Monster English Barleywine recipe help

[bnglcat]

Looking to brew something for my firstborn to enjoy every year on his birthday up until his 21st when we will pop a bottle together and would like some input if anyone can help. Over the top inexperienced but want this recipe to be one of my own (with input if given) and not just someone else's recipe due to the purpose of the beer. I plan to brew this beer on his first birthday in march. I have a test batch carbonating in the bottle, but am looking for any input. It will be a high abv beer to survive the next 20 years but I look forward to tasting it every year commemorating the birth and brew day.

The target is a 15+% abv english barleywine type of beer. This is a targeted 5-5.5 gallon batch. Basically enough to get 22, 22 oz bottles. One for each year plus 2 for the 20th year.

Here's the recipe I have so far, but am very unsure of the hops. I know I want the london esb to start...leaning the high gravity for the finish, but there was another that was recommended to me at LAHB that I can't remember right now to help me get 15+ abv. I've also tossed around the idea of adding some sort of smoked malt as well. Not sure. I just know that I want to go with some sort of english barleywine as I am a big fan of the dark fruit notes of those styles like the clown shoes billionaire EBW.

Anyhow, TL;DR;, any suggestions on what could make this recipe work/better? Beersmith has this around 1.147 SG with a 67% efficiency and an estimated 16.9% abv with 107.4 ibus. Thus far, I've been around 77-82% efficiency in the 4 all grain brews I've done, but nothing has been anywhere near the grain bill of this brew so I am expecting slightly less efficiency. If I get close, I will probably decrease the turbinado addition to try and hit no more than a 1.150 OG.

2 hour boil. 150 mash.
23 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter
8.0 oz Caramel Malt - 40L
8.0 oz Special B Malt
1 lbs Candi Syrup, D-90
6.00 oz East Kent Goldings
2 lbs Turbinado [Boil for 60 min]
3.00 oz East Kent Goldings
4.00 oz East Kent Goldings
1.0 pkg London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968)
1.0 pkg Super High Gravity Ale (White Labs ‪#‎WLP099&#8236 Yeast (Pitch 3-4 days after pitching 1968)
1 lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (Add on day 2)
1 lbs Bernards Honey (Add on day 3 or 4 when pitching second yeast plus some yeast energizer)
4.00 oz East Kent Goldings (EKG) Dry Hop 5 days before bottling

 

[JKaranka]

You can drop the dry hop as it won't really survive. You could make invert sugar syrup in advance (instructions abound) and use it instead of the plain sugar and the Belgian stuff. If you want dark fruit you should aim for #3 or #4. I'd drop the special B and maybe the crystal. Black patent is good to adjust colour.

Other things to consider: a longer boil to get the OG, and adding Brett Claussenii. Maybe some Challenger for bittering?

 

[IslandLizard]

Brewing Barley Wines is not easy. That doesn't mean you shouldn't, but what you should do is learn everything there's to know about them and gain experience brewing them before he turns 16. You'll have become a seasoned Barley Wine brewer by that time to brew and cellar some exemplary specimens for all to be enjoyed 5 years later, when your son turns 21. Now that's the mother of all parties to look forward to.

 

[MSAstoria]

It's not an easy style but you're doing all the right things here. Long mash is good, and I'd keep it on the low side, maybe do a step mash. Be sure to make an extra big starter - maybe 150% of a "normal" cell count for ales. Seems like a lot of sugar to me, and I agree about losing the dry hops.

I find that when I do extra long boils, i lose a lot more volume than beersmith anticipates, so for a beer like this I run off some extra wort in the fly sparge and use it to adjust volume later in the boil.

 

[mbbransc]

I actually think you have a pretty good direction to go here. I'd keep the C40 and Special B. I would keep all that sugar too since you are adding most of it to get the 099 going when pitched later. Serves (2) purposes; gets the yeast going in a bad environment and ups the ABV. Higher than 15% is tough.

My only suggestion is to lower your efficiency even more. Well, that, and have some DME on hand. Seems when I go BIG, I usually end up around 50% (from 67-70% normal beers).

Good luck!

ETA: oxygenate that wort!!

 

[cooper]

Another thing to think about as well is to look at several different Barleywine recipes and see what's worked for well for other people. Most of the time the recipes are pretty simple.

 

[bierhaus15]

I brewed an English Barley wine a month ago and have it bulk aging until I get around to bottling it. The beer ended up at 12.5% and fermented out to 1.014, which is spot on for what I wanted. Yeast was WY1275.

My recipe was Maris Otter, UK C40 & 120, and demarara sugar; so recipes are similar. Both crystal and sugar amounts were around 8%.

Hops were Challenger, First Gold, and EKG. No dry hopping.

Key to fermentation was pitching about 400ml of fresh, top-cropped yeast from a 4% abv bitter. Wort was oxygenated with pure 02 and included a DAP addition in boil. Yeast pitched at 62F and increased 2F each day to 68F and held for 10 days. Beer turned out great, going to age nicely over the course of a few years.

 

[LostBoyScout]

I have a pretty different opinion than others here - 1.014 is waaaay too dry for an English barleywine for me, and I prefer keeping my IBU's much lower than most have indicated here as well.

I would use a mash temp of 155 - 158F to keep the body and try to target a FG of 1.025 or so. On a 15% ABV barleywine I'd be aiming even higher, maybe 1.030 - 1.032. This would mean using minimal amounts of simple sugars too. Longer the boil the better, 2 hours minimum but 3 to 4 preferred. I would also personally target maybe 60 IBU for something that big.

I certainly appreciate the appeal of brewing a 'birthday barleywine' like this but I wouldn't put all my stock into it, maybe brew a barleywine each year around the same time and try to keep a variety of vintages around - I'd put the 15% one into 12oz bottles so you can sample a little more often (and find it easier to hang onto for 20+ years), plus at 15% you won't need that second half of the bottle, even when shared.

Anyway I know this is an old thread, anything happen with it?