Bottling and labeling of a Barley Wine-Episode I

After racking over my pumpkin ale this morning I thought I would take the bottled barley wine (brewed back in August and bottled this past week) and wax the bottles (wax was ordered from Northern Brewer-www.northernbrewer.com).

The process was pretty simple, after giving these bottles a few days to start priming and pushing out any residual O2 as the fresh Wyeast 1056 got working (this is just my hang up, not necessary as far as I know) I took a can of Coke, cut it in half and submerged with about 1.4lb wax into an old pot..which by the way is now part of my brewing equipment according to the wife :) filled with approx 1.5 inches of water and boiled until the was melted.

From there I'm sure you can figure out what happened, I dipped and let the wax run down naturally. What you can see in the pic to the right is the standard 22oz bombers which I bottled the bulk of the b.wine in, and next to it is the Champagne bottle used (originally a Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu) and poured the remaining was over the top to really give it an unique look. This is the bottle that we will age for 5 years..now I've got a reason to look forward to turning 35..kick ass! In the background you can see my loyal brewing assistant kicking it in her crate wondering just why the hell the "male one" is sitting on a floor taking pictures of bottles.

Next up I'll be designing labels for this bad boy with my wife.

Barley Wine (yet to be named)-My first All Grain Batch!

Yet to be named Barley Wine, by this handsome devil !!!

(Grain/Hop bill at bottom)

My first all grain brew!! So, yes I was pretty pumped doing this, tome all of my experiences so far making first extract batches, then moving to extract/partial mash batches, and finally graduating to all grain batches has been very fulfilling and educational to say the least, and I have so much more to learn! After pulling out all of my grain (22 lbs of it!) And going over my recipe and process (mash schedule etc) one last time early Sunday morning I took an extra moment to reflect upon what I was about to do-take nothing but grain, fresh hops, yeast, and water then somehow turn all of that natural goodness into a barley wine, loving it! After prepping my water the night before (5.5 gallons) I was ready to go right out of the gates. I conducted a 90 minute mash in my new mashtun, including the false bottom supplies by Northern Brewer, moved onto a 90 minute boil which I was able to bring roughly 5.75 gallons down to 5 between using two pots, all the while adding ridiculous amounts of high IBU Simcoe hop pellets in to bring my up to my targeted IBU's and start off with my original gravity right on target-1.12..fantastic.

Another big improvement I made to my system this time around was the addition of a proper chilling coil (previously I had tried with 8 feet of copper tubing..which was a huge waste of time), by picking up 25 feet of the stuff and running cold water through it for one full hour-this brought me down to a pitching temp of 73 degrees.

The yeast strain I used was a basic American Ale (smack pack) yeast cake which had been used to ferment out a Hoppy Pale Ale which I threw together a few weeks back, this brew was bottled while the Barley Wine was being cooled and once cooled was pitched directly upon the yeast cake...this is all thanks to Teds recommendation a while back, much appreciated since this bad mother started fermenting within the hour..and was almost completely done within 2.5 days, which brought it down to 1.010...

So now this guy is sitting in primary, to be moved to secondary this weekend (that's 2 weeks in primary...and up to 8.5 months in secondary (that's April..when we will be moving from Chicago..I should name it in respect to this event..hmmmm). Then its to be bottled with the top waxed and stored for much much longer..

Also making a special appearance with this brew is our my assistant brewer-3.5 month old Higgins..the super pup and my beard, which I'm glad to say is now one full month old (in this pic it was 2.5 weeks old)...and when I place this sucker in secondary the beard also goes away..mostly for job security :)

Thanks for reading, and as always please leave comments, threats, donations, and or beer at your convenience.
Thanks!

Hop/Grain Bill & schedule..

Mash: 90 Minute-batch sparged with 2.5 gallons

Grains: 18 lbs UK 2 Row

1 lb Aromatic

1 lb Flaked Barley

1 lb Biscuit Malt

.50 lb Caramel Malt-120 SRM

1 lb Table Suger

Boil: 90 Minue-5.5 gallons

Hop Additions: 60 minute-Simcoe (11.9% AA)-2 oz of Pellets

30 Minute-Simcoe (11.9%)-1 oz of Pellets

20 Minute-Centennial 1.75 (9.5%)-1.75 oz Whole Hops

10 Minute-Centennial .25 oz Whole Hops

5 Minute-Amarillo .5oz pellets

Irish Moss at flame out

Brewing up a APA in preperation for a Barley Wine....

American RyeHop Pale Ale

Brewed-7/29 (Partial Mash)

Well I finally got myself back brewing again this past weekend after a brief hiatus (last brew was cooked up in May-Belgium Wit..which was an interesting brew to say the least). This beer actually was an afterthought when thinking up a recipe/process to brew my first Barley wine.

After consulting with fellow Brewer Ted (link to blog to the left) he advised that I either, begin a large yeast starter or (the better option obviously) brew a batch up and pitch directly on the yeast slurry, which is already in effect a large yeast population, or starter, that will be able to handle the task of fermenting a big beer such as a Barley Wine after chomping down all the fermentables in this RyeHop APA.

I prepped about 5 gallons of water the night before and began mashing at 8am for one hour at a mash temp of 147 degrees (target was 152, but I miscalculated the amount of heat I would lose to the mash tun and grain when putting in my 154 degree mash water), this will affect the fermentables and threw off my target OG (1.061) and gave me a OG of 1.051...yeah not good but definitely a learning experience.

