Please critique this AG/BIAB American Barleywine recipe

[agrazela]

Please critique this (not yet named) American Barleywine recipe:

4 gallon AG/BIAB; expect 70% mash eff, 80% AA
Estimated: O.G. 1.102, F.G. 1.020, ABV 10.6%, SRM 16°, 80 IBU

Water:
"Amber Balanced" profile as per Bru'n Water

Grain (target 152°F mash temp, pH 5.4):
12# American 2-row
3# Victory
1# Crystal 60L

Hops (pellet):
2oz Warrior (60 min)
2oz Centennial (flameout)
2oz Cascade (dry hop)

Yeast:
2 11g packs US-05, dry-pitched at ~60°F

Ferment:
62-63°F to SG~1.025, then ramp to 68°F to finish; then sit a week or two, then dry hop at ~70°F 5-7 days.

What say you? What would you do differently?

 

[JLP]

I read this as though you will have a malt flavor of pronounced biscuit w/ medium caramel. You should have a balanced malt w/ bitterness that should come across as a 1.0 BU:GU after you count in the softness of the Centennial due to the flame out addition. It all sounds good to me in my limited Barley Wine recipe designing experience. My biggest thing that I would look at is the dry hopping. I would separate the hops into two different additions of one ounces at a time. I would put one ounce in for three days, and the add the other ounce in at 6 days. You could even split it up into three additions and go with 3, 6 and 9 to help layer the oils a little bit better. I would also wait until before you were going to bottle/keg, and back track my dry hopping timeline so that the oils are still present. You will not really be drinking that beer for some time.

 

[Seven]

Please critique this (not yet named) American Barleywine recipe:

Yeast:
2 11g packs US-05, dry-pitched at ~60°F

What say you? What would you do differently?

I wouldn't "dry pitch" the yeast.

 

[JLP]

I wouldn't "dry pitch" the yeast.

Good catch. I missed that.

 

[agrazela]

Thanks for the replies.

Brewed it up. Did not hit 70% efficiency, only 62%, so boosted with 2# Ultralight LME (100% 2-row). Got to look into a sparge step of some sort with my BIAB process; been hitting 70-75% efficienly BIAB no sparge, but at higher water:grist ratios than I tried here (2qt:1lb in previous brews, tried 1.5qt:1lb here).

Got a mash pH of 5.4, but accidentally mashed a little higher than targeted at 154°F...probably better off that way anyhow, want to retain some body.

I did decide to change the hops additions to:
2oz Warrior (60 min)
1oz Centennial and 1oz Cascade (flameout)
1oz Centennial and 1oz Casacade (dry hop)

And I may look into staggering the dry hop timings as mentioned.

Not worried about the dry-pitch. Mr. Malty says I need 1.3 packs, so 2 should cover me. Plus I've brewed up to 10.2% ABV BIAB IIPA with US-05 dry-pitched and had no issues.

I am prepared to let this one sit in secondary as long as it needs to, and aiming to start enjoying and gifting it around Thanksgiving / Christmas 2014.

 

[iowabrew]

i wouldn't worry about the dry pitch either, i've made Old Stoner barleywine a few times only pitching 1 packet with fine results. i would however, wait to dry hop this thing in 2ndary as the aroma will fade quite a bit over time.

i find too, that when i'm making a bigger beer (1.075+) my efficiencey suffers a little bit, maybe that was the case here. you'll never notice that DME though

 

[JLP]

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/lets-brew/rehydrating-dry-yeast/