Raspberry Wine (2022 Version)

It is time to make my 4th version of a Raspberry Wine (read about the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd).  I have large Raspberry patch which provides 90-100 lbs of fruit per year.  This is more fruit than I need for my beers so making wine out of it has been a nice, productive, use for them.

I've increased the amount of fruit used each year.  This year I'm up to 58 lbs (used 54 last year).  Raspberries aren't sweet enough to make a wine strength product so sugar is typically added - this year I'm going with 12 lbs of sugar which should get me around 12-13% ABV.  In previous years I had dissolved the sugar in spring water which dilutes the wine slightly - this year I'll add the sugar dry so that pretty much the only liquid will be from the Raspberries themselves - we'll see if that creates a more intensely flavored product.

Like with my previous batches I will let this wine age for about a year in secondary.  This time I'm going to age with Port Soaked Oak.  These wines end up very tart so some back sweetening is beneficial for the flavor profile - I'll do that again this time.  So far, all my batches have been shelf stable which has been nice - I use Campden tables on these wines which likely helps with that as does the fact that they have a high alcohol concentration which would make additional bottle fermentation unlikely

Recipe Details:

• 58 lbs of raspberry
• 12 lbs of table sugar
• 6 tsp Pectic Enzyme
• 2 packets of Red Star Premier Rouge Yeast
• 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
• 10 campden tablet
• Extras:
• 4 sticks of, 375 F toasted, Port Soaked Oak

Results:

• OG:
• 1.10 (25 Brix)
• Post Fermentation FG:
• 1.002
• Back Sweetened FG:
• 1.025
• ABV:
• 13%

Brewing Notes:

• 6/12/22:
• Moved 58 lbs of frozen raspberries to 2 buckets (this was about as much fruit as would fit in the buckets

• Added Pectic Enzyme, campden tablets, and sugar

• 6/13/22 - It was still thawing out the next day

• 6/14/22 - Pitched two packets of rehydrated wine yeast (one for each bucket
• 6/15/22 - Fermentation is underway

• 6/25/22 - Skimmed the solids off the top of the wine.  It seems to still be fermenting a bit so I'm going to give it another week or so before considering a transfer to secondary.

• 8/14/22 - Transferred to a glass carboy with 3 campden tablets.  Added 4 sticks of port soaked oak to this.  Got about 5 gal of wine.  I'm going to let this age for 6-8 months.
• 6/23/23 - Transferred the wine to a bottling bucket with 3 lbs of invert #3 to back-sweeten.  Added 3 campden tablets as well to make sure fermentation doesn't pick back up.  I'm going to let this sit for a few weeks before bottling.  Measured the pre-back sweetened gravity as 1.002 - this is 11.9% Alcohol
• 1/20/24 - Finally bottling this.  Measured the back-sweetened gravity as 1.025.  Have about 5 gal which got me 51 12 oz bottles

Russian Imperial Stout with Bourbon Soaked Oak - Take III - Tasting Notes

This is my third attempt at making a clone of Goose Island's Bourbon County Brand Stout.  BCBS is a beer notable for it's very agressive and whisky forward character even by comparison with many other Bourbon Barrel aged beers.  Goose Island has generously made the recipe for the beer available for the public (uses a whopping 38 lbs of malt for a 6 gal batch).  The catch, of course, is that that to duplicate the profound barrel character they achieve is not at all straight forward.

My main focus on this third attempt at the beer (after working some of the kinks out on the big base beer in the first two batches) has been to try to replicate the big boozy flavor.  To do this I've used White Oak sticks which I seasoned, toasted, charred, and then aged in a 60% (barrel strength) spirit for over a year.  I did a bit of analysis to determine the amount of oak needed to replicate the surface area of a 55 gal barrel which led me to add a lot more oak than I ever have used before.

