Gregs gargantuan graduation grog!

GregR said:

so next fall I'll finally be transferring to big kid school (UCSD) and I want to make a big ol' brew to age until graduation; whenever that may be. I'm thinking a nice big barley wine will do the trick but I'm open a other suggestions, be it a big RIS, a way over the top wee heavy, or what ever..

anyway, I'm looking for some suggestions for something that will age gracefully for minimum of two+ years.

I've never made a 'big' beer before and haven't done anything other than single infusion mashes. but I'm totally willing to try new things but am limited to mashing about 25lbs of grain. whatever a 10 gallon Gatorade cooler can mash is what I'm limited to. I can boil a large volume with my keggle and burner but am somewhat limited with temp control. just an ice chest with a hole cut out for the airlock. I can consistently keep it in the low 60's but that's about it.

so anyway, let the over the top suggestions flow!

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carnevoodoo said:

If you want to get REALLY big, I'm willing to bring my mash tun over. We could do two batches of grain into one kettle, and I can fit about 28 pounds in mine. You could parti gyle the second runnings and make a decent beer.

As for aging, I really like the way stouts age more than anything. Old ales can be nice, wee heavies don't oxidize as well as I'd like them to.

A Belgian Quad is also a possibility.

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GregR said:

oh I'm liking this. we might have to get an epic brew day going. with both of our mash tons we could probably do a 10 gallon batch of something really big instead of something REALLY big and split the batch and both have a nice parti gyle as well.

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carnevoodoo said:

Or we do an insane 5 gallon batch for you, I take the parti gyle, and we're both happy.

But something big and not huge would be ok, too.

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GregR said:

I'm not entirely sure if I want to go totally insane compared to say say something 10-12%. I'm totally open to suggestions at this point though. like I said, I've never done anything really big before and I don't know if I can do something insane and have it turn out drinkable. especially something where I'd have to aerate the wort a few times and do sugar additions and what not like PtN's Utopias clone. I don't have an aerator and ferm temps are anything but consistent. also I'm looking for something big and special but also something me and my fellow beer snob friends could have a few of instead of a "one glass is all I can drink" sort of over the top brew.

but lets seriously try to work something out that would be big and special. especially with your beer camp knowledge...

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