Bourbon County Clone?

for what it's worth, bourbon county is a 4 hour boil.

 

It really depends if you hit what beersmith predicts and is system dependent. If you tend to finish higher than predicted, keep your old mash schedule, but if you finish lower, mash higher. US-05 rips through sugars, so I always mash higher if using or use a different strain if I'm struggling to get a beer to not over attenuate.

1.032 is more than enough residual sweetness/body to hold up to the barrel. Not sure what Bourbon County finishes at, but judging by taste and mouthfeel its not over 1.030.

 

Whats your source for this? JW Lees has a 4 hour boil and is a melanoidin bomb, Bourbon County doesn't have nearly the same amount of melanoidin derived flavors in it.

 

a brewer at GI. i stopped by when he was brewing the base beer once last year.

 

Then keep the mash temp low as a safeguard. Drooo posted above that BCBS has a four hour boil (per a Goose Island Brewer), so you might try the long hour boil coupled with the low mash temp to generate a drier beer with a lot of character from the melanoidin production in the long boil.

For our most recent barrel project (I do them on my own, but this is my first group effort) I actually have to brew a very malty, borderline under attenuated dubbel to blend with our wine barrel solera Flanders just to balance out the dryness and lack of malt character in the aged beer. After reading your post, I think your idea to brew a drier beer to maintain balance is a good one, especially since the bigger beer might really cause some brewers to add some underattenuated beer to the barrel.

 

Which will increase your efficiency. Win-win.

 

How did this turn out? Pics? Very interested...