Barrel Project w/ Jake Browning Brewday

A while ago, Jake Browning approached me with a conundrum: he had a 10 gallon barrel that had been handed down to him, but didn’t know what to do with it. I happily volunteered to help brew something to fill it, since collaborative beer projects are usually fun. Then a bunch of time passed. Which is generally how such things work. And then Jake reminded of my promise. So I  made us a recipe, and we each brewed a five gallon batch to put into the barrel. We weren’t super-fastidious as to adhering to the recipe, as the barrel itself—through lack of actual use—may be a bust, but if the first beer turns out, we’ll certainly have a second beer ready to go into the barrel. Oh, and since Jake is scared of introducing wild microbes into his house, he brewed his version with a clean, neutral yeast, and convinced me to keep the barrel at my house.

Via the dubious history connected to said barrel, we did want to take steps to help—as much as possible—produce a “positive” result for the beer that was going into the barrel. With that in mind, prior to racking the beer into the barrel (which smelled like blue cheese and vinegar), we filled it with boiling water and let it sit for 30 minutes, at which point we drained the barrel and then filled it with beer. Will this work? We’ll certainly find out! But our hope is that by killing off as much as possible whatever current organisms were residing in the barrel will give the Lactobacillus, Brettanomyces bruxellensis Trois, and Brettanomyces custersianus a chance to successfully colonize the barrel.

170. Barrel Project w/ Jake Browning
Mash:
7 lbs. MFB Special Aromatic
4 lbs. Breiss White Wheat
½ lb. rolled oatmeal
½ lb. rolled barley

Mash @ 150° F for 90 minutes w/ 4 gallons RO water & 5 g. gypsum; collected 2 ½ gallons @ 1.090
Batch sparge @ 167° F for 20 minutes w/ 4 gallons RO water & 4 g. gypsum; collected 4 gallons @ 1.026

Collected 6 ½ gallons; topped off to 7 gallons, brought to a boil (90 minutes), & added:
w/90 to go: 2 oz. EKG leaf 5.41% AA

Chilled, racked onto yeast cake from 167. Brett Beer w/ Brett & Coffee

Primary: 2/21/2014
Secondary: 2/28/2014
Bottled:

OG: 1.052
FG:

Tasting Notes: