Holiday Barley Wine Recipe - How does it look?

Me and my friend have recently started all-grain brewing. We had sanitation problems in our first two batches. We think we have solved the problem this week, if we have we are looking to brew a barley wine for the holiday season.
The recipe I have made is as follows for a 5 gallon batch:

Grain:
-14 LB 2-row
-5 LB Vienna
-2 LB flaked wheat
-12 oz Crystal 60lovi
-8 oz Munich Malt
-4 oz Rye Malt
-2 oz Honey Malt
-2 oz Carraroma malt
-2 oz chocolate malt

other:
-1 oz light brown sugar
-1 oz maple syrup

hops:
-1.25 oz Amarillo for 60 min
-0.75 oz Nugget for 45 min
-0.75 oz Kent Goldings for 30 min
-0.5 Cascade for 15 min
-0.25 oz Fuggles for 5 min
-0.2 oz sterling - dry hopped

Irish moss in last 10 minutes of boil.
Wyeast Belgian Strong Ale Yeast #1388

O.G.= 1.116
F.G.= 1.028
ABV= 11.4%


I'm not really into spiced beers, so I want this to be something very different, but enjoyable.
We'd appreciate any thoughts you have about the brown sugar/maple syrup, the hop types and times, and grain. Also, any suggestions for a mash schedule would be great.

Way, way, way too complicated. Barleywines don't get their complexity from complex grain bills (no beer really does) but rather from the long boil time, ridiculous amount of malt and aging.

When brewing big beers, you have to take special care in having a fermentable wort. This means that crystal malts should be used in extreme moderation (if at all). I'd also recommend a long, low mash: 148F for 2 hours for example.

If I were you, I'd basically use a good base of Marris Otter or other biscuity malt, maybe a touch of munich and crystal malt and use chocolate malt to adjust for color and collect a lot of runnings. Then you boil for volume for two or three hours. This will get you the complex taste you're looking for.

As far as hpoing goes, if you are going to spice this thing, I'd go with something non intrusive such as Galena and only use a single bittering charge.

BTW, using sugar or other adjunct (treacle, brown sugar, etc.) in a barleywine is pretty standard to thin the body a bit and provide simpler sugars while boosting the gravity. I wouldn't use molasse in this role though: a few onces of the stuff is all that can be added without having aftertaste problems.

I'd recommend fermenting with a clean attenuative strain such as US-05 and not something belgian. Barleywines are all about the maltiness, not phenols.

Grains: I agree that it seems too complicated. You could probably drop everything after the crystal and up your base or vienna. Then, if you want something different, change the flaked wheat to flaked rye. With this I think you're ok with the crystal you have, so long as you mash low. But ultimately this is YOUR brew. If you have something you're shooting for in all those various bits, give it a go. It may take longer to come into its own, though. I think more complex grain bills (lots of specialty grains) tend to take longer to mature.

Hops: I didn't check the numbers, but you'll want to have the IBUs at 85+ with such a high target FG. Also, I'm not sure I understand the Amarillo as your bittering hop (is this just what you have on hand?). Maybe a galena or northern brewer. Your dry hop seems a little light, too. Otherwise looks good.

Sugar: I would advise against the maple syrup. Use a generic/store brand light brown sugar--they just seem to have better flavor. Also, add the sugar as fermentation begins to slow. Use just enough warm water to desolve the sugar. Raise the temp to sanitize. Cool and add to fermenter.

Mash at 148-150. Add yeast nutrient in last 10 min. of boil. Pitch a big starter and aerate, aerate, aerate. If you have an aquarian pump or o2 setup, hit the wort again with some air 8-12 hours after pitching your yeast.

Yeast: +1 for a good, strong, clean fermenting yeast. wlp001/wyeast1056 or wlp028/wy1728. I think you would probably be very happy with the Scottish ale yeast.

All in all, this is your show. Good luck!

While conditioning you might want to try oak chips or cubes. I hear JD chips give it a nice finished taste!

Brew_4iT said:

While conditioning you might want to try oak chips or cubes. I hear JD chips give it a nice finished taste!

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The guy wants to have his beer done for the holidays. Especially if he sticks to his first recipe, I don't think oaking it is a great idea.

jfr1111 said:

The guy wants to have his beer done for the holidays. Especially if he sticks to his first recipe, I don't think oaking it is a great idea.

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Read this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/how-long-should-i-leave-beer-oak-cubes-164666/

You could add the jd chips in later depending on how much flavor you want.

The other recommendations sound good to me. I will add that if you plan to do another BW next year for the holidays I would recommend doing it earlier, like jan-march. Aging really helps. I brewed a 13.2% BW back in January and it is getting very smooth now. Should be awesome by xmas (and after). Cheers.

BTW, I hopped mine to 110 ibus with Amarillo and either chinook or simcoe, can't remember for sure. It balanced very nicely, not bitter at all.

Okay, So I've read read all of your suggestions and reworked my recipe.
I am keeping the IBUs lower, we are going for a english style barley wine, and for the most part we prefer malty beers.

fermentables:
-16 LB 2-row
-6.5 LB Vienna
-2 oz munich
-2 oz chocolate
-4 oz brown sugar

Hops:
-2.2 oz Chinook for 1.5 hours
-1 oz Fuggles for 5 min
-1 oz Cascade dry hopped

-Irish moss and yeast nutrient in last 10 min of boil
-Wyeast #1056 American Ale

O.G. 1.116
F.G. 1.029
ABV: 11.3%
IBU: 65.4

I've decided on a single temp infusion mash at 154 F for 2 hours. Sparge out at 175 F.

How did this come out? I'm also looking to create an English style Barleywine.

this is what i'm doing sunday: http://hopville.com/recipe/1291806/english-barleywine-recipes/olde-skrams-barleywine
as you can see, my philosophy is keep it simple, stupid