Grain Bill Contest

[Sam]

I picked up my grain from Quirky a couple weeks ago. Now have a batch in the fermenter for the OTMP grain challenge.

3 months to condition and carbonate should be plenty of time. Hope I can make it last until June. 🙂

Serving:
Genmaicha Brown Ale
Munich Dunkel
IPA

Conditioning:

Fermenting:
House Amber

Planning:
?

[Spauld]

Hey Sam, your “Isolation Amber” sounds like a big ale, so your aging time makes perfect sense. I was hoping to make something more along the lines of an ESB, so I don’t think I want it sitting back that long. My standard strength English-style ales seem to be at their very best about 30 days from kettle to glass (which probably matches what happens across the pond). So I’m dragging my feet a bit. ….of course, all of this is in flux a bit, since nobody really knows what the future will bring at this point. Who knows if we’ll even be out of social-distancing by then? So your “isolation amber” may very well be consumed in isolation (great name by the way!).

[Sam]

Jim, my ‘Isolation Amber’ is my regular YAA (Yet Another Amber) but I’ll be using tap water with Campden tablets instead of RO water and salts. I’m in the ‘at-risk’ due to lung issues so I am really trying to not go to public places like grocery stores. I’ll brew the amber tomorrow and it should be ready in 3 -4 weeks. Almost certainly it will be consumed in isolation.

I decided to try a barleywine for my OTMP Grain Challenge beer; this will be my first barleywine. My numbers were off, and my OG was 1.086 instead of the calculated 1.094 so this will be a barleywine ‘lite’. Tastes Great!, Less Filling! I thought 3 months would be the minimum for a barleywine so I felt I was pushing it anyway.

I agree. Not sure what our options will be by June. I was scheduled to spend a week on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in late June for my 60th. I don’t even know if the Grand Canyon will be open then. Other National Parks are closing, and backcountry travel is being shutdown all across the west. Strange times…

Sam

Serving:
Genmaicha Brown Ale
Munich Dunkel
IPA

Conditioning:

Fermenting:
House Amber

Planning:
?

[Spauld]

OK, gotcha Sam. The ‘barleywine-lite’ sounds like it will be a tasty “old ale” or “English Strong ale”….something like that perhaps? Either way, I think you’ve calculated the aging times about right. The Isolation Amber sounds good too, btw.

So sorry about the limitations on you vacation. That sucks…but the goal is to live to fight again! I predict your trip will happen, but it may just be delayed for an unknown amount of time. Take care of yourself Sam. Ryan told me about how well ordering groceries online works. I thought I might check into it. That’s pretty much the only place I feel like I NEED to go these days, and it also feels like the most likely place one would catch this dreaded virus! By the way, I have a sneaking suspicion that once this thing is over with, we’re all going to be looking at things a whole lot differently than we have in the past. Maybe I’m giving our self-absorbed, ego-driven, instant gratification society more credit than it deserves (myself included here)….but it’s just a hunch and perhaps a hope. OK….I’m getting off on a tangent, but the Doors song “strange days” comes to mind.

[Spauld]

I know some of you guys have already brewed your “grain bill challenge” brews, and others are still in the planning stages. Just wondering if the current social situation has affected anyone’s decision on going forward with it? I’m tentatively scheduled to do a joint brew day with Jeff, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the shelter-in-place mandate will be extended….in fact, if I had to guess, it will likely be extended more than once in the coming months. First and foremost, while I’ve really been looking forward to the joint-brewing day, I would be reluctant to spend an afternoon in close company with someone else in the current environment, partially since my employer is (for the time being) still paying me to work from home and remain distant from others (Jeff, what are your thoughts on this?). Secondly, I’m thinking I’ve probably got one more brewing in me for the 2019/2020 brewing season (I don’t brew during the summer)….so I’m just trying to figure out what that final brew will be; “grain bill” or something else? I’d probably just shoot for one of my other recipes if we weren’t actually going to be able to gather in June to compare beers. Just wondering what everyone else is thinking here?

