QuercusMax
Well-Known Member
I started homebrewing some time in 2005 (I don't have very good records that far back). In October of that year I made a "Barley Nog" I called my "Holid-Ale". It was my 7th batch, and only the second one I actually have any notes from. Here's the recipe:
http://www.hvhomebrewers.com/recipes/brew/barlynog.html
I made it with the Celestial Seasonings tea, and subbed out the Cascades for Nugget and Willamette. This was also my first brew using my wort chiller, which I'm still using today (in fact, as I'm writing this now).
It fermented from 1.075 down to 1.015, using a repitch of WLP001, according to my notes. (Wow, I have no recollection of doing any repitching, let alone using liquid yeast that long ago!) I think I used the entire cake but i really don't recall.
It turned out OK, but was never really my favorite - the cinnamon apple spice
tea isn't really that great in a beer. It gives it a weird sort of sweetness that's not altogether pleasant. I ended up giving a bunch of it to my brother who seemed to like it quite a lot.
I brewed moderately often and pretty consistently all the way through till late 2007, when my third child was born. I did a total of 26 batches from 2005-2007, which I think is pretty respectable for a fairly casual homebrewer.
I took a multi-year hiatus from brewing after that, but I still had a lot of bottles of various stuff left in the back of my furnace room (not a great place, but that's all I had to work with). I had one entire batch go sour, and my labels all fell off, so I sort of stopped drinking my homebrew.
This year I really got back into homebrewing (55 gallons so far this year!), and I needed more bottles, so I started cracking open the old stock (I moved it all to my new house 20 months ago). I dumped out 2-3 cases worth of beer that had mostly gone sour - some tasted sort of cidery (lacto?), and a few tasted like straight up malt vinegar. While I was doing this, I found a couple bottles of the Holid-Ale that I saved, since I knew for sure what it was.
With some trepidation, I cracked one open and poured it into a glass. It didn't *smell* sour.... Took a sip, and it was good! The cinnamon spice was still present giving it that weird sweetness, not quite offset by the very slight hop bitterness. Not much head (I don't think there ever was). I got a fair bit of roasted grain flavor, which is quite puzzling since I don't exactly know where that would have come from - it was basically just Crystal Something and LME. All in all not bad, certainly no worse than many winter beers I've tried. I think there are two bottles left... I'll probably drink the soon. I don't think it's going to improve any more from here!
http://www.hvhomebrewers.com/recipes/brew/barlynog.html
I made it with the Celestial Seasonings tea, and subbed out the Cascades for Nugget and Willamette. This was also my first brew using my wort chiller, which I'm still using today (in fact, as I'm writing this now).
It fermented from 1.075 down to 1.015, using a repitch of WLP001, according to my notes. (Wow, I have no recollection of doing any repitching, let alone using liquid yeast that long ago!) I think I used the entire cake but i really don't recall.
It turned out OK, but was never really my favorite - the cinnamon apple spice
tea isn't really that great in a beer. It gives it a weird sort of sweetness that's not altogether pleasant. I ended up giving a bunch of it to my brother who seemed to like it quite a lot.
I brewed moderately often and pretty consistently all the way through till late 2007, when my third child was born. I did a total of 26 batches from 2005-2007, which I think is pretty respectable for a fairly casual homebrewer.
I took a multi-year hiatus from brewing after that, but I still had a lot of bottles of various stuff left in the back of my furnace room (not a great place, but that's all I had to work with). I had one entire batch go sour, and my labels all fell off, so I sort of stopped drinking my homebrew.
This year I really got back into homebrewing (55 gallons so far this year!), and I needed more bottles, so I started cracking open the old stock (I moved it all to my new house 20 months ago). I dumped out 2-3 cases worth of beer that had mostly gone sour - some tasted sort of cidery (lacto?), and a few tasted like straight up malt vinegar. While I was doing this, I found a couple bottles of the Holid-Ale that I saved, since I knew for sure what it was.
With some trepidation, I cracked one open and poured it into a glass. It didn't *smell* sour.... Took a sip, and it was good! The cinnamon spice was still present giving it that weird sweetness, not quite offset by the very slight hop bitterness. Not much head (I don't think there ever was). I got a fair bit of roasted grain flavor, which is quite puzzling since I don't exactly know where that would have come from - it was basically just Crystal Something and LME. All in all not bad, certainly no worse than many winter beers I've tried. I think there are two bottles left... I'll probably drink the soon. I don't think it's going to improve any more from here!
)
