Last week I told you how we received 9 oak barrels and filled 2 of them with The Big Smoke, just as a trial. Next week the real fun begins:
We're brewing a huge (huge!) imperial stout. this will ferment in the stainless steel tanks over Christmas and when we get back from the holidays I will rack it into the barrels to mature for a few months.
I'm expecting it to finish off at 12-13% abv which may make it the biggest stout ever brewed in the southern hemisphere? Prove me wrong please;-) I'm not making it that strong for people to get hammered quickly (trust me, no one will be able to binge this), I'm doing it to achieve maximum flavour. That being said, I could probably keep it at 10% and still have all the flavour, but since I've never worked with wooden barrels before, I think it is wise to give the beer as much defence against any microbes that may be living in the wood. Alcohol is, of course, poisonous to yeast and bacteria.
Recipe wise this is by far the most complicated beer I've ever made:
7 different malts from 5 different countries (NZ, UK, Germany, Belgium and Australia)
3 Different hops (NZ and USA)
Jaggery (a Delicious raw sugar from India)
Fair Trade coffee (grown in South East Asia and roasted by local Marlborough roasters, CPR)
2 different yeasts (Wyeast 1272 and 1968. And possibly a third if they can't finish the job)
And of course the big unknown, the barrels.
We have received all the ingredients, except for the Jaggery which has only just been released from MAF quarantine, hopefully it will be here by Wednesday.
To be honest the recipe looks quite chaotic but as we would say in Danish "there is reason behind the madness" and I'm confident it will all come together in harmony. Therefore the working title for this beer is "Cosmic Chaos". But if that name sticks around to the bottle, it would be a first. Usually we go through a few different names during the process before we settle on one for the labels. Another noteworthy fact is that this will be our 18th batch. We were always planning on doing something special for batch number 8, but this came around so fast and we had to brew an ordinary HopWired to satisfy demand. Back then we said to each other, "We'll do something special for batch 18 instead". I think it's safe to say that, if nothing else, this will be special!
Friday, December 10, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
Barrels. We've got barrels!
Earlier this week we received 9 american oak barrels from fellow craftbrewer Luke Nicholas of Epic Brewing Co. It is hard for me to conceal my enthusiasm, although non-beer people around me doesn't seem to understand. So let me try:
Wooden barrels are hard to work with when it comes to beer. Unlike stainless steel (which everything in the brewery is usually made of) they can't be completely sterilized, microbes will always find somewhere to hide in the porous wood. In other words, it makes brewing harder, because much more work goes into cleaning and maintaining the barrels which is why most breweries don't bother.
But of course, I am not excited because of the extra work involved but because of the opportunities the barrels provide. Barrel aging brings complexity to the beer. Tannins, vanilla flavours, micro oxidation, depth! Bourbon for example, is basically a tasteless, white spirit that has been aged in american oak barrels. Virtually all the flavour is contributed by the oak. Weather you like bourbon or not, you can imagine what the barrels can do to an already excellent beer.
Epic used the barrels for 2 batches of beer, an IPA and a Stout. Upon first examination, they don't seem to have much beer character in them. The smell is very oaky, very bourbony. I think they have a lot of life left in them and I will make sure to put them to good use. In fact, I already have: This morning I filled two of them with The Big Smoke which I will leave in there for a month or two. I've never worked with barrels before so I don't really know how long to mature the beer. Time will tell.
After that I'm planning a big imperial stout. Bigger than lasts years iStout (which by the way will return to the shelves in May). After primary fermentation in the stainless fermenters I will rack it into the barrels and leave sit until it's ready to bottle. I'm guessing 2 or 3 months should do.
I think this may be the beginning of a glorious adventure into the world of wood!
Wooden barrels are hard to work with when it comes to beer. Unlike stainless steel (which everything in the brewery is usually made of) they can't be completely sterilized, microbes will always find somewhere to hide in the porous wood. In other words, it makes brewing harder, because much more work goes into cleaning and maintaining the barrels which is why most breweries don't bother.
But of course, I am not excited because of the extra work involved but because of the opportunities the barrels provide. Barrel aging brings complexity to the beer. Tannins, vanilla flavours, micro oxidation, depth! Bourbon for example, is basically a tasteless, white spirit that has been aged in american oak barrels. Virtually all the flavour is contributed by the oak. Weather you like bourbon or not, you can imagine what the barrels can do to an already excellent beer.
Epic used the barrels for 2 batches of beer, an IPA and a Stout. Upon first examination, they don't seem to have much beer character in them. The smell is very oaky, very bourbony. I think they have a lot of life left in them and I will make sure to put them to good use. In fact, I already have: This morning I filled two of them with The Big Smoke which I will leave in there for a month or two. I've never worked with barrels before so I don't really know how long to mature the beer. Time will tell.
After that I'm planning a big imperial stout. Bigger than lasts years iStout (which by the way will return to the shelves in May). After primary fermentation in the stainless fermenters I will rack it into the barrels and leave sit until it's ready to bottle. I'm guessing 2 or 3 months should do.
I think this may be the beginning of a glorious adventure into the world of wood!
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