Second annual Barley Wine brew. Your thoughts plz!

A buddy and I brewed up a barleywine last year for a mutual friends wedding. It came out really nice and recieved great reviews from all the guests at said event. We got to talking the other day and decided to make it a yearly event. This years recipe is a bit different than the last, I've lowered the amount of crystal by a lot, upped the ibus to account for loss due to aging, and I'm using a much larger yeast starter. Check it out and lemme know what you think.

5.5gal batch
OG 1.094
95.2 IBU

12lbs Rahr 2-row
3lbs Weyermann Munich I
5.5oz Breiss Crystal 120
4.0oz Simpsons Pale Chocolate Malt
2lbs Light Brown Sugar

2oz Colombus (12.9%aa) 60min
1.25oz Chinook (11.8%aa) 15min
1.25oz Centennial (10.1%aa) 10min
0.75oz Chinook dry hop
0.75oz Centennial dry hop

1gal starter of Wyeast 1056

KraphtBier said:

... I've lowered the amount of crystal by a lot...

Click to expand...

edit-- I misread. 5.5 OUNCES not pounds. Oops.

In that case, I would still recommend dropping the amount of brown sugar, and upping the crystal. You can afford using heavier doses of crystal 120 in barleywines.

The hop schedule seems almost Bigfoot-esque-- very nice.

I was a little worried about the amount of sugar. I'll probably add half a pound of 30L Carastan and drop the brown sugar to 1.5lbs. That lowers the gravity a bit but I could offset that by adding some malted wheat (I'm out of 2-row and munich).

Did you lower the crystal by "a lot" because your final gravity was too high last time? If so, how high was it and how much crystal did you use? Making my first barleywine tomorrow so I'm a little curious about other people's experiences.

I lowered the crystal because after six plus months of aging I found the beer had become too sweet even for a barleywine. I used a pound of C60. I suspect if I had gone heavier with the hops it could've been offset which is why i lowered my amount of crystal and upped the ibus. My final gravity wasn't abnormally high last time 1.022-1.020 I think.

KraphtBier said:

I was a little worried about the amount of sugar. I'll probably add half a pound of 30L Carastan and drop the brown sugar to 1.5lbs. That lowers the gravity a bit but I could offset that by adding some malted wheat (I'm out of 2-row and munich).

Click to expand...

Personally, I wouldn't go more than 1 pound. That will dry it out big time with that WY1056. For barleywines, having at least a pound of crystal to give it a sweeter backbone is usually the way to go, IMO. Since you're out of 2-row and Munich, I wouldn't compromise a big beer recipe like this because you are short on ingredients. Another trip to the LHBS or online order may be needed.

Heard, more 2-row it is. Latest idea would be something like:

14lbs 2-row
3lbs Munich
8oz Carastan
5.5oz C120
4oz Pale Chocolate
1lb Light Brown Sugar

KraphtBier said:

Heard, more 2-row it is. Latest idea would be something like:

14lbs 2-row
3lbs Munich
8oz Carastan
5.5oz C120
4oz Pale Chocolate

Click to expand...

Looks pretty solid to me. I think you'll be much happier with that recipe. Good luck with the brew!