I've noticed that Riwaka can sometimes impart a little strawberry aroma when used as a dry hop. Maybe that could be used to reinforce the strawberry flavour?
I've finally decided on my the recipe for my 2009 Barleywine. Mashing in will commense first thing in the morning. And before you spelling Nazis have a go at me... I know that it's not how you spell debilitated...
I see you're another who has gone down the Global Kolsch malt route. Albrecht was talking to me about this on Saturday. How are you finding it? I'm almost out of base malt and wondering whether I should go with this next.
I've gone through a couple sacks of it already. I love it. Naked Poppy 2 (Hoppy Poppy) was brewed with it - Yakima Monster 3 is brewed with it (I did a double batch of it) West Coast Blonde 3 is 100% Koelsh malz... I love the shit out of it.
At Hallertau - the Luxe had 50% Koelsh Malz - its in Deception too. You would have tasted those beers when it was in... I can't recommend it enough.
And I have been getting 90% efficience with it in my 1.050 beers.
Well... Maris Otter is 6 EBC, and this stuff is 8 EBC - so it is an indication of how malty this stuff can be. It's not full on though - I'd liken it to a brew done with 4.5kg Golden Promise and 500g of Munich.
I had the recipe on here a while ago - it was a SMaSH brew with Amarillo and 1968. Turned out to be quite nice. Bit of marmalade from the Amarillo... wish I dry hopped it though.
I ended up upping it to 188IBU, James. I dont think that conventional brewing rules apply to Barleywines though mate. Like - this beer wont be opened for the 1st 6 months anyway, and by then the vast majority of the IBUs will have dissolved out of solution.
What I'm planning on doing late in the fermentation is boiling another 50g of Chinook in 6L of water and reducing that down to 1L, then adding sugar to it (up to and SG of 1.112) for shits and giggles! That should give me another 50 - 100 IBU right there!