Barley Wine Advice

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

I was flipping through an old Zymurgy and came across this recipe for Dark Wine IV:
12 # two row
12 # Maris
2.25 # Roasted
1 # Flaked Barley
1 # Flaked oats
.75# Chocolate
.75# Crystal 90
.25# acidulated
2 # Dark Muscavado Sugar (end of boil)
0.25 oz Norther Brewer Pellet 5.70%/mash
1 oz. Chinook Pellet 11.10%/ 90 min.
2 oz. Northern Brewer Pellet 5.70%/90 min.
0.75 oz. Northern Brewer Pellet 5.70%/30 min.
0.50 oz. Mt. Hood Pellet 5.20%/30 min.
1.00 oz. Northern Brewer Pellet 5.70%/5 min.
1.50 oz. Mt. Hood Pellet 5.20%/0 min.

The recipe calls for a 3 hour boil, and I'm too lazy for that. So I decided to replace the 24# of two-row and Marris Otter with 4 pounds of 2-row and 10 pounds of light DME. I plan to mash the remaining grains (replacing the roasted barley with Carafa Special because I don't want so much roasted malt) sparge and boil for 90 minutes, and adding the malt extract and sugar in the last 10-20 minutes. But I began wondering how that would affect the hop extraction. Should I add all the DME up front, or can I get away with it at the end?

[Mylo]

I think I recall hearing that for most full boils (even high gravity ones) that hop utilization is basically 100% at 90 min. So if you are worried about getting "too much" utilization with a thinner than normal wort (assuming late extract) - I wouldn't sweat it. Just try to keep your overall BU/GU ratio the same as the original recipe.

I remember way back when - using the chart in the Old Testament when I was trying to figure out utilization in my partial boils. No need to worry about that calculation now.

Good call on lowering the roasted... that looked like way too much to me, too.


Mylo