Barrel Aging American Barleywine/IIPA

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El Gertez

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I have 10 gallons of what I intended to be an American Barleywine that I have been planning to age in a 15 gallon bourbon barrel (after I brew another 5 gallons to bring it up to volume). I tasted it a few weeks ago, now that primary fermentation is finished, and decided that it's hoppy enough, it might be better to just call it a Imperial IPA, which then prompted the thought that I haven't seen many bourbon barrel IIPAs around. Makes sense since hop flavor and aroma doesn't usually age well. What are people's opinions on bourbon barrel IIPAs?

As I see it, my options are as follows:
1) Keg it as is and enjoy 10 gallons of ~10% ABV IPA
2) Keep with the plan, brew the final 5 gallons per the original recipe, and age the whole thing in a bourbon barrel. Dry hop after barrel aging, before bottling in order to bring back some hop flavor & aroma.
3) Brew the final 5 gallons with more caramel malt to add residual sweetness to make it more like a bastardized English barleywine which will hopefully stand up a little better to aging.

Here's the recipe for the original 10 gallon batch:
1.098 OG
~100 IBU
15 SRM

Mash @ 152 for 90m
19# Golden Promise
9# Light DME
5# Rye Malt
3# Skagit Dark 80 (Caramel 80)
2# Flaked Barley
0.5# Caramel 120
0.5# Caramel 40

60m boil
5oz Magnum FWH
1.25oz Citra 20m
1.25oz Chinook 20m
1.25oz Citra 10m
1.25oz Chinook 10m
1oz Chinook 15m Whirlpool
1oz Citra 15m Whirlpool

Ferment at 64 F with a shitload of US-05.

Thoughts?
 
I think you should just brew a maltier IPA with the remaining 5 gallons then proceed as planned.

Have you ever had barrel aged Bigfoot? It is a barley wine "style" ale that is hopped and dry hopped to the max. It tastes fantastic and I think it would pretty much be what you'd end up with. Or an idea of what you'd end up with, anyway.

If you're really worried about screwing it up then just drink it fresh and redo the beer for the barrel. Just keep the barrel wet, brew up those batches quick, and you should be good to go. Either way the beers both sound tasty.
 
Just my opinion:
You added a lot of late addition hops which would be nice for a DIPA and maybe not necessary for Barleywine? Just curious why you did that?

You have a very nice barleywine recipe. I think if you were to age it for a year or two you will have a great drinking Barleywine and the hops will have faded by then.

So if it were me, I would age the full 15gal in the barrel, and after a few months I would rack off 5 to call a DIPA and in the meantime brew another 5 to replace it in the barrel. Now you have 5gal of barrel aged DIPA to drink now, and 15gal of barleywine to enjoy for years to come.

I brewed a BA barleywine over a year ago that was nearly undrinkably hopped for about the first year. Within the last few months it's finally starting to mature into a nice drinking Barleywine that will last for years.
 
@anotherbeerplease you're right, I did add a lot of late addition hops. This is my first barleywine, and I read that the American versions are supposed to be hoppier and less caramely, so I may have gotten a bit carried away. Also, I like your idea of putting it into the barrel and pulling off 5 gallons to drink after a short period of time. I may brew the replacement 5 gallons as a more caramely, less hoppy beer to help round things out a bit.

@bobeer I haven't had the barrel aged Bigfoot yet, I'll look for it at the bottle shop. Fortunately, I haven't bought the barrel yet, so I don't have to worry about it sitting around empty while I collect my thoughts.
 
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