Cask American Barley Wine

[Will_D]

So the Barley Wine is not as good as it could be.

It looks like there was a small amount of film yeast growing on the surface.

This seems to have dried out the beer and added a hint of acidity.

Film yeasts can only grow in the presence of Oxygen and what is now in the cornies should not change any more.

I am thinking to try the following:

Pasturise the beer to positively get rid of the film yeast spores (I will be sure by going to 70C for 15 mins)

I will then add some more DME/LME/or even a mini mash to add a bit more sweetness, dry hop with citra and add re-pitch with Notty!

What do others think?

Regards the Quad:

It should kick off a refermention for the next couple of weeks. We should then keep it topped up with a sterile weak wort (depending on how the gravity drops)!

@Colmac: Big thanks again for hosting the cask and even bigger thanks for the BBQ! Can you check the gravity of the cask in a day or twos time please?

[nigel_c]

Is there any sourness to it? If there is we may be sitting on 200L of sour beer instead of a nice belgian quad when we empty the next time.

Such a pity it didn't go to plan.
Another option could be to blend it with another beer. Something like a brown or even a porter could work and serve on draft. If kept in keggetator the yeast won't do its nasty work on the fresh beer.

[ColmR]

Yes its sour. But not at all unpleasant. It's like a high alcohol rodenbach. With the tartness and tannins from the oak it's got a red wine like quality to it. Not sure what the quad will turn our like lads.

But Will, I'd not anticipate much of you were to add more hops and kick off another small fermentation. Hops would clash with the tartness I reckon.

A blend with a clean and low hopped Brown or red would be the way to go I reckon.

But seriously though. It's quite tasty for what it is. But it ain't no American barley wine. I wonder when it stopped being one. To be fair, we left it in the barrel too long.

[nigel_c]

Very interesting. I do think we left it in the barell too long. 10 months. I may just berry the keg away and forget about it. If someone is feeling brave, dump a load of raspberries into it and put if away. If someone wants to split a batch that way give me a shout.

[Jacob]

To me it's as winy as our RIS...  Would say that it's just whiskey and oak.

[nigel_c]

So time to retire the cask or hit it with some serious bugs??

[Will_D]

Just tried a sample when James came round to collect his bits/pieces and his ABW Cornie.

Already after 24 hours with some CO2 in it, it seems to have matured a lot!

Not a bad nose and less acidity!

Lets not give up on this ABW!

[ColmR]

So my American barley wine is no more. When we took the beer out of the cask I put about a quarter of my batch in one keg to carb up and serve. I don't really like strong beers that much so I started blending and diluting as I was drinking the beer. A 50/50 blend with sparkling water is a decent beer . The other night I had a bottle of the cantillon framboise and mixed the dregs with some of the BW and sparkling water.

So today I racked some of the fuller keg into the smaller one and diluted that with some bottled water for carbing and drinking. 

The other keg I've added some raspberries, bottled water and the dregs of a cantillon gueuze.  I'll leave that for a few months and see what happens.

What have the rest of you done?

[Dodge]

Just reading the comments it looks like one of 2 things might of happened.

The barrel may of got contaminated prior to refilling without realizing,
Or somebody's contribution was infected.

The barley wine should of had a high enough alcohol content to of slowed down what you have tasted, the acidity and dryness.

Leaving it in the barrel for 10 months wouldn't of stopped this. It will continue to get worse until you  remove and pasteurize it to halt the process. ( all in my honest opinion)

You can also blend it but if the bacteria strain present isn't halted, any addition of extra maltose to increase body will only dry out the beer more and the acidity will increase until you have malt vinegar.

[ColmR]

Just reading the comments it looks like one of 2 things might of happened.

The barrel may of got contaminated prior to refilling without realizing,
Or somebody's contribution was infected.

The barley wine should of had a high enough alcohol content to of slowed down what you have tasted, the acidity and dryness.

Leaving it in the barrel for 10 months wouldn't of stopped this. It will continue to get worse until you  remove and pasteurize it to halt the process. ( all in my honest opinion)

You can also blend it but if the bacteria strain present isn't halted, any addition of extra maltose to increase body will only dry out the beer more and the acidity will increase until you have malt vinegar.

Just in relation to the bacteria, whatever it is, is working very slowly. I'd wager that it will be some time before we get the vinegar you mention. Would I be right in saying that chilling it would slow it down as well? Also when we tasted it back in April or so when it had been in the cask for 4 or 5 months there was no sign of contamination at all.

But anyway we'll see.... What's good is that there are 9 of us or so that have this beer. So we'll all probably have different experiences. What do you reckon, will we bring them to an NCB meetup in a couple of months to see how the beers are doing.

[nigel_c]

Still to sample mine. If it's that bad it'll be gettin dumped. No point spend all that time trying to save it if it's just not good. If be more worried about the quad that we just put into the barell. We will need to keep an eye on it very closely. I have spare carb caps I'll bring along and donate to the club so we can keep an eye on it.
I'll leave them with R@H and he can pass it on.

[Dodge]

Just reading the comments it looks like one of 2 things might of happened.

The barrel may of got contaminated prior to refilling without realizing,
Or somebody's contribution was infected.

The barley wine should of had a high enough alcohol content to of slowed down what you have tasted, the acidity and dryness.

Leaving it in the barrel for 10 months wouldn't of stopped this. It will continue to get worse until you  remove and pasteurize it to halt the process. ( all in my honest opinion)

You can also blend it but if the bacteria strain present isn't halted, any addition of extra maltose to increase body will only dry out the beer more and the acidity will increase until you have malt vinegar.

Just in relation to the bacteria, whatever it is, is working very slowly. I'd wager that it will be some time before we get the vinegar you mention. Would I be right in saying that chilling it would slow it down as well? Also when we tasted it back in April or so when it had been in the cask for 4 or 5 months there was no sign of contamination at all.

But anyway we'll see.... What's good is that there are 9 of us or so that have this beer. So we'll all probably have different experiences. What do you reckon, will we bring them to an NCB meetup in a couple of months to see how the beers are doing.

You are right. Cooling the beer will slow it down. The colder the better. Ref the vinegar side, that's dependent on oxygen to an extent. In a barrel you would have more chance of oxygen pickup than say a glass carboy. This could be why there wasn't a taste in the 4 months but got worse towards the 10 months.

Wild bacteria is a funny thing. Different to the normal bugs you can add. In a sour beer be it in a barrel, carboy or bucket if it's clean of wild yeast you can control it too some extent. Most if not all produce the pellicle that prevents more oxygen pickup that can turn a beer. The beer will mature under the pellicle becoming deeper and complex in flavour.

I have no answer with out tasting and may have now afterwards, but this is interesting and I wouldn't waste the opportunity to try various ideas. Who knows you may have something special.

I work at the airport so when the next meet is on I'll try to attend

[nigel_c]

Tomorrow night is the 44 main st swords

[Dodge]

Ahh typical! I work night shift and tonight is my last night until Sat.

I'll keep an eye out on the meet dates and stop past when I can

[ColmR]

BTW I'll be bringing along a sample tonight of the diluted keg. And just for the record it doesn't taste awful.