Hey all,
We've got a barrel sitting around doing nothing but losing its character. Let's fill it up with boozy goodness! Anyone have any ideas for what we should fill it with? I'll start things off by suggesting some sort of Belgian: a dubbel or a quad should barrel-age quite nicely, or we could see how a lighter (colored) beer like a blonde or trippel takes to barrel-aging.
Thoughts?
-Adam
I am down! Idea...Westvleteren 12: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f73/pious-westvleteren-12-style-quad-multipl...
I'm down with brewing a Westy 12 clone
"Give a man a beer, and he will waste an hour. Teach a man to brew, and he will waste a lifetime!" Bill Owen
I'm in for Westy 12 as well
The emperor is not as forgiving as i am
Ooh. I like the Westy 12 idea. We could do a blend of the "old world" and "new world" recipes, depending on what people brew.
Is this the imp red barrel that was emptied? And if so,was holding
solution added?
@Dave: I'm pretty sure that Kyle got the holding solution into the barrel (he was waiting on Evan to purchase one of the two necessary chemicals), but I don't actually know for sure. If not, is there any chance that the barrel is salvagable?
The barrel should be ok, I got the solution and kyle got it into the barrel very quickly
Great to hear, Evan. Now back to our regularly-scheduled discussion of future barrel-aged fun.
Awesome idea, when were you thinking?
@Conrad: ASAP. If we coalesce around the Westvleteren 12 idea, then I am willing to take the lead and organize the recipe and dates. I would guess that the earliest this goes in the barrel is mid-to-late March, and that’s probably being a bit optimistic. Given that we’ll want this to primary for at least 2 weeks before barreling it, and that it usually takes at least a month to wrangle enough brewers to fill 55 gallons, it may be April. But who knows. The Koval barrel barleywine came together pretty quickly, and we’ll probably have a bit of momentum from Stout Night, so March may be doable. Let’s see if there are any other suggestions in this thread, and if it looks like Westy 12 is the consensus, I’ll make a new thread for the recipe and to organize the brewers and dates.
I'd be interested in participating....
I'm in for a Westy clone!
Im in for the project!
@Tommy: Offhand guess of 6-9 months in the barrel. With as many subtle flavors as Westy 12 (and this clone) supposedly has, we certainly don't want to overwhelm it with oak. Probably give it a taste at 3 months or so to see how much wood character it's getting, and then try it again at 6 months. This will be the third post-whiskey use of this barrel, but it certainly imparted a lot of oak character to the Imperial Red that was in it. It will be interesting to see how much of that character is left.
@Tommy: Poppycock! We'll pull out your 5g and brew up a batch to blend in...
I'd be skeptical about the results of a belgian big brew without very strict temperature regiment and control, something I've never seen any of our members do, especially at the brew house.
Check with the Brewhouse Committee tomorrow at the meeting but there was talk of one of the metal fridges becoming a hot box with temp control (since the cooling ability of the fridge is shot). If that project will have been completed by March/April when people start brewing, you should be able to handle strict temp control.
Bumping this thread so we can keep the Barrel discussion on the top of our minds.
Ken, et al.,
I am still down with trying the Westy clone. Since we're still waiting on getting the lager fermenter and hot box up and running, maybe look to brew this in March/April and fill the barrel in April/May?
-Adam
Thanks for the update...wasn't sure if the Westy 12 was it and added a sack to the grain buy for it. Looking forward to it!
I don't think that we're 100% settled, but the majority's preference is clearly to try the Westy clone. I will look at the recipes in the hbt thread to determine if I think we should modify them at all, and then I'll post to this thread, and try to get firm answers from people so we can get moving. Assuming we can get this in the barrel by spring/early summer, it'd be sweet if we could have a couple gallons of this at stout night next year.
I like the Pious new world as a base. There are a number of things I would do to it to make it more group brew friendly and to clean it up some for the barrel. But we can discuss later.
James,
I would love to have your input on crafting a good recipe for this brew. Maybe we can even come up with a relatively simple water profile to really try to make this one the best beer it can be.
-Adam
adam, you should throw down on that group grain buy for some grain for this. That's how it has always been run the smoothest. There's a lot of splits still filling up quickly for things if you didn't need a whole sack. Just multiply the recipe by 13.
All,
If we're definitely going to do this, I can pick up a couple of sacks of pilsner, as well as some belgian dark candi syrup. Those are pretty substantial costs though, so I'd like to at least get a couple of folks confirming that they're in before I pull the trigger.
Please reply before midnight so I can get the order in!
-Adam
I'm in for sure and am more than happy to pitch in on the grain, syrup, etc.
In for syryp, but I got plenty of pils.
I'm in. I also don't think you'll have a lot of trouble getting volunteers but I would make a thread called Westy 12 Clone Barrel Project. I think it'd attract more interest than the title of this thread.
i'm in.
I picked up a sack of pilsner for this project on that other group buy...let me know what you do so I can drop it if you buy the grain for the whole barrel. Thanks!
I'm in!
I think it's time to go ahead and plan a new brew for the barrel that the bourbon county is in as well, just to have all the batches ready for whenever the barrel is emptied.
OK. I picked up enough sacks of pils to cover most of the batches in the barrel, as well as a few bags of candi sugar. Once we get the recipe finalized, I'll put together an order of the specialty grains and the hops and split them up.
-Adam
adam, there's an open few slots for some hallertauer on there if we're using that like the hbt recipe suggested.
I'll throw a lb of hallertau on there, but I don't think that split is going to go through by midnight.
No worries, Tommy. We should be able to find enough brewers.
Iggy has a few buckets of Aromatic Malt that I am sure he will let go of if we allow him to have a few sips here and there...and by sips I mean pints.
I'm in
"Give a man a beer, and he will waste an hour. Teach a man to brew, and he will waste a lifetime!" Bill Owen
IN!!!
IN!
The emperor is not as forgiving as i am
Still in...
Word. I got enough Pils for 10 batches (there were a couple here who said they'd be bringing their own to the party), the cara munich, and the dark candi sugar from the hbt group buy. I'll get the rest of the ingredients from B&G or NB and let y'all know the per-batch break down once we finalize the recipe.
Everyone that's planning on doing this brew: how does the following schedule work?
Assuming I have the ingredients by early March, everybody brews by early April. Everybody's beer gets at least a few days in the ferm room and a week in the hot box to hopefully finish the beer out relatively dry. We could potentially put this in the barrel by the end of April.
Obviously these dates have a tendency to slip, but I think that this might be possible. What do you guys think?
-Adam
Sounds good to me!
I'm cool with that
"Give a man a beer, and he will waste an hour. Teach a man to brew, and he will waste a lifetime!" Bill Owen
How many people do you have in? If not, count me in!
Oh... my... god. Why haven't we done this? http://thechive.com/2013/09/17/guys-rig-up-buddies-plumbing-with-beer-wh...
Lucas,
Right now, if everybody who has expressed interest is in (including you), we'll have 11 batches, which is almost perfect. So, you're in. We should probably plan for 12-13 to account for trub loss. Once I work with James to get the recipe finalized, I'll start a new thread as Daniel suggested, and we'll get a more up-to-date count.
-Adam
Adam, if there's still room I'd like to join you. I have a boat load of hops and specialty grain. Let me know if there's anything in particular that is needed. Josh
In if there is space.
Sounds good.
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