Barrel Project - Summary Thread

[johnrm]

Where did Kenneth come from?

[Shanna]

Kenneth was captured by myself in my shed a few days before the filling the barrel. He is a cockchafer beetle, see below.  He was resting on the side of the barrel but I think he may have been initially inside some old scaffolding boasts that I used to make the staves to support the barrel.

http://www.uksafari.com/cockchafer.htm

Shanna

[Will_D]

What an unfortunate name!

What:?

Kenneth??
or
Cockchaffer??

You are just be about to offend all the peeps called "Cockchaffer" in the auld sod!

[Bubbles]

have another close up off him. i liked the look on your face after tasting the whiskey

That first sample was ROUGH! I think I nearly fell over. The second sample was actually quite nice. I think John said it was from a different barrel?

[Bubbles]

He is a cockchafer beetle

Anyone care to speculate what the female of species might be called.......   :

[Bubbles]

Shanna, how's everything going at Barrel HQ?

No leaks, I hope? Or sightings of barrels rolling down the road?

What's everyone's thoughts on getting a sample from the barrel? How about getting a sample for the August meet in the Dark Horse?

(By the way, there's a few of ye still owe me a few bob for the barrel. At this stage, your credit rating might be affected...  )

[Shanna]

Hi Bubbles

All quiet at the range. No sign of either activity from the bubbler or the barrel itself.  Sorry to report that everything is probably exactly the same as when we filled it. I have recently bought an auto siphon so I will be able to take a sample easily enough for the August meet.

Shanna

Shanna, how's everything going at Barrel HQ?

No leaks, I hope? Or sightings of barrels rolling down the road?

What's everyone's thoughts on getting a sample from the barrel? How about getting a sample for the August meet in the Dark Horse?

(By the way, there's a few of ye still owe me a few bob for the barrel. At this stage, your credit rating might be affected...  )

[Bubbles]

Sorry to report that everything is probably exactly the same as when we filled it. I have recently bought an auto siphon so I will be able to take a sample easily enough for the August meet.

That's what we all wanted to hear! Thanks for the update.

[Bubbles]

All, myself and Shanna are going to be taking a wee sneak preview from the barrel and bringing it along to the meet on Thursday 29th. Hope you can make it.

C.

[Ciderhead]

blackmail to attend a meeting, way too young, I bet you open your christmas presents christmas eve as well

[Bubbles]

blackmail to attend a meeting, way too young, I bet you open your christmas presents christmas eve as well

That'll get the attendance numbers up! 

No seriously CH, do you think it's too early to open her up for a taste? Anyone else, speak now or hold your peace!? 

[Shanna]

Probably too young to be nice but will interested to see what I the combined mix will be like at least. I don't think it's a bad thing to let people taste the beer they contributed to. Suggestions of blackmail makes me think you secretly want to taste it as much as the next man. Opening pressies on Christmas Eve is common in a lot of other countries and also I believe something that was common here in days gone by.

Shanna

Ps. We will say anything to justify opening the barrel and taking a snaky sample

blackmail to attend a meeting, way too young, I bet you open your christmas presents christmas eve as well

[Ciderhead]

Ah so you do open them on Christmas eve!!!

I put 20+ in I just want 16-17 out, ours will run between next summer and Christmas 2014!! We have a control to measure it against, and top up the 2 or 3 litres we will hoof before then at the meets and obviously take notes to compare against the next meet.
Now here is the surprising observation, SCD all brewed to the same recipe and correct me if I'm wrong but they all did tasted different.

Wicklow all brewed to the same recipe, with ingredients supplied and including the extract version they all tasted the same...do ne nu nu, do ne nu nu 

Have you something to replace what you are taking out?

[Shanna]

Have a few litres squirreled away to replace what we take out. Not sure what point your trying to make here? If I remember you were like a drug dealer in that you measured out the ingredients for each brew from a common supply source and had each person brew using this.  The SD brew was made to the same recipe using differently sourced ingredients. No real excitement in doing everything for somebody as it's supposed to be home brew not one gigantic brew.

I seem to remember you saying yourself that you were struggling to tell the difference between the different brews after a few samples but maybe there is something "inherently special" in the Wicklow brewing barrel. The need for a control somehow suggests something related to an experiment. I suspect all of these barrel efforts that don't have infection will be superb.

Shanna

Ah so you do open them on Christmas eve!!!

I put 20+ in I just want 16-17 out, ours will run between next summer and Christmas 2014!! We have a control to measure it against, and top up the 2 or 3 litres we will hoof before then at the meets and obviously take notes to compare against the next meet.
Now here is the surprising observation, SCD all brewed to the same recipe and correct me if I'm wrong but they all did tasted different.

Wicklow all brewed to the same recipe, with ingredients supplied and including the extract version they all tasted the same...do ne nu nu, do ne nu nu 

Have you something to replace what you are taking out?

[Ciderhead]

Have a few litres squirreled away to replace what we take out. Not sure what point your trying to make here? If I remember you were like a drug dealer in that you measured out the ingredients for each brew from a common supply source and had each person brew using this.  The SD brew was made to the same recipe using differently sourced ingredients. No real excitement in doing everything for somebody as it's supposed to be home brew not one gigantic brew.
I seem to remember you saying yourself that you were struggling to tell the difference between the different brews after a few samples but maybe there is something "inherently special" in the Wicklow brewing barrel. The need for a control somehow suggests something related to an experiment. I suspect all of these barrel efforts that don't have infection will be superb.

Shanna

Have to correct you there, the objective was to brew a barrel to one common recipe and attempt to simulate what 2 of the current Irish breweries are doing.
As competing clubs we could compare 8-10 different recipes at next years competition and critically we should be able to repeat the winner.
If SCD wins the comp next year how are we going to repeat what everybody brewed if the ingredients were whatever was lying around at the time ?  I followed the SCD recipe to the letter.
The "excitement" for us was that we all have different equipment from plastic buckets, biab to 60L mash and boilers, but even with those variables we got very similar tasting brews.  Best of all it was the cheapest way of doing it as we got discounts for the ingredients we bought in bulk.
It is a total experiment and if we come last at least we will know why and modify what was wrong with the recipe for the next barrel.
The reason we have a control is to determine what impact the barrel has had after 3, 6 and 9 months v's unbarrelled RIS.