Anniversary BW

We finally got around to wax-dipping the barley wine bottles today. Originally, I had hoped to do this much earlier in the year so the wax could do its job of protecting against oxygen seeping into the bottles. But, it is what it is.

Interestingly, or being a cheapskate, I have been saving the wax from previous opened bottles and melting that wax instead of buying new wax. Maybe some day, we'll use a different color, but right now we'll have to figure out a way to differentiate the vintages from each other.



Like last year's batch, we are going to set aside 5 bottles for yearly vertical tastings. This year, Elise will finally be able to try last year's and this year's barley wines and I'm very excited about that. Hopefully this year's batch will have carbonated as we tried a slightly different method of bottle conditioning, but if it doesnt, it will still likely be very very good. Cant wait, only 4 months to go....

10 gallons-o-business

Over our time of brewing, our neighbor has seen us a lot and tasted most of our beers and liked what he has tasted. He and his wife are also pregnant and a couple of months ago we brewed a Barley Wine for him to crack open when his son is born in late-November. Now, after getting the itch, seeing how simple brewing can be, and seeing how much money can be saved homebrewign, he's built his own mash tun, and thus another homebrewer is born. We decided to brew a batch together and split it; "same" amount of work to get twice the results. The picture is of the boil kettly pre-boil with 12 gallons of wort; very, very full. We had some issues with the boil since there was so much liquid in the kettle, my "normal" setting on the burner wouldnt have the same boil off rate. We did some experimenting and tweaking and ended up with about 1/2-1/3 less volume in the end than anticipated. We also ditched the hop screen as well. The first time we brewed the Black 'N Mild it was a stove top batch and thus, we didnt use the hop screen. The beer was very very hoppy, and when we made it again, same recipe just 5 gallons and with a hop screen, it was nowhere near as hoppy. So we decided to ditch it for this batch and just deal with all of the hop trub that would be generated and see what happens.

We decided to brew a hoppy pale ale that received a lot of late hopping with Cascade and Amarillo hops. After fermentation is complete, we'll each dry hop our portion, mine with Amarillo, his with Cascade, and we'll be able to compare the differences in aroma that each hop provides. We named it Hop-tober Pale ale as that is when it will be ready to drink, and it will be the the newest, most recent beer that Elise will get to sample after Coop arrives. Hopefully it turns out good!

Belgian Pale Ale

We just finished bottling the newest Belgian Pale Ale and it was so nice to have Elise's (and I guess Coop's) help. It not only cuts the time in half, but there is also someone to keep me company during this somewhat boring task. This was the last planned batch of brew before Cooper's arrival, so right now the brewery is empty. The good news is, we have a serious stock pile of beer downstairs that should definitely get us through the hiatus. With nothing else going on, I'll try to post some tasting reviews in the future. Now we're just playing the waiting game for Cooper's arrival