Caramello Barleywine

I was so overwhelmed by the bourbon aged Angel's Share from Lost Abbey, that I had to brew something in that spirit. It's a very malty barleywine that's heavy on the roasted malt and has a huge vanilla and caramel nose. After brewing this, I think the only thing I'd change is the oak I used. I used medium toast American oak chips on the advice from the folks at Beer, Beer, and More Beer. I think I'll use only heavy toast from now on. To my understanding, that's what gives that vanilla aroma associated with bourbons and that's why those barrels are used. At any rate, this beer tastes great. Caramel heaven. The carbonation is still a little low, as you can see in the pic, and it was tough to show the ruby highlights. I did my best with my cell phone, but it's really a beautiful beer... I'll try to update it later.

Grain:
90% English Pale Malt
5% Corn Sugar
2% Crystal 75
2% Special B
1% Chocolate

Step Infusion Mash:
140 degrees for 15 minutes.
150 degrees for 45 minutes.
Sparge at 165 degrees.

Boil:
5.5 hour boil

Hops:
Magnum hops totaling 100-ish IBUs added at 60 minutes.
1.5 oz Centennial added at knockout.

Yeast:
I pitched this onto the 2 week-old cake of WLP-001 from a pale I made previously.

Predicted Original Specific Gravity:
1.120
I hit 1.123

Notes:
Ferment at 67 degrees for 2-3 weeks and bump it up to 70 when fermentation starts to slow down. When it's pretty much finished out, pitch in some medium toast American oak chips. I let the oak sit for 3 days before kegging. Mine finished out at 1.037, which is higher than I had hoped, but I didn't use O2. I'll have to invest in some oxygen for the next beer I do this large to try to get it down to 1.025 hopefully.