First Big All-Grain Brew – 999 Barleywine

So since I've never been one to get into things slowly, I decided that a fun second brew would be a nice big Barleywine. The recipe was so big, I didn't feel confident in the first runnings all fitting in my 10-gal cooler, so I invited my friend Joe over to do a second batch (Ordinary Bitter) from the second runnings, and use his MLT for half of the grain.

Recipe...

Ingredients:

Grain -
15lbs Pale 2-row
8lbs Marris Otter
2lbs Munich Malt
6oz Pale Chocolate
4oz Special B - Caramel malt
12oz Crystal Malt 80°L
1 lb White Table Sugar (Sucrose)
.5lb Brown Sugar

Hops -
1.66oz Magnum (14.5%) - 60 min
1oz Centennial (10.0%) - 25 min
1oz Centennial (10.0%) - 0 min
1.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) - 0 min

Yeast -
US-05 yeast cake from ESB

This is a slightly modified recipe that was originally posted on Homebrewtalk.com

We ended up overestimating the amount of water that would be retained in the grain, and had about 10 gallons of first runnings. This resulted in a long (~3hr) boil, which may give some nice flavors. The OG got up to 1.100, which was slightly less than I had planned, but should still make for a nice Barleywine.

We ended up with 7 gallons at the end of the boil, and I was originally going to bottle and force carb some of the remaining wort in a 2-gal bottle, but the taste was just way too much of everything to think about drinking. The hops were overpowering, and the sweetness was cloying. But I can see why the unfermented wort soda is made in Mexico.

This was literally fermenting within minutes, and was going crazy for 3 days. Even using a blow-off I thought it was going to blow the lid of the fermenting bucket. The smell during fermentation was amazing, a mixture of the Centennial and Cascade hops that makes me think dry-hopping this will be a very good idea. I also plan to make this the first beer to which I will add oak chips, giving it yet another layer of flavor.