American Barleywine Recipe Critique

[rodwha]

For my 100th beer I figured a barleywine was fitting. I’ve not brewed anything over 8.4% so far, which means I’ve not tried a Barleywine yet. This is my 5.25 gal partial mash recipe so far:

10 lbs Ashburne Mild
8 lbs light LME (FO)
1 lb Dingeman’s caramunich
1 lb Dingeman’s caravienne
0.375 lb light DME @ 20 mins
0.375 lb light DME (starter)
0.75 oz Chinook (13%) FWH
1.125 oz Chinook @ 14 mins/49 min whirlpool
US-05

1.112/1.021
11.9%
98 IBUs
15 SRM
75% efficiency

The yeast is washed slurry that I keep going as I found I got slightly better attenuation and flocculation than the WLP001 I had been using prior. I use a whisk to aerate and keep it in my fermentation chamber for ~1 1/2 days.

So would anyone recommend any changes? If so why?

 

[ProblemChild]

Not sure the IBU's will present themselves like they seem they will.

Granted, my recipe for that OG was all grain (lower hop utilization in boil as more sugar) but I had three ounces of galena @ 60 min and the bitterness just was not there. Had two ounces of Comet at 20 to boot.

Get the IBU's at 60 min and save the hop stand. Chinook is perfect. I personally would add the DME early, do a 90 min boil with it and add Chinook at 60 and 20, then dry hop. The sugars caramelizing add to the character of a barley wine and deepen the color and flavor.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Readers should take a look at https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=33067.0 and https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=33069.0. (My goal here is to help future readers. Personally, I see nothing wrong with posting the same topic to multiple forums.)

 

[rodwha]

Not sure the IBU's will present themselves like they seem they will.

Granted, my recipe for that OG was all grain (lower hop utilization in boil as more sugar) but I had three ounces of galena @ 60 min and the bitterness just was not there. Had two ounces of Comet at 20 to boot.

Get the IBU's at 60 min and save the hop stand. Chinook is perfect. I personally would add the DME early, do a 90 min boil with it and add Chinook at 60 and 20, then dry hop. The sugars caramelizing add to the character of a barley wine and deepen the color and flavor.

I moved a little (to 1 oz) of the Chinook to bittering. Shows that as a FWH it should add 55 IBUs by itself. The other 2 oz (ditched the whirlpool and added them to the boil as Denny in the other forum stated the whirlpool addition would fade by the time it was ready) I moved to 14 mins and shows 46 IBUs.

Not sure such a small amount of DME would do much but adjusted to take your advice and add it at the beginning of the boil.

I’m pushing my threshold on volume in my pot. Would adding 2 qts after 30 mins change things it added prior to adding the hops? Or could I rely on the numbers given by the calculator?

 

[ProblemChild]

Not sure such a small amount of DME would do much but adjusted to take your advice and add it at the beginning of the boil.

I’m pushing my threshold on volume in my pot. Would adding 2 qts after 30 mins change things it added prior to adding the hops? Or could I rely on the numbers given by the calculator?

OOPS - meant the LME!

Well, boiling at low volume and topping off in my opinion would be great for a Barley wine. That with the lower hop utilization would force more hops, but I think it is well worth it.

 

[rodwha]

I just received my ingredients, but brew day is some time in the future with a beer to brew before it. However I was wondering how long others ferment and bottle condition their barleywine. Also how long do you have it rest before you decide to pop a top and try it? I know it seems typical to age a barleywine 9-12 months, but how long before things have melded together well?