

Partial
30 minutes, 3 gallons
Partial Mash 3 gallons
150°F

Boil
1 hour, 9.08 gallons

Magnum hops
14%, Pellet 1 ounce
60 minutes (+0)

Willamette hops
5%, Leaf 1.5 ounces
60 minutes (+0)

Goldings (Styrian) hops
5%, Pellet 1 ounce
15 minutes (+45)

Willamette hops
5%, Leaf 0.5 ounces
15 minutes (+45)

Goldings (Styrian) hops
5%, Pellet 1 ounce
1 minutes (+59)

Ferment
21 days @ 63°F, 11 months @ 63°F
Rack to secondary (63°F) 11 months (+21 days)
Used Whiskey Barrel

Dry hop
Fuggles hops
5%, Leaf 1 ounce
5 days (+346 days)

[Edited to make the recipe 8 gallons]

Subscribed! Looking forward to hearing how this turns out.

why so few IBUs?

badlee said:

why so few IBUs?

Click to expand...

It's not intended to reach an IPA style in terms of hop profile. I will tweak the recipe once I receive the hops to input the actual acidity numbers to come as close as possible to 29 IBUs which is the stated IBU for this beer.

Cooked this one up yesterday with the help of DRonco. It was thick, ended up with an OG of 1.120.

Upon further reflection, it would have been far better to make two 5 gallon batches in tandem, then filled them into the oak barrel after the secondary saving the rest to top off the barrel throughout aging.

This 8 gallon batch fit nicely into my 7.9 gallon fermentor. Hoping the lid won't blow off tonight!!

WarrantedFED said:

Cooked this one up yesterday with the help of DRonco.

Click to expand...

It was epic! Took 2 hours just to work through the grains.

I doubt you're going to want to age this for 11 months in a small barrel...the whole thing with surface area and all. More of the beer is in contact with the wood in a smaller barrel than in a full size. I'd be surprised if you needed to age it more than a couple of months (or potentially less) to get the bourbon flavor.

heywatchthis said:

I doubt you're going to want to age this for 11 months in a small barrel...the whole thing with surface area and all. More of the beer is in contact with the wood in a smaller barrel than in a full size. I'd be surprised if you needed to age it more than a couple of months (or potentially less) to get the bourbon flavor.

Click to expand...

You're right about the surface area. I realized this after I conceived the idea. About that time I got my wife an age your own whiskey kit with like a very small barrel, maybe 3-4 liters. The directions stated something like that because if the ratio of volume to surface area, that the aging would occur approximately 8 times faster than a full-size barrel.

So I figured it would only take a couple of months in the oak. I can leave it in the secondary longer before moving to the oak, then bottle and age for some time.

Very exciting!!

WarrantedFED said:

Cooked this one up yesterday with the help of DRonco. It was thick, ended up with an OG of 1.120.

Upon further reflection, it would have been far better to make two 5 gallon batches in tandem, then filled them into the oak barrel after the secondary saving the rest to top off the barrel throughout aging.

This 8 gallon batch fit nicely into my 7.9 gallon fermentor. Hoping the lid won't blow off tonight!!

Click to expand...

you had 8 gallons of 1.120 beer fermenting with no headspace? i hope you had got a blowoff tube on that...

did you make a starter with your 2 yeast smack-packs? 2 packs pitched alone would be under-pitching. mrmalty estimates that you need 7 packs of fresh yeast without a starter. have you taken a gravity sample recently? is the beer still fermenting?

Yep, it's still bubbling away. And yes, I underpitched with only 2 yeast packets.

Really, in hindsight, I could have planned this better as two 5-gallon batches with the same quantity of fermentables.

The headspace was nominal. I had a blowoff tube going really hard and had to hold the lid on with a 50 lb mass of weighted objects.

We shall see!

Also, I don't plan on taking a gravity reading until around Jan 26 or so, or until the bubbling stops.

A few days ago I transferred this into two 5-gallon carboys and topped each off with one gallon of sterilized water. My Brew Pal supported this dilution. See, I wasn't able to determine the alcohol tolerance of the NeoBrittania yeast strain and didn't want to end with such a high FG.

I took a gravity sample last night, it was 1.030 and fermentation appears to have halted.

The sample tasted amazing! Not as sweet as I expected. It was smooth with an overt coffee flavor, from the 1# of English chocolate malt. I think I nailed it. I am excited to see what further aging and conditioning will result in.

I may or may not attempt to bring the gravity down further. By my estimation I am only at 9.2%, and I was shooting for a little north of 10.5%.

How did this turn out? This is one of my favourite beers!