Recipe crtique- Barley wine

[thisisbeer]

I was looking at making a strong winter beer or barley wine and stumbled on this in beersmith. I'm not sure when I put it in or where I got it from but i'm thinking about brewing it tomorrow. I made a couple changes. Switched two row out for maris otter and went from 2lbs chocalate malt to 1lb. I have never brewed a beer anything like this. Any suggestions.

Ingredients
14 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
1 lbs 8.0 oz Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM)
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
1 lbs Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)
1 lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM)
1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min 35.1 IBUs
1.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 45.0 min 17.2 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] w/starter

Est Original Gravity: 1.092 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 10.4 %
Bitterness: 52.3 IBUs
Est Color: 30.0 SRM

mash at 150f for 75 minutes

 

[ddrrseio]

this is certainly unlike any BW i've had, so i'm not sure where i'd expect it to end up. the crystal seems a bit high between the caramunich and the c40 - i usally stick to 5-6% total in my barleywines. with the high starting gravity and MO, you will get plenty of malt character without going too big on the crystal.

also, check out scottish ale yeast. i had used american and found it to strain a bit with bigger beers. a brewer whose BW i enjoy quite a bit said they use scottish for their big beers, including their 13% BW. i got great attenuation and very smooth malty flavors without the fusels the chico yeast was spitting out under that much stress.

 

[The_Doctor]

I would also bring the crystal down to at least 1.5# and I'd split it between the caramunich and something much darker like c120+. Roasted flavors are usual nil to very slight, so I'd drop the chocolate malt entirely or reduce it to less than 4oz., if you want to push malt flavor try adding munich. Hop wise I'd increase your 60 minute charge to balance the sweetness and move the other a little later in the boil, with an ibu in the mid to low 60s (with the malt character and smooth bittering of magnum it won't taste like a bitter ipa). Last note, I've found big beers do better with a 90 min boil since the wort has more dms and it's harder to drive off from a viscous wort.

10# Maris Otter
6# Dark munich
12oz caramunich
12oz c120
1# Corn sugar (though I might just skip this)

1.5-2 oz Magnum @ 60
1.5 oz EKG @20