Buzzy Beer, Planning Phase Part 3

If you remember from earlier, a Barleywine needs to have a high specific gravity. I decided to shoot for about 1.100, which would put it right in the middle of the range that Barleywines usually go. To get that gravity, I decided to do mostly barley malt extract with 2 specialty grains to steep. I wanted to use extracts from the UK. Most of the national beer show winners in the Barleywine category use Munton and Fison.

I did some calculations. I need:
8 pounds dry Munton and Fison light (added as the boiling finishes)
3.3 pounds Munton and Fison Extra light liquid extract

For the specialty grains I am using
0.5 pounds carapils dextrin malt (steeped)- helps stabilize the foamy head
0.5 pounds cara malt, crisp malting from the UK (steeped)- adds caramel flavor

For yeast, you want an English Ale yeast with a high alcohol tolerance. I am going to use 2 packets of London Ale Wyeast 1028.

Barleywines are usually very strongly hopped. The range for traditional Barleywines is 50 to 100. Award winning barleywines use a range of 75 to 150. People usually use a high alpha acid hops to do the bittering and then an English hops like UK Golding as the flavoring hops.

I decided on the following hops makeup:

1 oz Centennial 9.5% boiled for 60 minutes
1 oz UK Fuggles 4.0% boiled for 30 minutes
1 oz UK golding 4.8% boiled for 30 minutes
1 oz UK golding 4.8% dry hopped - add when the beer goes from the primary to the secondary

All of that hops should put my barleywine right around 75 IBU's, which is right in the middle of the range for traditional barleywines and right at the low end for modern day champions.

I'll also need to buy 5 oz of corn sugar for the bottling.

So there it is. I have put the Buzzy Beer project on hold until after the BNA is all gone.