Dark Barleywine Recipe thoughts

Hello all, I've been visiting the forums regularly for the past six months-when I began homebrewing-and have yet to post.

...So here I am! I've searched around the forums and elsewhere on the internet to no avail, I'd like to make a particularly dark American barleywine, something that will be hoppy and malty in the early stages of life, and that will pick up some roasted and darker flavors as it ages. Being a huge fan of the Dogfish Olde School I've also decided to add some fruit in the secondary. Of course, there is no "punch in your requirements and we'll give you a recipe" button on the internet, so I'm taking my case to you guys, you know a lot more than I do, and I am certain can point me in the right direction.

Anyways, here is a recipe I've roughed out, any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

12# Light LME or amber LME, not certain which I will get yet, leaning towards amber since it is darker
1# Extra dark DME
Planning on adding half the LME at the beginning of my 60 minute boil, and the other half of the LME and the DME towards the end- 15 minutes left perhaps

1# Caramel 120, to help with the color and flavor
1/2#-1# of something dark, I'm not sure if I should go with pale chocolate or black malt or what, my first thought is pale chocolate but I don't have a ton of experience with all the varieties of specialty malts

I intend on adding 1# dark candi syrup during high krausen

2oz chinook bittering
And these three mixed together and added at 30,15,5 minutes:
1oz centennial
1oz cascade
1oz chinook

In secondary I plan on adding 2-3oz of dates and 2-3oz of figs, cut up and ripe.

Lastly I'll be using safale-05

Again, any help would be greatly appreciated, I plan on frequenting the forums much more now that I am brewing more.

Cheers!

 

Nothing? Bueller? Bummed out guys....

 

I got no response on a Barleywine I posted recently as well. I'm thinking it's just because not many have brewed them. I'll lend my knowledge but I'm brewing mine 8/17.

Typically Barleywines get there color from a prolonged boil because of carmalization. Normally 2 to 3 hours is suggested. Did you put your malt bill in Beersmith or Brewer's friend and what did it said for the SRM?

http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style19.php this helped me come up with my recipe.

For the Hops I'd personally suggest reducing the bittering hops of 2oz. I think that's ~120 IBU's for just bittering which wouldn't be horrible since they are meant to age but after reading Barley Wine: History, Brewing Techniques, Recipes they said that heavily hopped Barleywines tend to age poorly after a number of years. Granted it was written in 1998.

Rogue Old Crustacean is one of the more hoppy American Barleywines and it's at 110 IBUs. Dogfish Olde School on their website says it is 85 IBUs with a higher alcohol content of 13-16% so I'm sure that is very malty.

I'd also suggest a long secondary of 3 to 6 months. I'd also consider dry hopping but that's more personal preference and again with age the aroma will disappear. For adding the fruit hopefully someone else will write their experience. If you were to do a long secondary I don't know when would be the best time to add the fruit.

I plan on using Safale-05 too but be sure to pinch the right amount. It should be 2 to 3 packets and you'll want to rehydrate it before hand.

 

Have you considered special b as a dark malt? I think it would pair nicely with the figs.

 

Herr's what I'm planning for some time this fall. Scroll down to "Jack and Ken's Barleywine.". It's a black barleywine. I had the brewery stuff and it was spectacular.

byo.com/stories/item/2517-collaborative-clones

 

The Olde School is one of my favorite beers. I would lose the Dark DME; this is why, I would much rather control what is in my beer and I would do this by steeping specialty grains to get the color you want; whether it be a stout or a wheat. I only add light extract and control all other aspects of my beer through steeping specialty grain. So I would maybe do the crystal 120 maybe add some Chocolate and some Special B . That and a longer boil (as previously mentioned) should take care of what you were trying to achieve with the dark DME and give you plenty of caramel and dark fruity flavors that you are looking for.

I also know that Dogfish head uses dates, raisins and figs, they puree it all together and they use quite a bit, maybe up your dates and figs a few ounces.

Your bittering hops look good I would skip the 30 minute addition; this will bring your IBU's down to a better level and you should be pretty close to where you want to be.

If you are shooting for a 13 percent beer, you will need to make sure you get your wort oxygenated and add some yeast nutrient. Also assuming you are shooting for a 13% beer, I would skip the dry hopping as this is going to take quite some time to age and I would think by the time it is at it's apex, (say a year of bottle conditioning) the hop aromas that dry hopping yields, will be gone.

Cheers and I wish you the best of luck with this brew. Please keep me posted and let me know how it turns out.