For those brewing high-OG beers for the first time...

skifast1 said:

...don't do what I did and drink virtually all of it in the first few months. Tonight while brewing I found a bottle in the back of the fridge of my second batch ever, an 11% wee heavy that I did last March. I knew at the time that this style was best after at least a few months, but it was so good that I pretty much emptied it out by the end of the summer. Lo and behold, it was unbelievably good!!! I never imagined the flavors would mellow and smooth out like that, especially when my first opinion after a month's conditioning was along the lines of 'geez, that must be an acquired taste'. Without a doubt my 'best' batch ever, just took almost a year to find out. I'd better get crackin' to get a batch ready for New Year's

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orfy said:

Now that has got to be one dangerous beer to hand out for new year.
Best get a batch of 60 shilling on the go for the early rounds.

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Brewsmith said:

My first barleywine was in Dec. 05. I made only 3 gallons which gave me just over a case of 9% goodness. It has done well with time and I still have about 16 bottles. This years is almost 11% and I'm definately not cracking the first one for quite a while.

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