barleywine update, 3 years later;new brew

i've been checking a bottle of barleywine every year or so and i'm assuming that it is as done as it's going to be. not bad, though it is more fruity than boozy. i'll need to find the sg beaker to take a proper reading.

started new brew about 3 weeks ago. this was the first brew since moving back to nc. 1046 OG, down to 1.014 after 2 weeks primary. i've put it in a carboy to clear. this is the first brew with the new big kettle, outdoor gas jet apparatus, and chiller coil. looks like i can cool the first 100 degrees in about 20 minutes. not sure if that's faster, but it's less fussing around and ice-buying.

barleywine jump start

after almost a year, i'm trying to revive the barleywine that was stuck at 1.030. i've taken out 1/4 gallon and added another 1/4 gallon of water and pitched us-04 into a starter to see if it comes to life. the water/wort mixture sure foamed up, like it was already partially carbonated. if this starts krausening, i'll pitch it back into the carboy with the other ~4 gallons and see if it starts brewing again. it doesn't matter either way, as i'll just bottle anyway and hopefully the new yeast will help it carbonate.

test bottle -- barleywine

i've siphoned off a 22 oz bottle of the barleywine, adding about a teaspoon of brown sugar. from what i'm reading i may have to put some yeast in when real bottling time comes around. the stuff is still at around 1.030, tastes pretty hot, but also on the sweet side. i think bottling yeast will help trim off some of the extra sweetness. i'll check on the test bottle in 2 weeks or so to see how it tastes before deciding to pitch.

i've harvested the yeast from the primary (lots of trub) of the scottish 80 to see what i can do with it. so far it looks like it's not super-live.

scottish 80 #2 bottling day

bottled up the scottish 80, attempt #2 4oz brown sugar in 2 cups of water, boiled and cooled. got about 550 oz out of this (~4.3 gallons). 1.015 fg. tastes a little sour and bitter. smelled like bread when i popped the top, then smelled like fruit. i'm not sure about this, left it in the primary for 5 weeks(?), trying to avoid bottle bombs. i also brushed out all the bottles with star san, rinsed, dried, then sanitized. i even cleaned the bottle trees. trying to eliminate any opportunistic bacteria or yeast since the last couple of batches have been a little off (last export 80 was a bunch of geysers). i'm going to test the first one on the 10th and then wait until the 13th if it's not ready. the last bad batch burnt my morale, so i hope this goes better.

brewing scottish export 80 again

i think i got the two brews mixed up. one of them is not so good. i think it is the emma's ale since i used reclaimed yeast. i'm doing the scottish export 80 because inki is enjoying the one that doesn't suck. the sucky one has some crazy phenol/alcohol tastes, so i'm going with the one that i used fresh yeast on. hopefully this is the one. gonna do it by the book.

nope, i opened another bottle of the explosive geyser beer and poured what didn't immediately foam away into a glass. It has the same amber look of the stuff i just brewed. i think i'll leave this batch in secondary for a while longer than the last batch. i think i recall it not getting very close to fg, so that might explain it. for now, i have about 8 bottles of 'exciting' export 80 left to deal with. since the brown ale turned out so good, i'll try and replicate what i did with that as much as possible next time, probably a nice, slow, low-temperature steep that gave it a lot of dark malt character without too much astringency. 1.046/7 for the sg on the export 80. doin' it by the book for this one.

racked emma's ale and export 80 some time this weekend

both gravities hadn't changed much. i forgot that i didn't have 2 carboys so i racked the scotch export 80 on friday(?) (1.020) and the brown ale on sunday(?) (1.015). this post is back-dated to try and keep track of the approximate time of racking.

export 80 and emma's ale gravities

export 80 at 1.020, looking finished lots of floaty chunks. tastes peaty for some reason ;-P. this one had whirlfloc, hopefully the chunks settle in the carboy.

emma's at 1.015, maybe ready for carboy? tastes really smooth, is almost a red ale. perhaps from a more rigorous/quick boil, thanks to the timer thermometer? might darken in carboy...

gonna start reading these daily and maybe rack simultaneously, saving me a clean-up, kinda.