Barrel'O'Rebel

[Bubbles]

All,

The publishing team are currently look at the best ways of documenting the NHC's fantastic "Barrel Project". We've decided to create and publish a series of articles on the project over the next 6 months or so.

The series will cover technical aspects of aging beer in barrels, purchase and delivery of the said items as well as a report from each individual club barrel at various stages of the process.

To achieve this aim, we will need a nominated representative from each barrel project who is willing to supply us with the necessary information like recipe, barrel siting, filling, tasting notes, competition success etc. Photos would be great too, if you have any. If you're interested in being your project's rep, can you attach your name to the thread below?

http://nationalhomebrewclub.com/forum/index.php/topic,2611.0.html

Many thanks,
Conor.

Hi Conor.

I was planning on doing an article anyway, so guess it would be me, unless anyone else wants to do it. I will pu my name down for now.

Good lad Billy. Nice one.

[Taf]

Just took a gravity reading, and it is down 1.025, so we are getting there. Tastes much smoother and balanced, and not that boozy, although it obviously is!

[johnrm]

We need to start thinking of stillage and racking.

[Taf]

I'm in France for a couple of weeks, so rack it when I get back I reckon. The template for the stillage is with me as well, so not sure if anyone has a spare?

[johnrm]

I'm clean out of stillage, just ate my last one, sorry!
As much as is required to make these is the diameter, raids or circumference of the point where they go on the barrel.
Do we need to prep the barrel?

[Taf]

The barell is filled!

[Blackbrew]

WOW! Good work did you get any help?

[johnrm]

Assisted by the lovely johnrm...

[Taf]

Assisted by the lovely johnrm...

Ha ha, in fairness and as usual John did most of the work while I got steamed up! We also racked off the whisky from the barell, before we filled it, and had a tiny sample! Smells and tastes lovely and sweet but gives instant heartburn in the chest, so I don't know if that is good or bad! The stout tasted really nice and smooth for 10% and will hopefully pick up plenty of flacour from the wood.

Filling the cask was a mammoth task, and took a bit longer than expected. We(mostly John) built the stillage first, so that took a bit of time, but also took an age to syphon it in, due to the levels, but at least the barell is at a decent hieght for when we rack from there. I was also really impressed at how cool the barrel was the next afternoon compared to the general temp in my garage. Probably should have gotten it in sooner, but it's done now anyway.

[mr hoppy]

Nice work lads!

[Dara]

Excellent stuff! Great work. Will be great to see what happens in a few months.  Was on holidays and finished the last of that porter (plain, oaked and vanilla) I brought the day we did the brew. The oaked one really tasted great after a couple of months - a completely different beer to the non-oaked so I'd imagine if Barrel'O'Rebel tasted anyway half decent it will be savage after a few months in the barrel + a bit of aging.

Dara

[Taf]

I think we agreed after the recent tasting to bottle/keg the stout as soon as possible, as probably has more than enough character. I'm away the next 2 weekends and a lot of next week, but will be around Wednesday and Thursday of next week. Daytime or evening. Does that suit anyone?

[johnrm]

I can be there either day at about 5.30

[Taf]

I can be there either day at about 5.30

Sounds good. Do you plan on bottling on the day, or taking away in a corney/bucket? I've been collecting bottles for a while now, so should be bottling a good bit, but might keg some, until I can source more bottles.

If people aren't in a position to bottle on the day, maybe they can take it away, and bottle at home.

If we are bottling on the day, we probably need to think about re-pitching some yeast, as I presume the primary strain is probably knackered.

I think the main thing is to get the beer out of the barrell though, as Cara mentioned on another thread that it could pick up too much charcoal otherwise.

Also, do people have any future plans for the barrel, as it's probably going to get evicted otherwise, and possibly made into planters? I'm not sure that I am up for another mammoth brew any time soon, but if others are, they can take the barrell from me. I paid €50 for it originally, but would take €40 now if someone wants to give it another go.

[mr hoppy]

I'll be working next week. 

I'd be interested in filling the barrel again alright if others were interested, but it's best not to delay too much in doing so so that mould doesn't get a chance to take hold.