ESB Kegging, Smoked Brown drinking, English Barleywine Brewing and Hops.... Even more hops

On Saturday I kegged my ESB.  Original gravity was 1.056 and final gravity was 1.012 giving me a 5.8% ABV beer and 71% efficiency.  I also brewed by English Barleywine.  The recipe is:

• 11 lbs. - Marris Otter
• 1 lb. - Munich Malt
• 1 lb. - Crystal 60L
• 8 oz. - White Wheat Malt
• 2 oz. - Special B
• 4 lbs. - Light Dried Malt Extract
• 2.5 oz. - Target @ 60min.
• 1 oz. - UK First Gold @ 10min.
• 1 oz. - Styrian Goldings @ 2min.

After brewing this, I racked on top of the ESB's yeast cake.  BeerSmith estimated OG at 1.096 and I measured it at 1.094 so I'm pretty happy with it.  The only problem I had was I couldn't seem to hit my mash temperature.  I wanted it to be 151F, but it started at 156.  I added cold water and it dropped to 143.  I boiled some water and it jumped to 153 and I just game up at that point and called it close enough.  Despite all the problem I was really closed to the expected OG so I'm not overly worried about it.  Visible fermentation started in about 2 hours and I had trouble keeping the temperature at 62F due to how vigorous it was.  As of the post it is still slowly bubbling.  I'll give it at least 2 more weeks in the primary.  I haven't decided if I'm going to secondary in a fermenter or in a keg.

I finished off the Apfelwine that I took to work and tapped the Smoked Brown Ale.  Since this was the first recipe I created from scratch, I was worried how it would turn out.

The smoke really doesn't come through that strong.  You notice a hint of it at the back end of the swallow but that is it.  If I were to brew this again I would double up on the smoked malt.  One of the guys who tasted it said he wouldn't have known it was a smoked beer unless I told him first.  I'll leave it up to him to provide his opinion on it (hint, hint John...)

I also ordered another 3 lbs of hops.  The first round of hops I purchased was to cover the English and American hops.  This second (and last) order was to get the German/Bohemian hops.  I bought a pound each of Czech Saaz, German Perle and German Tradition from Hops Direct