Beer For An Unborn Kid

[AnOldUR]

I'm doing this for my Granddaughter Eva.
Calling the beer Evalution.

Brewed a big beer every November for the last three years.
E0 is a RIS
E1 is an Old Ale
E2 is a Barleywine

Thinking of a really big wheat wine for E3

The hardest thing is staying out of the stash.

 

[jlpred55]

As part of my sons birth announcement to close friends and family- I gave out corked and caged bottles of an American Farmhouse Style Ale (no such thing obvs) with a special label. I've saved 2 for myself and him. I came up with a unique recipe that he and I can brew for his 21st Birthday Party (it uses like 12 malts and a blend of yeasts). The beer was fantastic and I have many people asking for more but it is pricey to brew and the next time I will brew it will be with him. So get creative and everyone will love it. On another note I have a 13% barleywine I've brewed every year for the last 11 and it is getting better with age and the beer is still really good. Each vintage is different and ages differently.

 

[KingBrianI]

Maybe I'll brew that really big crazy beer for my second kid (if one comes)! But I'm pretty well decided on an 8.5% ABV English Strong Ale for this one. I may up the IBUs a bit, but I'm not sure. I kind of like the idea of a beer that tastes great from the start, not one that is over-bittered and boozy for several years. Maybe that's a mistake, but we'll just have to wait (21 years!) and see. I actually think a moderate-alcohol beer might start slightly ahead of the curve, since the yeast will be much happier than if they had to deal with crazy high sugar and alcohol content. Whatever.

I've actually been reading a lot lately about beer stability and it seems like it's not a very well understood subject. It's actually kind of hard to make anything of the info out there. Firstly, everything seems to be aimed at commercial breweries attempting to maintain their product on the shelf for up to a year - nothing like what I'll be aiming for with a beer that will be cellared for 2 decades. Secondly, much of the information is contradictory. Maillard products are said to both help and hurt. Antioxidants like ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) are said to both help and hurt. The story is the same for different hop compounds, cold break, etc. I think my best course of action will be to do what I can to minimize oxygen exposure throughout the whole process, and to keep everything as "clean" as possible. Not sterilization-wise only, but being sure to get the runnings really clear into the kettle, keep all the cold break out of the fermenter, use really fresh and healthy yeast, etc. That should do the trick.

By the way all this talk and research about aging beers made me pull out one of my several years old westy 12 clones. Very nice!

 

[Squeek]

Sam Adams Utopias is blended from beer that is over 18 years old.... At least the tag on my Bottle tells me that.

 

[KingBrianI]

Alright, so this one will happen this weekend. I've decided to bump the gravity up by about 10 points to split the difference with all of your thoughts. That should give me about 10%ABV which should let me maintain healthy yeast, while getting closer to the alcohol percentage you guys think will help it age better. In order to minimize oxygen exposure I'm going to take my time and not dump the water into the mash, stir too hard, let the runnings fall into the kettle, etc. I've also adjusted the recipe slightly to hopefully help it age a bit better. In my research, it seems like dark worts and dark malts are unanimously regarded as helping a beer age. Unmalted grains are also widely regarded as helping beer stability. So instead of chocolate malt, I'm using roasted barley. The final ratio should be about 95% warminster floor-malted maris otter, 4% carastan, and 1% roasted barley. I'm also going to bump the IBUs up, though I haven't decided to what extent, yet. Hopefully, it all comes together to make a beer that not only will taste good in 6 months, but in 21 years!

 

[BrewKnurd]

I've been entertaining the notion of doing this as well. Wife is due in less than a week.

 

[KingBrianI]

Brewed yesterday. Hit 1.094 OG. Not as high as I was aiming for but I came in a bit over volume. Took it slow and easy the whole time making sure to minimize any unnecessary O2 exposure during the process and keep all wort, runnings, etc completely free of grain bits and particulates. I bumped the hop additions up a bit so there would still be a good amount of bitterness left after many years. Pitched a BIG slurry of healthy, active yeast and it was holding at 58 F this morning in the fermentation freezer. I'll let it rise to 62 or so starting this afternoon. The blow-off tube was bubbling nicely this morning. Here's where the recipe ended up.

OG 1.094
IBU 100

95% Warminster floor-malted Maris Otter
4% Bairds Carastan
1% Black Roasted Barley

2 oz Brewers Gold FWH
1 oz Northdown @ 90 min
1 oz Northdown @ 20 min

I took 2 gallons of first runnings and slowly reduced them down to about a quart of syrup then added back to the kettle.

Wyeast 1084

I'm going to let it ferment for a couple weeks, then crash cool to get most of the yeast out. Then rack to secondary on some oak that has been sitting in spirits for several months. There it will stay until February of next year, just before the baby is due. I still have to decide whether I want to do a cork and cage thing for these or go with traditional caps then dip in wax. The O2 absorbing caps are also an option, though I'm a bit scared of whatever is on them that makes them work will break down or taint the beer after all those years. Anyway, that's a decision that can stand to wait for a few months.

 

[jtejedor]

I wish you luck man hopefully it can go the distance. A couple of years ago I bought a bottle of sam adams triple bock. That beer was supposed to be hopped pretty good and was like over 17% alcohol. I was told by the guy at the store they were from 96 and apparently forgot about in their warehouse. Man that beer was terrible. I looked up reviews and it sounded pretty good when it was in its prime but it had oxidized and tasted like horrid soy sauce and rotting meat.

 

[KingBrianI]

So I crashed the primary to 32 degrees after fermentation was done and it had been sitting there for the last couple of weeks. Yesterday I racked it to a secondary that was purged with CO2 on top of a couple sticks of used oak. The nice thing about racking it that cold, was that as it warmed up, it blew off lots more CO2, so the carboy is now completely purged and ready for extended aging.