Gluten Free Birthday Barleywine

[InfiniteThought]

This turned into a total disaster but I think that a good beer will still come of it.
problems that occurred:
1) at the end of the mash when I took the nice brewing thermometer out of the mash tun the casing on it broke, dumping tiny steel beads from the weight into the mash. The thermometer itself did not break, and it is alcohol anyway so no need to freak.
2)when chopping the frozen banana I cut off the side of my thumb when the knife slipped off. At least I didn't get blood in the beer. No stitches required but a nice inch long slice.
3) 30 min into my 2 hour boil (before any hops were added) my propane tank on my rig gave out. It still felt like there was propane in it but no fuel would come out. My dad was nice enough to take it and fill it for me, but the boil was without heat for about 50 min.

eveything else went okay, but that definitly set the beer back a bit and instead of brewing beer then having a birthday party I did them both at the same time. Didn't get real drunk until after the beer was finished and managed to follow my recipe so it all worked out.

 

[InfiniteThought]

Recipe Used

Mini Mash 150 degrees f for 1 hour
6 lbs millet (without hulls)
3 lbs red rice, coarsly crushed but unroasted (didn't have time)
1/2 lbs quinoa, rinsed before hand

3.5 lbs home made red Candi Sugar
2 lbs honey
1 lb red caramelized honey
1 lb 5 oz brown rice syrup

boil total time 2 hours
hops:
2 oz columbus 14.8% 60min
4 oz Mt Hood HG 30 min
2 oz Cascade HG 10 min
2 oz Cascade HG 2 min
2 oz Mt Hood HG 2 min
Spices 2 min
Irish Moss 10 min

HG=Home Grown so I don't know the percent, they do smell really good though.
spices were all very small amounts. 1/2 gram grains of paradise, 1 teaspoon coriander and a teaspoon of licorice root, all crushed and thrown in together.
Yeast is a saved cake of nottinghams from a surprisingly good GF amber and a 1.5 liter starter of nottinghams.

the 3.5 lbs of Demerera (.5 in the starter) will be step fed starting tomorrow. at this moment the beer is burbling nicely through the airlock.

 

[DKershner]

As long as the steel beads were filitered out in the lautering process, then you should be fine. Adjust your IBUs on the columbus for a 2h50m boil, since that's basically what you did.

 

[Lcasanova]

This turned into a total disaster but I think that a good beer will still come of it.
problems that occurred:
2)when chopping the frozen banana I cut off the side of my thumb when the knife slipped off. At least I didn't get blood in the beer. No stitches required but a nice inch long slice.

I like to slice the bananas before freezing :cross: it helps avoid these kinds of things

 

[InfiniteThought]

the beads never made it through the mash, much less the mash screen so I wan't too worried about that. I was concerned for a few minutes that they were made of lead, but that turned out okay. While slicing the banana before freezing would have been ideal, it turns out that removing the peal before you freeze it is absolutely required. Thanks to Liz for fixing the banana situation while I fixed myself.

In regard to the boil length I think that it is more complicated then a 2h50min boil, but no hops had been added at all by that time, so I am not sure that it matters. The first hops were added 1/2 hour after the boil started again.


Edit: or you could end up hitting the banana with a hammer like I was tempted to do. I am sure that it would have worked.

 

[DKershner]

In regard to the boil length I think that it is more complicated then a 2h50min boil, but no hops had been added at all by that time, so I am not sure that it matters. The first hops were added 1/2 hour after the boil started again.

I didn't even look at the times, I just assumed you were putting them in at the start of the boil. In which case, the propane doesn't matter a bit.

The only thing I was worried about with the steel balls was rust, so unless they were there for awhile, its probably fine.

 

[InfiniteThought]

I agree, the propane only mattered because it pissed me off and I was freaking out till I realized I could send someone to just go get some. The thermometer broke when I took it out at the very end of the mash, so they were only in the mash water long enough for me to determine with 100% certainty that they were not lead which took only a few minutes.
I realized I forgot to put the OG, this is because I didn't measure it. The calculated OG at this point is 1.141 but once I realized I hadn't measured it I had already added the yeast cake and the starter and didn't want to open it again.

Question: how much demerera sugar should I add at a time and on what schedual? I was thinking 1/2 lb a day for 7 days, but I really have no idea at all.

 

[DKershner]

Question: how much demerera sugar should I add at a time and on what schedual? I was thinking 1/2 lb a day for 7 days, but I really have no idea at all.

That should work fine. I do 3 additions of equal size usually on the big boys.

 

[InfiniteThought]

So not sure if anyone ever checks this page, but just tried the first one of these....not so great. The color and smell is good, but the flavor not so much. I has a wide range of tastes like a wanted, lot of complexity but way to much simple sugar and a strong sensation of burning.

correction to an earlier post. I said a cake of notty and a starter of notty, its a cake of T-58 and a starter of notty. Then CL23 neutral wine yeast in secondary.

