Grandpa's Old Ale

[Joker_on_Jack]

Not all beers need a story but this one does, I'll keep it short...

I lost my grandpa a few months ago. While we were going though the estate I found a 1990 Thomas Hardy Ale. Later that year I had my fist kid. To celebrate the birth of my son with cracking the T-Hardy 25 years after it was bottled. It was fantastic, best Barley Wine I have had.

It got me to thinking, I want to brew some beers this year and age them till my son is 25 (or longer if he is still drinking crap beer at that point).

The first one I want to tackle is an old ale. I don't know what it takes to age a beer that long, do I need to pump up the gravity in this recipe. Any other tweaks to the recipe would be greatly appreciated.

Old Ale:
OG 1.090
FG 1.022
ABV 8.44
IBU 47.6
SRM 23.5
Eff 70%
Boil 90min
Batch 5 Gal

Grain Bill:
14.5 lbs Canada Malting Pale
1 lb Special B
1 lb Biscuit
0.1 lb Light Roasted Barley
1 lb Black Treacle

Hops:
60min 1oz Challenger
15min 1oz Northern Brewer

Yeast WLP023 Burton Ale Yeast

After 3 months in the secondary pitch 2oz french oak cubes that have been soaking in brandy for 6 months.

Once oaked enough split the batch, bottle 2.5 gal and pitch WLP645 Brett C on the remaining 2.5 gal and let it sit for as long as it takes.

Thanks in advance for all the advice

 

[didinho]

everything sounds cool.
but, hhow can you keef FG at 1022 with bretta?

 

[Joker_on_Jack]

Sorry I should clarify that, I was going to mash high (157) and try to get my FG to 1.022 prior to the brett. I am not sure what I should expect to get my FG down to after the batch split.

 

[JKaranka]

Up the IBUs to around 70-80. They'll fade with aging and the Brett will change the hop character somewhat too. I'd remove speciality malts. I think the original TH had around 5% of those in total. Have you used black treacle before? I'd rather use homemade invert syrup.

 

[Joker_on_Jack]

Again, I should clarify. I am not looking to clone TH. I want to make an old ale of my own that has more dark flavors and pit fruit flavors.

Why invert sugar instead of treacle? Is it easier to use but similar flavors?

 

[Joker_on_Jack]

I transitioned this into a different higher gravity recipe

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=586038