Big Old English Ale

This is my attempt at a big Old Ale along the lines of Gale's Prize
and the strength of a Thomas Hardy's, neither of which I have had the
opportunity to try. I am basing this on what I have read about these beers.
The yeast is the YCKC A08 Barleywine yeast, which is reported to be Thomas Hardy's.

Update, I finally got to try both Gale's and Hardy's. Gale's is in a
class of it's own and this beer is nothing like it. It is more like
Hardy's

Brewer:	Tom Fries		Email:	tfries@netgate.net
Beer:	Big Old English Ale		Style:	English Old/Strong Ale
Type:	All grain		Size:	5.5 gallons
Color:	61 HCU (~25 SRM)		Bitterness:	46 IBU
OG:	1.112		FG:	1.015
Alcohol:	12.6% v/v (9.9% w/w)
Water:	Sparge pH adjusted to 5.6 with Lactic Acid.
Grain:	17 lb. British pale 1 lb. 6.5 oz. British crystal 50-60L 6.8 oz. British chocolate
Mash:	81% efficiency
	Mashed in 29 qts. water at a rest temp of 155° for 120 minutes. Sparged with 4.5 gallons at 168°.
Boil:	120 minutes	SG 1.073	8.5 gallons
	1 lb. Brown sugar
	Added 1 Tbl Irish Moss for 60 minutes. Sparge runoff was about 8.5 gallons. Of this I pulled 2 gallons and boiled this for 1 hour to carmalize. The volume was reduced to 1 gallon. This was then added back into the wort. I feel that give the wort a nice and unique flavor.
Hops:	2.5 oz. Kent Goldings (5% AA, 60 min.) 1 oz. Fuggles (4.75% AA, 45 min.) .25 oz. Willamette (5% AA, 45 min.)
Yeast:	Pitch 1 qt of slurry that was harvested from the previous batch of barleywine. YCKC A08.
Log:	Brewed 3/28/98. Fermentation was active with in 4 hours. Primary 7 days @68° Secondary 3 weeks @68° Plan on aging until March 99 if I can hold out that long.
Tasting:	I pulled off a liter at kegging time and force carbonated it. Shared it with my homebrew club. The consensis was that it was rather complex and would benefit from aging. We discussed the possibility of oak aging also. I will update this after the aging is complete. Update 4/21/99 I added 1/2oz. of wine barrel oak chips around April of 98. Every 3 months I bottle a few bottles from the keg. By January 99, the beer had developed a very strong oak flavor. The last draws from the keg were not as plesant a those from earlier draws. Conclusion, either do not use the oak, or only leave it in for a month or two. This beer did win a 2nd place ribbon in the 99 Bay Area Brew Off with some of the bottles with less oak flavor.

Recipe posted 05/28/98.