Thursday, June 30, 2011

SkateRat Brown Ale, Fion Eorna (Barleywine), Sterling Hop Project, and so on...


I have brewed a number of beers since my last post and I feel like sharing a bit while I wait for some wort to cool.  I am currently brewing "SkateRat Brown Ale."  It is one of the smaller beers I make with an original gravity of 1.044, or about 4.5% ABV.  SkateRat makes for a great session style English nut brown ale.  The only difference in this beer from its English brethren is an additional half an ounce of American Cascade hops with 10 minutes left in the boil.  So um, not soo English.  I brewed it this time as an all-grain beer featuring Maris Otter, Belgian special B, Belgian biscuit, chocolate, and Briess special roast malts.  With only 8.5 lbs of grain for a 5 gal batch it is very doable on my set-up.  As for the label seen above, it is extremely edited.  I am a skateboarder, but there is no chance I could ever get that high off a 5 ft quarter pipe.



The previous beer(s) were designed to feature sterling hops and a very unusual base malt arrangement.  I realized I had never used the hops before and wanted to experiment with them a bit.  The base malt(s) is comprised of Vienna, Maris Otter, and CaraMunich malts with some Aromatic and Biscuit malts to round things out.  The beers were made by brewing a single 6 gal batch, splitting it into 2 separate fermenters, and pitching the different yeasts.  The were both dry-hopped with exactly them same amounts of Sterling and Mt. Hood hops as well.  So far I have only opened one of these beers, but it wasn't carbonated yet.  These should be perfectly drinkable within a week.



Finally, there is "Fion Eorna."  A monster of a barleywine.  A lot of grains, a lot of malt extract, and a crap-ton of honey.  She was brewed on St. Patrick's Day.  A brew session that I will make an annual event wherever I am living.  This beer is also only to be drunk on St. Patrick's Day.  That is aside from a few bottles set apart to check on tastes in the first year.  Fion Eorna has nearly 3/4 pound of hops and just over 5 1/2 pounds of honey.  The honey was added at different stages of fermentation to keep the yeast as healthy and vibrant as possible.  She was also dry-hopped with an insane amount of Cascade and Willamette hops in what ended up being the tertiary fermenter.  I have only had one so far, but I can't wait until next year when I get to open the first 4-pack! At a rate of a 4-pack each year, it will last me TEN!    

Wort is cooled. YAY!! Time for me to tranfer to a carboy, clean up my patio of random brewing equipment/mess, and carry everything back upstairs.