[Sam]

I understand the feelings of uncertainty over the next few months. I’m trying to mentally prepare that ‘stay-at-home’ (or ‘Stay-In-Place’ SIP) will likely extend into/through May. In the meantime I want to be able to live with the knowledge that life will return to ‘normal’, and that this is a temporary hiatus. For me, future plans will happen, but might need to be adjusted.
I had already brewed my OTMP challenge ale before the SIP order. Hopefully there will be some left when we are able to meet for the tastings.
Jim, since Jeff wanted to help with the mash, could you do the mash for him, find an acceptable way to package the wort for him, and let him finish the boil/ferment/conditioning on his own? It is really up to the 2 of you.
As for your brewing schedule… You do what works for you. Keep your current schedule and live life as normally as you can. If summer brewing isn’t normal for you, keep that schedule.
I’ve actually ramped up my brewing; I’ve brewed the past 3 weekends. And, I’m already planning my next brew. I’m going to run out of kegs (I don’t have as many as you…). HA!

FYI… Kegged my OTMP Grain Challenge barleywine yesterday. FG is 1.020. It tastes alcohol hot, but I didn’t detect any other off flavors. I’m thinking I’ll cold crash it, then let it condition at 64F (basement temp) for a month and taste test again. I read through the style guides, and I think it still fits a barlywine description better than Old Ale or Strong Ale. There isn’t any wood character like an Old Ale might have, and the numbers don’t really match the Strong Ale category.

Brew on!

Serving:
Genmaicha Brown Ale
Munich Dunkel
IPA

Conditioning:

Fermenting:
House Amber

Planning:
?

[RyanP]

Sounds like it came out to be an english barleywine. 8.66% ABV meets the minimum ABV and unless you age it specifically and has some aged character, it’d probably be closer to an english barleywine than an old ale. It’s kind of arbitrary at the ABV you’re at. Old ales in particular have a super wide range. Some sit in wood and take on that character, some have brett in them, some have neither. Can’t wait to try it, save a few bottles if this lasts too long and you’re close to tapping it!

[Sam]

Ryan, thanks for the feedback. I appreciate your input.

That is how I interpreted the guidlines; that an Old Ale might have wood or brett character from the aging process. I don’t plan to age this batch on wood, so I don’t expect it to pick up those characters.

It seems my batch more closely matches the english barleywine, but on the low end. I’m good with that for my first attempt. I plan to have this batch around a long time. I haven’t decided if I will bottle once I have let it condition in a keg. I think that might be my best option for longer term aging.

Sam

Serving:
Genmaicha Brown Ale
Munich Dunkel
IPA

Conditioning:

Fermenting:
House Amber

Planning:
?

[Spauld]

Hey Sam, I think we all share your hope and vision that things return to “normal”….sooner rather than later. I have a sneaking suspicion that this will extend far beyond May, but we’ll see. Either way, I’m prepared to continue hunkering down!

I’ll reach out to my grain-challenge brew partner and try to figure out how or if we’ll proceed. While I am eager to help out a fellow OTMP with any logistical concerns, part of the fun of this for me was partnering-up to make bier….and then gathering as a group to compare. Without those two elements, it all seems rather pointless at the moment. Just another life-adjustment.. of which there are many these days, but I feel lucky to be healthy at this point!

Adding your barleywine to your summer backstop is a real win. At 8.6%, it should keep well! I’m guessing the ‘hot’ alcohol elements you mention will mellow with time.

[RyanP]

Sam wrote:

That is how I interpreted the guidlines; that an Old Ale might have wood or brett character from the aging process. I don’t plan to age this batch on wood, so I don’t expect it to pick up those characters.

It seems my batch more closely matches the english barleywine, but on the low end. I’m good with that for my first attempt. I plan to have this batch around a long time. I haven’t decided if I will bottle once I have let it condition in a keg. I think that might be my best option for longer term aging.

Sam

That’s how I interpret it as well. Old Ales need to be old and/or have some of that historic character (wood and/or brett), otherwise the “old” part doesn’t really jive.

You could always bottle a % of the batch too, so you save some back. Barleywines, especially english, can really change over time in really fun ways. At 8.5% it’ll be really easy to bottle condition it too, which will further allow the beer to change over time (compared to bottling off of a keg with c02).

On a related note, if anyone is interested in aging beers, there is an awesome book about it that I’ve had for a few years. The author lives in Denver. It’s called vintage beers – https://www.amazon.com/Vintage-Beer-Tasters-Guide-Improve-ebook/dp/B00ESCVNU2 It’s great for figuring out which beers to age, for how long, how to age them, what happens scientifically and practically as they age and so on. Great for both learning to brew beers that can age well yourself or just building a small cellar out of commercial beers. I learned so much from this book on both topics.

[Author]

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