Barrel plans

[admin]

Time to start thinking about emptying I reckon, and also to what we want to do next. I'm all on for a barley wine next.

1. Tube 1 x 20L --- Wed 1st May --- 1.087
2A. Dodge 1 x 20L --- Fri 3rd May --- 1.094
2B. Dodge 1 x 20L --- Fri 10th May --- 1.092
3. CARA 1 x 20L --- Tue 7th May --- 1.082
4. Snuff 1 x 20L --- Fri 3rd May --- 1.080
5. Lordstilton 1 x 20L --- Sat 4th May ---1.084
6. brenmurph 1 x 20L --- Sun 5th May --- 1.082
7. Saruman 1 x 20L -- Sun 19th May -- 10.77
8. McGrath 1 x 20L --- Wed 1st May --- 1.087
9. imark 1 x 20L --- Sun 5th May --- 1.083

Might empty around the end of November? Easiest thing is to empty into bottling buckets -- I reckon we should get maybe 16L back each (32L for Dodge) which you can't see if we empty into cornies.

[Dodge]

Sounds like a good idea. To be honest if I got a full cornie for myself I'd like to give the rest of the quota whatever it is as a x-mas gift to others that didn't participate in the barrel project.

I could also force carb it and bottle. With a nice label it could be given to new Liffey members.

I like the idea of doing a barley wine so I'm in

[lordstilton]

Nice Idea Dodge...I'm in for the barley wine too

[imark]

I'm game for it. Do we have q tried and trusted barley wine recipe we plan to base it on?

[delzep]

Haven't yis all got a load of apple juice coming your way....

[imark]

Belgian dark strong ale with a hint of Bret? Or Maybe a Flanders brown? A spontaneous fermentation with Liffey yeast might be a big gamble and a gueuze would be a blend so would be more of a 5yr plan.

[imark]

Once we go sour theres no going back!

We'd need to barrel one each year and blend after a few years investment. Could we manage multiple barrels?

Something I intend to try at some point anyway on a 50L scale.

If we go this route:
In Belgium lambics are brewed between Nov and march so it is something we could test on small batches now and put in barrel by March if successful/acceptable.

In the meantime we could get something in barrel for 3months. Perhaps a porter.

[imark]

I could pop in for an hour and a coffee

[delzep]

Be after 8 when I get home this evening lad

[delzep]

I won't be in tomorrow evening but you can collect the hops from the missus if you like

[delzep]

Whiskey beers aren't really my thing. The odd bottle here and there is ok but 20 litres doesn't sound too appealing to be honest

[Saruman (Reuben Gray)]

I'm free the first and last weekend of November, though we can always do it on a week night too.

[imark]

Is there likely to be much of a whiskey flavour on the next batch? I presume it's going to be mostly gone.

[Saruman (Reuben Gray)]

Probably not as much but some will be there and at the very least the oak will do its thing.

By the way, the Capital Brewers sample was out the other night. To me it tasted like a thick prune syrup but one that had lost most of its prune flavour and was a little bit solventy. It didn't taste like beer to me at all. 

[imark]

hoho...controversial! 

I thought the last sample of ours was a little too much on the whiskey side of things tbh. I imagine that it wont mellow out (as it's whiskey) the beer will probably lose flavour before the whiskey does. Still, when it's carbonated and chilled a little it might be a different proposition.