It's time for barley wine!

let the brewing begin!

Soon...

I am stoked. I have been wanting to brew a barley wine for so long. Now thanks to assistance and encouragement here I am going for it today!

Got my water this morning from my new water source.


Here is 20 gallons ready to go. Okay I don't need that much for a 5 gallon but since I was there might as well fill up.


Before anyone asks "is that safe?" "is it any good?"

DAmn good! Crystal clear, ice cold and tasty clean water!

I'll be doughing in soon. This is such a momentous brew for me I wanted to document with photos. Sadly, my camera does not want to take anymore. Just tried to snap the ingredients but the camera said, uh uh.

I still have not decided on homegrown hops vs. storebought. I figure I have until boil time. You folks could still state your opinion here. Wish I had not put the hit and run poll, I was hoping for some dialogue...

Time to mill some grain!

Is it as cold there as in Quebec? The wind has been bone chilling the last couple of days!

Have fun!!!

P.S. use the homegrown!!!

Where in Quebec?
Naw, not cold yet. Only in the 20's & 30's. Had some snow yesterday but it is gone. Few flakes now and then... oh no, just dandruff!


Well, got some batteries.
and the ingredients

ready to mill

grist a go!

and of course I picked up along with batteries a little inspiration/fortification!


Strike water is heating, er cooling... hehe gotta watch it eh?

It is ON!

*clicks subscribe*

Go Zym GO!!!!



Oh, post your recipe please!!!

I was thinking the same thing today! It must be nice to get free water like that. I have the same bomber you're drinking right now...

Man I am all over the place!

recipe and brain dropping are here.

for the sake of simplicity I shall post essentials though:
For 5 gallons
70% Efficicency (or is it 75% now... hmmmm)

OG 1.091
IBU 88

17 # of MO
1 # of Crystal 60L
.50 # Carared
1 # 10 oz. (approx. 1 quart) Grade B Maple Syrup ( to dry it out a bit and to give it that local flavor ) edit* at flameout

Hops
45 g Magnum 15.5% @ 60 minutes
14 g Centennial 8.5% @ 20 (pellets)
21 g Cascade 4.5% @ 10 (homegrown whole)
14 g Centennial 8.5% @ 5 (homegrown whole)
14 g Cascade 4.5% @ flameout (homegrown whole)
28 g Amarillo 5% Dry hopped (pellets)

US-05 yeast (yeast cake from batch of ordinary bitter)

90 Minute boil


I cannot keep track of it all.

Boy those homegrown hops are smelling GOOD sitting there in front of me! Guess I will have to use them... or not.


More Vermonster please!

Please stand by for brief intermission...

(cue muzak)













gotta feed my family. Hello, I'd like to place an order for take away...

Man, I was beat at the end of the night! Things went a little rough the second half. I'll get the ranting out of the way first then carry on with the documentation...

Let's see. I mixed my starsan with store bought water as I have been doing because it seems to last longer. Not this time! I bought the store brand figuring it could not be a big difference. WRONG! The solution went immediately cloudy and was very SOAPY! Hopefully it was effective enough for one session.

I own 2 propane tanks so that i won't run out of propane mid-boil anymore. DAR! Bonehead! One empty tank and one almost empty tank! Ran out with 20 minutes to go @ 7:30 pm. Fortunately/unfortunately my local grocery store has those propane swap "services". Bugger. Got to do what you got to do. Ended up paying nearly twice what I normally pay to refill my tank and ended up with a 5 year old tank. Mine was only a year old.

Also had a wicked time transfering the beast to the fermentor. Those hops were THIRSTY! I got enough volume wise but this was the first time using that many whole hops. Did not realize how much they suck up.

I kegged 2 beers at the same time as all this as well so I was beat. Was not up too late but al the same. Had to keg my bitter so I could pitch on to the cake. So I figured I may as well keg my oatmeal stout since it was ready.

Anyway, enough ranting on to the show...

Can't you just smell the malty goodness?

Spargin'

Collected my volume of 7.25 and had more to spare. Ended up adding a bit more later. Couldn't resist...

Hit my preboil gravity!

Not too many photos to show during the boil. It was pretty dark out in the garage and I was running around a lot. Getting propane and such... Decided to go with my homegrown hops with the compromise of using Centennial pellets for the 20 minute addition but all homegrown for the remaining additions.

Added my maple syrup as the chiller began running.

Racking to the fermentor again was a b!tch so I did not want any photos of that. Many siphon restarts... Ended up scooping into a funnel with a mesh bag.

Original Gravity. One point high at 1.094. No complaints there.


I forgot to snap a pic of the yeast cake. Was probably a good quart of slurry. Not too much trub as I had a clean transfer on that batch.

Pitched right on to it and here she is.



Anytime I start remembering the more difficult moments all I need to do is go down to the basement and look at this:


Ain't that beautiful! Believe me I keep checking regularly... Kind of watching for blow-off actually!

Congrats!

I have water source envy now.

And THAR SHE BLOWS!!!


That did not take long. Lucky I was watching it.

Where I used to live (about 45 minutes from where i live now) we had at least 6 artesian wells scattered throughout the town. One was about 1000 feet from my house.

They've capped off most of those for some reason, but I'd like to get back over there and fill up some jugs before my next brew day.

Homercidal said:

They've capped off most of those for some reason, but I'd like to get back over there and fill up some jugs before my next brew day.

Click to expand...

When I was a kid we got water from one of those. One summer we had a bad drought followed by an exceptionally wet spell, and they closed it because it had too much bacteria to be considered safe.

Update:

Well it has been just about a month. Took a gravity reading today.

I am a happy man.

Gravity is 1.017 (or maybe 18) depending on how you read it. I have trouble reading odd numbers for certain on the hydrometer. Anyways, the FG target is 1.016 so I ain't complaining either way.

Tastes as expected, pretty rough, but not off. I will wait of course to pass judgment until it is ready. So far though I think I may up the IBU's next time. Though like I said, time will tell. I think the alcohol could be masking the bitterness. Dry hopping and carbonation will also need to be present to judge for certain.

Next step I believe I will keg her up in the next few days for her long cool slumber in the basement brew room. Get it out of the funky fermenter. Man the sludge was thick trying to get a sample!

Oh happy day.

yeahaw!!!!!

One month down....only 11 more to go...

Awesome looking beer. Seventeen pounds of Marris Otter is going to be great!

At what temperature did you ferment? (It looks like you have a fermentation cabinet from your pictures.)

Held it at 66F for the first month. That is indeed my ferm chamber. Only instead of cooling I was using it for warming.

I put a heating pad on low in one of the ice chambers and it gave me my 66F. Chamber is actually 68F but the fermenter is at 66F

Now that it is pretty much to terminal gravity I will lower the temp a bit by taking it out of there.