Oak Aged Wheat Wine

[mrphillips]

I have a small, 2.6 gallon barrel that I wanted to age a strong wheat beer in, but I've only ever aged a barleywine, and my experience with wheat is limited. I'm looking for thoughts on my recipe.

3 gallons - ~85 IBU's - OG 1.080 FG 1.015 - ABV 8.5% - partial mash

3 lbs. wheat DME
1 lb. wheat malt
4 lbs. marris otter
.5 lb. honey malt

1.5 oz cascade @ FWH
1.5 oz cascade @ 20 min.

WLP-007 yeast

Primary for 2 weeks
Secondary for 2 weeks
Oak aged 1 month
Bottle condition 3 months (+)


My experience with oak is that it KILLS hop flavor/bitterness, so I boosted the IBU's to counter the affects of the oak. Other than that, I'm new to this style and the procedures in brewing it. Thoughts?

 

[MrPowers]

I've never used it in a wheat wine or barleywine, but .5lb honey malt is probably going to be too much for a 3 gallon batch. When I use it, I generally use .25lb or less in a 5.5 gallon batch.

 

[mrphillips]

I've heard many people share your opinion. I'm not sure if it's just my taste preference, but I'll routinely add up to a pound of honey malt in my 5-gallon batches of ipa's and pale ales. Thanks for the input.