After mash out and batch sparge with 170 degree water the boil was started after adding my 5lbs of DME (dry malt extract). Boil time was 60 minutes, cut down from the suggested 90 minute boil. I modified the boil time for one reason only, to cut down on the Alpha Acids from the 1.5oz (6.2 AA) of bittering hops added for the entire boil length. To explain a bit more-hops, and more specifically the Alpha Acids released after a violent boil are what preserves beer to an extent (see the history of IPA's-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_pale_ale), so the same acids that protect all the good stuff in beer from infection (including yeast cells-important in this case) are also what would encase the yeast cells in my slurry which I require to be "free", or not encased in Alpha Acids, to go nuts on this upcoming barley wine when I dump the wort on top of it.

Temperature control during fermentation has always been one of my primary challenges while fermenting the brew, and I plan on making (DIY'ing) a more permanent solution to this; however for the few days that this batch will be in primary fermentation my temp solution can be seen below, front and center of the AC unit...not environmentally friendly to say the least but we do need to keep the apartment livable during the day for the puppy so I'm not beating myself up too much for the time being. This batch will sit in primary for a few more days (7 total), then its off to secondary to age an additional 3 weeks before bottling I think.

Behold!!! The advanced temperature control system!!!!

The Driftless Area and New Glarus-Wisconsin

Well this past weekend we took an impromptu trip up into our neighbor to the north-Wisconsin. The plan was simple, get out of the city for a few days, enjoy some wilderness (journal writing for Euni, and fly fishing the driftless area for myself), and don't plan much more than 1/2 day in advance..

If your unfamiliar with the driftless area of SE Wisconsin I encourage you to take a quick look at this description on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driftless_area . For a self-proclaimed "outdoorsy" couple this area is a refreshing break from Chicago, and a great excuse to get out and go exploring.

So after a slow start on Saturday morning we were off heading towards Madison and then east to Dodgeville where I had planned on exploring Otter Creek. On the way to our destination we had noticed that our Wisconsin guide book had not only great maps of the area creeks and rivers but also included points of interest such as breweries! This revelation came almost at the same instant as Euni was looking at the list of local breweries and I was passing a sign that said "20 miles to New Glarus", I quickly exclaimed that this was a brewery that I had heard much about, and Euni quickly said "that's it, we're staying there tonight, it's also little Swiss!".

So with our lodgings figured out for the evening (well the unicorporated township where our lodgings would likely be anyway). We went into exploring some of the driftless area alongside Otter Creek, which is approx an 8 mile long stretch running North-South. After 3 hours of attempting to trick German Browns with all the tricks I had up my sleeve, and chatting with a kindly older and much wiser Fly Fisherman by the name of Bill (who I will be emailing back and forth with) I sat down and enjoyed a Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale while talking with Euni and considering just how lucky of a guy I am, I ended up putting on the chest waders and giving those Trout another hours worth of effort......well somewhere in there the sun started to set so we packed up and set our destination to New Glarus, WI (AKA "Little Switzerland").

So 20 miles later we passed a sign stating that we were welcome here and shortly after the New Glarus Brewery off to our left..which at this point had become a major point of interest for me on this trip. Pulling into our hotel-the Chalet Landhaus (http://www.chaletlandhaus.com/) we could not help but to notice that this place had a "good feel" to it, I don't know how to explain it past the obvious that is we witnessed no crimes heading it of course, but on the same token this place simply did not feel like a tourist trap, instead it felt very authentic and welcome..which was punctuated at every turn by the towns residents.

After a amazing meal at the hotels restaurant (this hotel actually sends their chefs off to Switzerland to train for a year..which is just cool, and I think Euni and I really appreciate when compared to the trek of Sushi Chefs we know). I happily went next door and picked up a six pack of New Glavus brew, the "Fat Squirrel Ale" which is a Brown Ale of extreme body. My initial thought of this brew was that it was the IPA of Brown Ales, by that I mean the malt bill was nicely balanced , but huge, and a selection of milder hops had rounded it off with a nice flavor..simply amazing..and this is coming from a guy was under the impression that Brown Ales were boring!

Once back to our room I commenced planning out the next days plan of attack on the local streams, which I'll save you the details of, but in the off-chance your interested I went north to Mt. Vernon Creek and did some exploring while Euni chilled back at our hotel and checking out the local shops and enjoying even more good nature from the local folks.

Once returning after a 3 hour waist deep hike through the Mt. Vernon creek system I quickly checked in with Euni, showered, and we were off like a herd of turtles to the New Glarus Brewery for our "self guided audio tour", and brew tasting! Well the tour was fascinating in terms of how the business was started and the background of the founders Dan and Deborah, which can be found here: http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/brewmaster.html , and the tasting okay with the Coffee Stout, "Stone Soup" (Abbey Style Ale), and their Lager..just okay due to that it was served at the cash register of the gift shop by a under age girl amongst other customers :) but hey this just adds to the experience!

So upon returning to Chicago 1.75 days later we now have an assortment of brews to taste as well as memories to keep forever. I'll be sure to post some reviews of the brews we have on hand now, which are (very thankful for the mix and match 6 pack right about now!)

-Belgium Quad (cant wait!)

-IPA
-Enigma (special brew masters choice), this brew is a "Sour Brown Ale" and after just finishing one I can tell you this may be one of my favorite brews of all time..more to come later!

-Rye Bock (labeled: "Uff-Dah!")

-Coffee Stout

Well that's about all I have for now. My apologies for the loose structure of this entry, but I would greatly appreciate any feedback those of you reading (email or comments) could give me!