First a little background, I've been homebrewing for 16 years and am a bit obsessive/compulsive with it. SWMBO is also a beer lover and tolerates the obsession because I can usually come close to beers we encounter on our travels. Aside from our two house beers on tap we like to have world styles rotating on our 6 taps.
About two years ago SWMBO came back from a biz trip in San Diego and said "I had this amazing beer and I took a photo of the menu because I want you to try to make it..." Challenge accepted (as usual). Okay time to research this baby... a Tripel that has been barrel aged and then blended back (Allagash Curieux). Crap. Not your average simple study the OG/FG, grain bill, yeast possibilities and water adjustment type of research. This one requires oaking...
I've oaked one beer (chips soaked in bourbon) and it was so so. Not my expertise. So I sort of shelved it. Flash forward to 2016 Xmas and I received a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 12 year bourbon... AND a 5 gallon freshly emptied barrel from Port Chilkoot Distillery up in Haines, AK (
http://www.portchilkootdistillery.com/) The note on the barrel read... "Now will you make it?"
How could I not try! I figured I'd post my progress here for others to suggest ideas and perhaps even follow. My plan is to blend back something close to 50/50 after about a month in the barrel.
Here's where I'm at... Brewed this:
OG = 1.085 (beersmith anticipated)
OG = 1.080 (actual, not sure what happened)
FG = 1.010 (estimated and actual)
ABV = 10.4% (anticipated)
ABV = 9.2% (actual)
IBU = 35.4 (adjusted to actuals)
SRM = 5.2
14 lbs Avangard German Pilsner Malt
3 lbs Briess Vienna malt
1 lb Flaked Barley
2 oz Acidulated Malt (depends on your water, Mash PH = 5.3)
1 lb Simplicity Candi Sugar 1L clear
.75 oz Sterling Hop 9.4%AA @ FWH for 21 IBU's
1.5 0z Sterling Hop 9.4%AA @ 10 mins for 13.5 IBU's
1 Whirfloc Tablet @ 15 mins
2.5L starter of Belgian Ardennes (Wyeast 3522) decanted
Brewed this up, sat in primary for 4 weeks and cold crashed for a week. I just popped this into the bourbon barrel today (2/11/17). The barrel smelled AMAZING when I removed the bung. Obviously... WHISKY. It seemed to be still moist inside so I did zero preparation. I simply filled the barrel with the relatively clear Tripel. I saved the cake and I'll be brewing up this exact recipe next week (Old Chub tribute by Oskar Blues this week).
The reason I'm putting this out here is that whisky barrels are becoming easier for homebrewers to get their hands on as distilleries are popping up about half as fast as small brew pubs these days. I haven't seen too many posts about actually barrel aging (many helpful ones on oaking with chips/spirals/cubes) so I thought I'd start this. I'll update as things go along. My plan is to go 6 weeks (per Allagash) but I'll be popping a thief into the barrel at about the three week mark to see where it's at. Again, I'm looking for a 50/50 blend (Allagash doesn't do that... they blend accordingly to taste at 6 weeks in the barrel) as I have to fit this into two cornies.
Updates coming!
S~
Beer in a barrel!