Anyone ever make the 999 Barleywine?

[urg8rb8]

I wanna give it a try! This is the recipe:

23.0 lbs Pale Ale
2.0 lbs Munich Malt
6.0 oz Pale Chocolate
4.0 oz Special B - Caramel malt
12.0 oz Crystal Malt 80°L
1.5 lbs White Table Sugar (Sucrose)
1.66 oz Magnum (14.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.0 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 25.0 min
1.0 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
1.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
2 ea WYeast 1056 American Ale

I usually get around 75% efficiency on 7% or so ABV beers. This recipe is intended to have an OG of about 1.120. When I plug this recipe into BeerSmith, I tells me I have to get a 65% efficiency in order to get that OG. I brew in a bag in a 10 gallon mash tun, so I can mill the grains fine if necessary, but does 65% efficiency seem attainable with that monster grain bill?

 

[Omahawk]

Recipe looks great. In regards to your question, as with lots of things, “it depends”. Based on my experience, and your notes, 65% sounds about right.

25 lbs is about the most grain I can use in my setup (10 gallon igloo cooler mash tun) and still get my desired 1.25 qts / lb.

On big beers like this, when I do single infusions in the 150F-155F range with my tun full to the top, I usually get about 65% efficiency. This is a drop about 10 percentage points on efficiency compared to ~75% efficiency I usually get on my 1.05-1.07 beers where the mash tun has plenty of room.

On a “full-tun beer” like this, I stir the mash often and let it mash a little longer (maybe 90 min mash instead of 60).

I’d also maybe have some DME on hand if you mash out, take a sample, and your SG is running low.