First timer English Barley Wine Recipe

Hi All,

Just joined the forum and could do with some advice on my first recipe. I want to create an English Barley wine that will hopefully be ready by Xmas. After some research and with the help of BeerSmith I have come up with the following recipe.

It is extract based, with Crystal malt and a bit of chocolate malt to make it darker and to add a touch of bitterness. I've stuck to English hops too. I read that boiling for 90 mins would make for a richer flavour. In the recipe I've added the first hops at the start of the boil, but perhaps I would be better to ads them in at 60mins.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Recipe.

Boil; time 90 mins.
Est OG: 1107 Est Alcohol: 11.3%
Est FG: 1023
Batch vol: 12l
Boil vol: 12l
Bitterness: 56.8 IBU Est Color: 36.4 EBC

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (100.0 EBC) Grain 2 6.2 %
0.05 kg Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC) Grain 3 1.2 %
1.50 kg Pale Liquid Extract [Boil for 90 min](15.8 EBC) Extract 4 37.0 %
20.00 g Target [11.00 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 5 43.2 IBUs
15.00 g Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 6 9.5 IBUs
10.00 g Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 4.1 IBUs
0.16 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 8 -
1.0 pkg Thames Valley Ale (Wyeast Labs #1275) [124.21 ml] Yeast 9 -
2.25 kg Light Dry Extract (15.8 EBC) Dry Extract 10 55.6 %

Best wishes,

Stuart.

The recipe looks good, you may be right about moving the bittering addition to 60, as to avoid a harsh bitterness. The big thing here is going to be the yeast handling and fermentation. Make a HUGE starter (search on the Yeast forum for this), use plenty of yeast nutrient, and oxygenate the hell out of your wort. After that just keep a close eye on fermentation temps so they don't run away on you. Even if you're at an ambient temp of say 70 F, a fermentation as violent as this one (use a blowoff) can raise the wort temp 10 F easily.

I don't think the 90 minute boil is necessary. IMO you're not going to get a lot of caramelization just by boiling down another 30 minutes.