Australian Amateur Brewing Championship

[HBHB]

Imperial English Barleywine.

This beer was a bit of a wild card. Brewed it with a mate of mine. Made for a really really long brew day on a sunny 40C afternoon.

Craziest beer I have ever made. It was so damn viscous, the hops wouldn't settle. Hop bags would have been a wise choice. To get a gravity, I brought a sample to the lab, vacuum filtered it and diluted it 3x. Gravity came in at 1.053.

It also pretty much refuses to carbonate. I had it cold and at 20psi for like 2 months and it still only like 1.5 volumes.

Drinks kind of like a port, or a Sam Adams Utopias with less booze and wood character.

OG- 1.159
FG- 1.037
IBU- 96 (calculated)
ABV- about 15.5%

21L batch @ 50% efficiency
240 min boil

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
17.350 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter 84.8 %
0.180 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L 0.9 %
0.180 kg Caramunich I (Weyermann) 0.9 %
0.180 kg Carared (Weyermann) 0.9 %
0.180 kg Special Roast (Briess) 0.9 %
2.400 kg Light Dry Extract (15.76 EBC) 11.7 %
63.00 g Super Alpha [11.20 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 46.2 IBUs
44.00 g Magnum [14.50 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 41.7 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 9 -
96.00 g Goldings, East Kent [6.40 %] - Boil 10.0 8.0 IBUs
49.00 g Goldings, East Kent [6.40 %] - Boil 0.0 0.0 IBUs
3.0 pkg Nottingham Yeast (Lallemand #-) [25.10 m Yeast 12 -
1.0 pkg Super High Gravity Ale (White Labs #WLP0 Yeast 14 -

Double decoction.
63C, 70C, 75 mashout

Pitched @ 16C and held for 3 days. Was down to about 1.070 when we added the super high gravity starter. Finished at 1.045 and wouldn't budge from there. It was too sweet at this point. We each made a small (5L) batch of dry mead. Racked mead to keg and transferred about 8L of IBW to each of our kegs. I added 40g of American Oak cubes to my keg. Dropped the FG to 1.037 while keeping the alcohol up.


If I missed anything, let me know. Happy to answer any questions I can.

Despite all the issues you had with it, it was absolutely stunning......like, damn it was good.

 

[DU99]

gee who has a lab

 

[MartinOC]

gee who has a lab

I've got a manky, dust-filled kitchen in a shed & still manage to make good beer. Does that count?

 

[TheWiggman]

Edit: What about underwear? Do you reckon that wearing red silk boxers or going Commando with shorts has any bearing on your overall success at National level?? h34r:

I thought it was common knowledge that good brewers don't require pants. That's my chosen technique to get 'the edge' anyhoo.

 

[Topher]

The iipa has over 500g of hops!

 

[MartinOC]

I thought it was common knowledge that good brewers don't require pants. That's my chosen technique to get 'the edge' anyhoo.

Yeah, well...I actually used to BE a Commando & did some of my best work in the dark with no underwear...

Don't get me started on the SNAKE parties (Soldiers Naked Against Kangaroo Exercises). The Commander SF was completely un-fazed standing around talking quite frankly about any issue, surrounded by blokes in the buff, wearing nothing but life-preservers in 40C heat...

I think it's a moot point what you wear whilst brewing, as long as you do it well. N'est pas?

 

[Dazzbrew]

Any ideas of when the results will start going out? Not whingeing just asking.

 

[jlmcgrath]

gee who has a lab

Guess I'm luck in that aspect. I work in a mineral processing/chemistry lab. No good for anything you would put in your mouth with all the cyanide bottle rolls going on but worked well enough for what I was doing.

 

[jlmcgrath]

Anyone planning on heading to Adelaide next year for ANHC? I will def be there, and it would be great to sink a few pints with you guys/gals.

 

[Grainer]

Depends.. If i can win a comp then it would be worthwhile.. better start brewing :kooi: December is Big Brew days .. Stouts/RIS etc.. fingers crossed...

 

[donald_trub]

Any ideas when scoresheets will be sent out?

 

[clarkey7]

Any ideas of when the results will start going out? Not whingeing just asking.

The scoresheets are already packed into addressed envelopes. We were waiting for the AABC logo to get added to the medals (1st, 2nd and 3rd).
This has happened now, so everything will be sent this week.
I'll email the state delegates and post here to confirm once everything is away.

 

[clarkey7]

Hi All,

All the envelopes were sent on Wednesday.

Scoresheets and medals are on their way to you now.

Congrats to all the winners (especially WA) and thank you to all who assisted us running the AABC here in Brisbane,

Cheers,

Dave

 

[Dazzbrew]

Woohoo, looking forward to it thanks Dave.

 

[mofox1]

Got my scoresheets in the mail y'day. Very happy bloke, good feedback and know where to improve.

Wouldn't have thought my first comp beers would get this far

Thanks to all the judges, stewards, runners, designated drivers and anyone else that contributed in any way.

 

[GrumpyPaul]

Got mine too. Good constructive feedback..

Ditto on the thanks

 

[Dazzbrew]

My medal and sheets arrived today just In time for the HUB meeting in Friday, woo hoo!
My grain order arrived from Brewman today too, woo hoo again.

 

[Andy_Chil]

Got my sheets and medal yesterday. Great feedback. Thank you so much to all involved.
I was so excited to take home a 1st at Vicbrew and 2nd at AABC for my first ever comp entry!!

 

[bigmacthepunker]

Great work, Andy.

 

[jlmcgrath]

Sounds like everyone in Perth has gotten their scoresheets and medals. Hoping mine didn't get lost in the mail somewhere.