Griffin495
Well-Known Member
One of the first ten batches of beer I made (probably the first 5) was NB Bourbon Barrel Porter. Even with all the noob mistakes I probably made, no fermentation temp control although I brewed it in the winter so the room I kept it in was cold, and other stuff, it came out surprisingly good.
I remember reading somewhere that if you could hold it for 3 years, it would really shine. So I opened my first one at 6 months. It was young, hot (alcohol) and oaky. After a year, it was better. I kept opening them and trying them, hoping they would be amazing and they were good and got better. 3 years rolls around and I had two left. What a difference it made!! And this past weekend, I opened the last one at a little over 3.5 years old. Wow!!
Over the years, I kept saying I need to brew this again. I NEED to brew this again. Having a kid, moving around, it just never happened. Well, now it has to happen. My plan is to brew this every year so I have a 3 year old aged pipeline of it going. Now, I don't have the room, nor do I want to have another two cases of this every year sitting around waiting to age. That would really piss off the old lady, too. Nor is this one I'd sit down a drink a bunch of at a time, so I've decided to brew a smaller batch.
The first time I brewed it, I brewed the extract. But this time I want to brew the all grain. I've scaled it down to a 2 gallon batch and in my experience, that will net me around 18 bottles (I generally seem to get 9 bottles a gallon no matter what size batch I brew). That will give me six to drink along the way and gauge it and see if the recipe needs tweaking along the way. After the first year, I'll just brew 1.5 gallon batches so I end up with a 12 pack to drink every 3 years after it ages.
I know a lot of people say, well why don't you just brew a regular size batch. Well, along with the space issue I mentioned earlier, and my drinking habits, another reason is we are hitting the height of summer and I'm not dragging all my stuff outside with the heat indexes approaching 110F, so I'm stuck inside brewing on the stove until fall arrives.
So my only questions are: 1. Is a 2.5g bucket big enough to ferment 2 gallon batches? I've done a 2 gallon batch before, but I honestly don't remember if I used a 2g bucket of a 4g. (I've got a few of both in my garage and I didn't note it in my notes)
2. If anybody wants to take a look at my recipe....
Batch size: 2gallons
Boil size: 3 gallons
OG: 1.069
FG: 1.018
ABV: 6.67%
IBU: 57.82
SRM 47.03
3.8lbs Maris Otter
0.4lb UK wheat
0.4lb UK Chocolate
0.4lb UK Black Patent
0.2lb UK Dark Crystal 80L
11.3 g Chinook 13AA - 60 minutes
5.7g E Kent Goldings 5AA - 15 minutes
5.7g E Kent Goldings 5AA - 5 minutes
Soak 1.2 oz of Medium-plus toast American oak cubes in 6 oz Maker's Mark and add to the secondary. I'll have to check my old notes from the first time I did this. but I'll probably do 3-4 weeks in the primary, 2 weeks in the secondary, then add the bourbon and oak for a week or two.
For yeast I'll either use Danstar Windsor Ale Yeast or Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Yeast. (I'm open to suggestions on that.)
So that's my rough idea of a plan, what do you think?
I remember reading somewhere that if you could hold it for 3 years, it would really shine. So I opened my first one at 6 months. It was young, hot (alcohol) and oaky. After a year, it was better. I kept opening them and trying them, hoping they would be amazing and they were good and got better. 3 years rolls around and I had two left. What a difference it made!! And this past weekend, I opened the last one at a little over 3.5 years old. Wow!!
Over the years, I kept saying I need to brew this again. I NEED to brew this again. Having a kid, moving around, it just never happened. Well, now it has to happen. My plan is to brew this every year so I have a 3 year old aged pipeline of it going. Now, I don't have the room, nor do I want to have another two cases of this every year sitting around waiting to age. That would really piss off the old lady, too. Nor is this one I'd sit down a drink a bunch of at a time, so I've decided to brew a smaller batch.
The first time I brewed it, I brewed the extract. But this time I want to brew the all grain. I've scaled it down to a 2 gallon batch and in my experience, that will net me around 18 bottles (I generally seem to get 9 bottles a gallon no matter what size batch I brew). That will give me six to drink along the way and gauge it and see if the recipe needs tweaking along the way. After the first year, I'll just brew 1.5 gallon batches so I end up with a 12 pack to drink every 3 years after it ages.
I know a lot of people say, well why don't you just brew a regular size batch. Well, along with the space issue I mentioned earlier, and my drinking habits, another reason is we are hitting the height of summer and I'm not dragging all my stuff outside with the heat indexes approaching 110F, so I'm stuck inside brewing on the stove until fall arrives.
So my only questions are: 1. Is a 2.5g bucket big enough to ferment 2 gallon batches? I've done a 2 gallon batch before, but I honestly don't remember if I used a 2g bucket of a 4g. (I've got a few of both in my garage and I didn't note it in my notes)
2. If anybody wants to take a look at my recipe....
Batch size: 2gallons
Boil size: 3 gallons
OG: 1.069
FG: 1.018
ABV: 6.67%
IBU: 57.82
SRM 47.03
3.8lbs Maris Otter
0.4lb UK wheat
0.4lb UK Chocolate
0.4lb UK Black Patent
0.2lb UK Dark Crystal 80L
11.3 g Chinook 13AA - 60 minutes
5.7g E Kent Goldings 5AA - 15 minutes
5.7g E Kent Goldings 5AA - 5 minutes
Soak 1.2 oz of Medium-plus toast American oak cubes in 6 oz Maker's Mark and add to the secondary. I'll have to check my old notes from the first time I did this. but I'll probably do 3-4 weeks in the primary, 2 weeks in the secondary, then add the bourbon and oak for a week or two.
For yeast I'll either use Danstar Windsor Ale Yeast or Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Yeast. (I'm open to suggestions on that.)
So that's my rough idea of a plan, what do you think?
