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Oak aged Old ale

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4370

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Oak aged Old ale

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:46 am
by Thirsty Boy
Hey all you BNers.

Well I not long ago scored myself an oak barrel to play with. I asked everyone what they thought I should do with it in this thread

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4259

Well the barrel turns out to be around 38-40 litres rather than the 25-30 I thought it was going to be and it used to contain, and in fact still contains a few litres of port. So here's what I'm gonna do with it. I'd like your opinions on the idea and the recipe.

I'm going ot do an Old Ale in it. Its going to basically be the recipe from BYO may-june 06 issue from the recipe on how to clone Newcastle brown. You have to do an old ale and then a low OG amber ale and blend them. I thought I would do the old ale, age it in the barrel, then blend 2 cornies worth of Newkie (ish) and still have enough left over for a keg of old ale.

The only changes I have made, is to make the old ale a chunk "bigger" I want it to handle the port notes and any oak it might pick up from the barrel. Also to minimise any possible infection. Although the barrel is unlikely to be infected considring the ABV o fthe port thats in it. So my Newkie clone will be a bit off, but should still be damn good beer!

OK heres the old ale recipe. what do you think


Newkie Brown (old ale component)

A ProMash Recipe Report

BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
-------------------------------

19-A Strong Ale, Old Ale

Min OG: 1.060 Max OG: 1.108
Min IBU: 30 Max IBU: 80
Min Clr: 20 Max Clr: 51 Color in EBC

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (L): 22.50 Wort Size (L): 22.50
Total Grain (kg): 7.06
Anticipated OG: 1.074 Plato: 17.995
Anticipated EBC: 48.7
Anticipated IBU: 40.9
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 120 Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate: 15.00 Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 32.14 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.052 SG 12.83 Plato


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential EBC
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
70.8 5.00 kg. Pale Malt(2-row) Great Britain 1.038 6
17.0 1.20 kg. Flaked Corn (Maize) America 1.040 1
9.9 0.70 kg. Crystal 105L Great Britain 1.033 207
2.0 0.14 kg. Chocolate Malt Great Britain 1.034 936
0.3 0.02 kg. Roasted Barley Great Britain 1.029 591

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
60.00 g. Fuggle Pellet 5.00 39.1 60 min.
10.00 g. Goldings - E.K. Pellet 5.00 1.7 15 min.


Extras

Amount Name Type Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.18 gm Sodium Metabisulphate Other 60 Min.(mash)
3.55 gm Irish Moss Fining 10 Min.(boil)
0.06 gm Zinc Sulphite Other 1 Min.(boil)


Yeast
-----

WYeast 1099 Whitbread Ale


Mash Schedule
-------------

Mash Type: Single Step

Grain kg: 7.06
Water Qts: 15.85 - Before Additional Infusions
Water L: 15.00 - Before Additional Infusions

L Water Per kg Grain: 2.12 - Before Additional Infusions

Saccharification Rest Temp : 67 Time: 60
Mash-out Rest Temp : 0 Time: 0
Sparge Temp : 76 Time: 0


Total Mash Volume L: 19.71 - Dough-In Infusion Only

All temperature measurements are degrees Celsius.


So if I do 2 batches of this, then I can fill up the barrel, and have 5 or so litres spare for topping up when some of the beer evaporates through the wood.....

What say you fine folk. A disaster in the making or an OK idea?

Thirsty

PS: Mex, seeing as the barrel is bigger than I thought. We'd have to double batch even on your system. Still, I'd love to come round one day and brew with you anyway.

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:26 am
by Speyedr
Looks OaKee Dokee to me. It just sucks that we can't trade beers...
:cry: :cry: :cry:

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:38 am
by Thirsty Boy
Speyedr wrote:Looks OaKee Dokee to me. It just sucks that we can't trade beers...
:cry: :cry: :cry:


Rob,

It's gonna be a while till this puppy is ready... so a couple of bucks a month in a jar till bottling time and I reckon I can send a sample of the results n your direction. Hell, maybe I'll even send one in to the BN as well.

Screww the tyranny of distance. I have cash and I refuse to be southern hemisphered out of BN community participation!!!

My sponsor child in Africa will just have to damn well do without a birthday present. Unless she wants beer :wink:

Thirsty

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:52 am
by Speyedr
Thirsty Boy wrote:My sponsor child in Africa will just have to damn well do without a birthday present. Unless she wants beer :wink: Thirsty


That's cold man.... funny, but cold... :lol:

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:25 am
by Push Eject
Something tells me those of you attending the Anniversary Show will be smuggling a lot of beer into the Bay Area.

Push Eject

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 10:03 am
by Cuda
A friend and me also got a port barrel. We ended up putting a 1.085 porter in it. The best porter I have ever tasted. A good idea is to have friends and your local homebrew club buy shares of it. I just finished brewing 40gals and my friend brewed 40gals. of a 1.095 stout to go back in the barrel. Don't leave it in the barrel to long I have alot of barrel aged beers that are over the top and not drinkable. One more thing make enough beer to have some for topping off and tasting to compare too...

I might bring a bottle of the barrel aged Port-Porter to the Anniversary Show. I also have the "Dirty Girl" (Award winning belgian blonde ale that I add brett to) yumm good...

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:47 pm
by Thirsty Boy
Cuda wrote:A friend and me also got a port barrel. We ended up putting a 1.085 porter in it. The best porter I have ever tasted. A good idea is to have friends and your local homebrew club buy shares of it. I just finished brewing 40gals and my friend brewed 40gals. of a 1.095 stout to go back in the barrel. Don't leave it in the barrel to long I have alot of barrel aged beers that are over the top and not drinkable. One more thing make enough beer to have some for topping off and tasting to compare too...

I might bring a bottle of the barrel aged Port-Porter to the Anniversary Show. I also have the "Dirty Girl" (Award winning belgian blonde ale that I add brett to) yumm good...


Thanks Cuda, you give me confidence as I am going to brew the first 5 gallons of the Old ale tomorrow.

Fortunately the barrel is only 10 gallons, so I will only have to brew 2 batches to fill it up and have a bit spare for topping off etc.

How old was the barrel you got? I was actually planning on aging in my barrel for quite a few months, because I figured there would be virtually no oak character left. My barrel is probably somewhere in the 15-20 years old range. I kow for certain its at least 12 years old. But if yours was an old barrel too.... How long do you reckon??

Thanks

Thirsty

Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 11:06 am
by Thirsty Boy
OK,

batch #1 of the Old Ale went into the oak today,

I ended up with 20 litres of 1.076 down to 1.015 @ estimated 70 IBUs

batch #2 is in the fermentation fridge,

Its only 1.074 @ estimated 71 IBU, but I got 23litres.

So I should have about 6 litres left over, I will bottle this up and use it for topping up, and also so that I have some of the beer non-barrel aged as a comparison.

Now all I have to do is wait for 6-8 months.... dammit.

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