 

[DKershner]

So not sure if anyone ever checks this page, but just tried the first one of these....not so great. The color and smell is good, but the flavor not so much. I has a wide range of tastes like a wanted, lot of complexity but way to much simple sugar and a strong sensation of burning.

correction to an earlier post. I said a cake of notty and a starter of notty, its a cake of T-58 and a starter of notty. Then CL23 neutral wine yeast in secondary.

You might be fine on this. After about 6 months my glutenous barleywine still tasted like hot fire. This might need a few years, but I bet you get something pretty good out of it, at least better than you've tasted so far.

 

[InfiniteThought]

Very encouraging, thank you. In that case I have a lot of hope. The subtle flavors are all there, nice pepper, spices, phenol notes from the t-58...if the burning goes away then it will be great. Borrowing some storage space so its gonna sit at a nice and stable 62 degrees.

I will post another taste in october to see how it is after a year.

 

[DirtbagHB]

How about "F-U-Barley Wine"

 

[InfiniteThought]

Alright, an update! This beer is rapidly approaching its 1st Birthday. I thought I would give it another taste when it had been in the bottle for about 10 months and was really impressed with the improvement. It has a really nice set of tastes, gentle sweet, bite from the T-58, oak, pepper....pure hot aftertaste from the HUGE ABV. I think in still needs time but after I finished it I wanted to have another so it cant be too bad.
But then it turned out I probably didn't want another. There is something very strange about this beer. Aside from the nice buzz I was rather disassociated from my body and had a lot of trouble accomplishing anything, deciding on dinner, finding things, stairs, all seemed a bit hard. Stayed around for a bit too...anyone ever seen anything like this in a beer?


In totally other news I found this: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1430625811/rogness-brewing-company-hand-crafted-small-batches

The guys from AHS are going to start a brewery. Thought I would put it here, not trying to force anything.

 

[DKershner]

But then it turned out I probably didn't want another. There is something very strange about this beer. Aside from the nice buzz I was rather disassociated from my body and had a lot of trouble accomplishing anything, deciding on dinner, finding things, stairs, all seemed a bit hard. Stayed around for a bit too...anyone ever seen anything like this in a beer?

No. Definitely not. I get stronger and faster and more intelligent, and especially eloquent. Must be something weird about you.

 

[InfiniteThought]

har har and we all get way more attractive too right? This wasn't drunk, believe me I have accomplished that once or twice, this was more like being really stoned... without the weed. Glad to see you are still here.

 

[DKershner]

har har and we all get way more attractive too right? This wasn't drunk, believe me I have accomplished that once or twice, this was more like being really stoned... without the weed. Glad to see you are still here.

Supposedly there are actually different drunks for different sources and gravities of alcohol. (i.e. tequila vs whiskey). Maybe it is just that?

Did you have any other effects from it? Digestive? It sounds like you may have had an allergic reaction as well.

Another possibility is that you smoked before or after you drank.

Tough to say based on your description.

I wasnt around as much because I was getting married. My GF GF is now my GF wife.

 

[Trollby]

I wasnt around as much because I was getting married. My GF GF is now my GF wife.

You poor poor man

 

[InfiniteThought]

Congrats DK, hope it was a wonderful wedding!

I will conduct an experiment on the barley wine. On a day where i feel perfectly okay I will drink one (1) 12 oz bottle, not do anything else, and see what happens. Then we will know if it was an allergic reaction to something else, some other thing I drank at some other point, or what.

If its any good DK can have one mailed to him. Or come drink with me in portland and try all of my other GF beer.

 

[BBBF]

I wasnt around as much because I was getting married. My GF GF is now my GF wife.

Congrats. I did the same two weeks ago.

 

[DKershner]

Congrats DK, hope it was a wonderful wedding!

I will conduct an experiment on the barley wine. On a day where i feel perfectly okay I will drink one (1) 12 oz bottle, not do anything else, and see what happens. Then we will know if it was an allergic reaction to something else, some other thing I drank at some other point, or what.

If its any good DK can have one mailed to him. Or come drink with me in portland and try all of my other GF beer.

Sure...trying to poison me with your weed-beer.

I make it up there now and again, usually during the summer though since its more difficult in the winter. May have to take you up on that at some point.

 

[InfiniteThought]

Right now I have quite the collection of GF beer; Wit, Nut Brown, Citrus Pale, 2 Saisons, Imperial CDA, Applewine, ESB, and this barley wine (those are just the ones that are drinkable). Just put a Okto style ale and another pale into the fermenters on saturday. If that can't bribe people to come over I don't know what can.

 

[InfiniteThought]

If anyone is still paying attention or cares...as it has been a while, the barley wine is rapidly approaching fantastic. Still has a hint of unpleasantness to it, but the great variety of tastes makes it not matter too much. A little to drunk to post more at this moment. DK, drop me a message if you are going to be in portland soon, you are welcome to come try some.

ALSO; Does not cause out of body effects, just pleasant (strong) drunk.