Group Barley Wine

[Jaynus]

Cheers les but I have a fridge lined up and I just have to set her up!

No Sunday in particular KT just seeing if anyone was keen, it's got good food and great beers!

I knew you would be in Pete, if I were that close I would be there every weekend!

 

[brockerst]

I'm in. Keen to check out this particular establishment. Sundays are good.

I'll open the bidding with 27/07.

Flexible though, most Sundays are free.

 

[pmastello]

The 27th is the next Sunday I have free, so that works for me. Does everyone want to meet at my house, I'll have my new pizza oven ready so we can have lunch, then head off to the Grain store and maybe hop factory?

 

[Jaynus]

I have a bucks weekend in the hunter valley that weekend, but apart from that I'm easy!

 

[joshuahardie]

Well I did my bottling yesterday

I didn't really yield as much as I thought I should of, but I got 8 x 6 packs out of it

Refresh my memory how many is involved in the swap, I hope it is not more than 8

I remember talk of a swap on the 13th of July. Did that occur or are we waiting for them to mature more before a swap.

 

[pmastello]

Nope, you're all good Josh. There's 7 in the swap, plus Duane who's not particularly interested in strong barley wines and doesn't want to be involved in the swap. Also Marc's beer won't be ready for at least a year as he's aging it on Brett, so he's also out of the swap for now but may trade a few when it's ready to go. So all you need to bring to the swap is 5 six packs. Maybe a few extra for Duane too to thank him for the use of his gear.
Yeah, the meet at Dicks place on the 13th is still going ahead. We may as well do the swap then- not much point waiting till their aged before swapping, is there?

 

[joshuahardie]

Is Dick on this forum?

I need to get hold of him and his address.
I am away at a mountain bike race this saturday, and will still be in transit of the way home on Sunday.

I was thinking I could drop my beers to him on friday and collect my share on sunday night / monday.

 

[brockerst]

I have a swimming carnival on the 13th at Woy Woy and have to go straight from there to bunnings lake haven to help with a preschool fundraising bbq. I'll make a detour to Dick's to make the swaps. Will probably be around 3:30-4:00pm.

 

[silvana]

So I went to bottle mine today and am very sad to say it is a phenolic mess.
Think mildly burnt plastic mixed with a some diesel.
There is no way I can share this so I will regretfully pull out of the swap.

I'll bring some along Sunday though I would recommend very small tastings.

 

[pmastello]

Sad to hear that Yogi. Mine is in a similar boat, but not quite as bad.
On my first tasting I am getting some autolysis flavours - vegemitey and trub flavours. I will try another one in a few days to see if it was a one off or if its through the whole batch. Maybe it will age out? Probably not though.

 

[silvana]

Yeap sure sucks. Especially as I cleaned and sanitised what felt like a 1000 bottles before I tasted it.
I'm going to chuck a bunch of oak and maybe some Brett dregs at it just because I have them although there really is no hope for mine.

Ben

 

[mr_wibble]

Bloody hell, I'm not game to try mine now.

Then I can swap it in good faith, and hope for the best... h34r:

 

[gone brewing]

Is Dick on this forum?

I need to get hold of him and his address.
I am away at a mountain bike race this saturday, and will still be in transit of the way home on Sunday.

I was thinking I could drop my beers to him on friday and collect my share on sunday night / monday.

No problem at all Josh. pm sent with details.

 

[Goldenchild]

I finally dropped mine onto the yeast cake last night.
6hrs later woke up and walked into the brew room and almost fainted.
The co2 had escaped the ferment fridge and was slowly filling the room with the delicious smelling gas
This was the last thing I wanted to see at 5am when I am off to work for the week.
Needless to say my barley wine is now in open ferment.

 

[Jaynus]

Well mine tastes amazing, hopefully yours will change in time Ben! I think mine is going to be really sweet. When and where is this swap going down?

 

[mr_wibble]

We did a taste-test last night ... a bit young, but quite good nonetheless.

Malt, raisin, smoke, toffee, mild bitterness, noticeable alcohol.
( Where the hell did that smokey flavour come from? )

 

[pmastello]

I have a hunch that some of the off flavors, smokieness, phenols etc we are getting may be related to the burning of the malt extract. Or maybe thats me trying to blame my bad beer on something out of my control!
Hopefully we can all have a taste of each barley wine at Dick's and identify what was a bad ferment and some common characteristics.

 

[pmastello]

On a second tasting, mines actually alright, possibly even good. I think the huge bitterness had me a bit confused in my palate?
Hopefully with a year or so of age, the bitterness will fall out quite a bit.
I am really keen to have a taste of everyone's different beers with different yeast.
My lager yeast is very neutral, little sulfury lager character too - closer to a cold fermented American ale than anything else.I am also happy that for a 9% beer, drinking it warm still has no strong alcohol smell or taste, you notice the alcohol only after finishing a stubbie. Lots of bitterness, but where did all that Galaxy go? Almost no hop aroma for me, but perhaps the big maltyness is obscuring it. The aroma does still have the yeasty autolysis/trub smell to it though.
Overall, its quite a neutral barley wine, aside from its high bitterness. I think mine will go down as the control for everyone elses yeasts, so you can separate out what's from the yeast and whats from the recipe. Age will hopefully take mine from something kinda bland and simple, to something a bit more interesting.


Jay, Are you going to come to Dick's place for the meet and swap on Sunday?

 

[Jaynus]

Yeah I can make it, what time and where?

 

[mr_wibble]

I have a hunch that some of the off flavors, smokieness, phenols etc we are getting may be related to the burning of the malt extract.

I like the smokey character.