Opinion on Oak aged barley wine

[zam216]

Ok I want to make my first barleywine after my stout is done around the holidays and have it age for a few months on oak cubes possibly soaked in a bourbon I haven't decided on that just yet. Heres what I have so far:

15lbs of 2 row pale malt
3 lbs of munich malt
1lb of 60L crystal
.5 lb carapils

1.5 oz simcoe hops 60 minutes
1 oz centenial hops 20 minutes

1 vile dry english ale yeast on a stir plate

Aged on Oak cubes not sure the amount yet


What I am going for here is a barleywine that has notes of grapefruit with a nice oak flavor. Just curious how the recipe looks for a barleywine and ensuring a good malt flavor with the ability for the oak to come through with a hint of grapefruit from the hops. I was also thinking maybe a roasted barley addition? Also not sure how much oak to put it on and for how long. I was thinking somewhere from 3-6 months but I can do less or more if need be. Also other than soaking the oak is there other flavoring methods for them?

 

[giraffe]

Id use marris otter, or a more flavorful pale ale malt, instead of two row. Id want a strong malt backbone. The carapils isnt necessary. If you have issues with head retention or body, with that much grain, there are other problems. Other than those quibbles it looks like a standard barleywine malt bill.

You may want more hops, remember they will fade with the 6-9 months of aging.

Make sure you are pitching enough yeast. Use a calculator. This is a big beer, it really matters here.

6 weeks is generally enough time on oak. Im not a big fan of oak beers, so I cant be of too much help there.

 

[noblesquirrel]

I wouldn't use roasted barley, that'll throw off the character of the beer into something you may not want. Start simple. Also, I'd recommend dropping the crystal in favor of a 2-3hr boil to concentrate the wort. The crystal will just add to the sweetness you'll be left with. And like giraffe said, more hops in the finish. They'll fade a lot over that time period, and if you want them to compete with the richness from the malt and the future oak, I'd hit it with a couple ounces with less than 5min left in the boil. As to the oak, how much oak do you want? a handful of cubes would be fine. You can taste it as it ages and pull them when the time is right. The bourbon would mostly work to sanitize the cubes, you won't get a ton of bourbon flavor unless you're dumping bourbon into the beer.

 

[zam216]

So how does this look

15lbs marris otter pale
3lbs munich
1lb 60L crystal

2 oz simcoe 60 minutes
1 oz centennial 20 minutes
1 oz centennial 5 minutes

1 vial dry english ale yeast

4 oz of medium oak chips in secondary

I want to keep the 60L crystal because I usually am a little low on my gravity as is and don't want to down size my batch to much by lowering the volume, I know boiling off more gets a higher gravity but I also would like near a 5 gallon batch. Also since the oak chips are only suppose to be on for around a month would I transfer to secondary for about a month prior to adding the oak chips or just keep it to a short aging process and just put the oak chips right in to the secondary when I rack?