Recipe Critique - Big Barley Wine/Oak Aged Ale

I have almost enough saved up in my “man stash” to order a five gallon whiskey barrel and I am going to try for something crazy. I have achieved %10 ABV fairly easily a few times by oxygenating a few times during propogation and pitching a ton of yeast. I am assuming a yeast cake would be best for this or else a 2 gallon starter? not sure.

25 pounds pale
1 pound C80
1 pound chocolate malt
50 IBU millennium @60
50 IBU Chinook at @20 (for long lasting hop flavor)
8 oz columbus @ FO (steep for 30-40 minutes) for long lasting flavor/aroma
OG = 1.117
FG = ? (whenever the yeast dies)
ABV 12-15%
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp099.html
Mash at 148 overnight…super fermentable wort
Age in oak barrel for 1 year
Add extra yeast to bottling bucket and bottle with low carb levels

Sounds like a beast. The chocolate malt seems odd but other than that I think youre good. Have you brewed it?

check out these wood honeycomb alternative over the barrel
http://www.chicagobrewwerks.com/index.php?product=BS-ROACK-5&c=141

I love a big beefy barley wine. Two quick thoughts do with them as you will. I agree the choc. malt seems odd. How are you going to hold your mash temps overnight? A cooler is going to loose enough steam. I think a 90 min. mash with that grain bill will be enough. Again just my thoughts

FEARDIZ said:

check out these wood honeycomb alternative over the barrel
http://www.chicagobrewwerks.com/index.php?product=BS-ROACK-5&c=141

Click to expand...

Those are made from red oak? Isn't red oak toxic?

no idea, they have differnet woods, white oak, hickory etc..
what is a whisky barrel made of?

FEARDIZ said:

no idea, they have differnet woods, white oak, hickory etc..
what is a whisky barrel made of?

Click to expand...

White oak

rwinzing said:

I love a big beefy barley wine. Two quick thoughts do with them as you will. I agree the choc. malt seems odd. How are you going to hold your mash temps overnight? A cooler is going to loose enough steam. I think a 90 min. mash with that grain bill will be enough. Again just my thoughts

Click to expand...

I have a 54 quart steel belted coleman mash tun. I won't lose 5-7 degrees over a 6-8 hour mash.

I have not made this yet, but I am going to . I am a few months away. I will likely use all the hops from my chinook plant, adding the vast majority at the whirlpool addition. Changing from columbus to chinook for that addition as well. All chinook on this beer.

I figured the choco would add some nice roastiness and color.

What size batch is this? With that big of a grain bill did you try to parti Gyle a second batch? Is aging on oak that long common? I thought most oak aging was more like a month. Perhaps the time difference is between a barrel and chips?

This was a 6 gallon batch. I still haven't brewed it. I can fit 32 or so pounds of grain in my mash tun, so this brew wont be an issue

Just chiming in to agree that chocolate is a bit odd here. It's not that you won't make a good beer, but barley wines rely on malty/caramel flavors, not toast or roast flavors. You can achieve malty flavors by using a lot of medium-colored grains, and/or by a long boil to caramelize. Some recipes even use exclusively pale malt but do a very long boil in order to get the color up. I think your C80 largely covers it, so combining that with a long boil would work. You could also consider adding some biscuit/aromatic, or some Vienna/Munich or lighter crystal.

Agree that pitching onto an existing yeast cake is the best idea. I don't think I would use WLP099; I have heard that is a very strange/inconsistent yeast (though I haven't used it), and you can use something more standard (WLP001) with good results as long as you treat it well. Just make a 1.040-1.050 OG beer first using WLP001, then pitch onto that. Two more tips to increase attenuation: start in the mid-60s but let fermentation go wherever in terms of temperature, and rouse the yeast (rock the carboy) after a few days to make sure the yeast stays in suspension longer.