I let the beer age in secondary on the oak in my hot/cold attic for almost a year before bottling.  I was a little concerned that it would become over-oaked in that time but that fear was unfounded.  Anyway, it's been in the bottle for close to 6 months now.  So, time for an official tasting.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Boozy.  Has chocolate, roast, and coffee very strongly coming through as well.  Also get a pretty strong wood character to it - this is caramel and something kind of like maple syrup rather than vanilla   Sweet smelling.
• Appearance:
• Very dark brown/black in color.  Too dark to see though.  Pours with just a hind of foam which is gone instantly.
• Flavor:
• Booze up front along with roast  and chocolate as well as the caramel oaky flavor noted in the nose.  It has a pretty nice sweetness to it which lingers into the finish.  There is a medium bitterness in the finish as well along with bold alcohol flavor.  The balance is pretty nice - alcohol and sweet malt are most prominent but the bitterness cuts through enough to keep it from being cloying.
• Mouthfeel:
• Full bodied and pretty smooth drinking.  Pretty sticky on the palate after a drink.  Definitely has some warming alcohol presence.
• Overall:
• Boldly flavored and booze forward beer.  It is pretty complex with the rich malt and whiskey/oak derived character.  The oak character itself seems quite a bit different than a typical bourbon - a lot more caramel and no vanilla really.  The oak is certainly very smooth - it is definitely not over-oaked to my palate.  As a BCBS clone I think (and I'll post a proper side to side comparison on this) my beer is very close in terms of boozy presence but the character I got out of the oak was significantly different from the real thing

Nectarine Sour Blonde (2019) - Tasting Notes

This is my first attempt to use Nectarines in a beer.  I've used it here in a Sour Blond Blend which was put together in November 2019, aged on the fruit for about 7 months, and bottled in June 2020.  I used 5 of my 3-5 year aged Sour Blond to make the beer (read the latest tasting notes here).  I chose beers for this one which were on the mild side and not particularly sour to let the fruit shine through.  I also added 1.5 lb of invert syrup and bottle pasteurized while still sweet to try to accentuate the fruit flavor.

It has been 2 years since I bottled it now.  I've been drinking quite a bit of it but have been too lazy/busy to post tasting notes over that time.  Glad to finally be doing that.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Fairly strong peach/nectarine aroma most prominent.  I get a bit of earthy and fruity base beer character out of it as well.  Maybe a bit of vinegar as well.  
• Appearance:
• Golden in color with maybe a slightly reddish tint.  Pretty clear.  Poured with a 2 finger head that quickly faded to nothing.  Has a lot of cascading bubbles that last for most of the drink.
• Flavor:
• Strong fruit flavor up front - this pretty much lingers into the finish.  In the middle of the palate I get a bit of earthy brett character as well as a medium-light level of acidity.  The beer is fairly sweet on the finish which balances the acid nicely.  I want to say there is a little bit of breadiness to it as well and maybe some mineral character.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium light bodied and slightly sticky on the palate.  There is a little bit of acidic prickliness to it on the back of the throat but not in an unpleasant way.
• Overall:
• This is really nice fruit forward beer.  The Nectarine is boldly flavored but (at these usage levels) leaves a bit of room to let the base beer come through and add complexity.  The fruit and beer compliment each other nicely.  The level of sweetness retained in this beer is very nice as it counters what could have been an overwhelming level of acidity

English Barleywine IX

This beer will be my ninth attempt at the English Barleywine Style.  I have brewed on every Memorial day since 2014 back in Arizona.  English Barleywine is a style you don't see commercially very often which is a real shame.  It is a very boldly flavored and complex strong beer.  In brewing nine of them I've found found that there's a lot of room for experimentation with the style.  Read about my previous beers here:  2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.

I have used quite a few different recipes for the style.  This year I've decided to remake the beer from last year: 1954 Tennant's Gold Label from the Shut Up About Barclay Perkins Blog.  This is kind of an unusual beer in that it uses 5 lbs of flaked corn (23% of the grainbill), invert syrup, and no caramel malt.  Last years beer turned out very good but I was inspired to rebrew based on the observation on the blog that the beer would likely have undergone a secondary fermentation with Brett.  All my previous Barleywine have been clean beers but for this one I am going to use a traditional British Brettanomyces strain:  Brett Anomalus (WLP 640 which I felt very lucky to get from the Yeast Vault in time for this beer).  This is supposed a Brett that imparts a subtle fruity and maybe leathery character to aged English beers.  I'm excited to see what it does.

Other than that I'll be making the beer in basically the same way I did last year with the one exception being that I'll use Wyeast Whitbread yeast (1099) rather than S04 like last year.  These are thought be very closely related yeast strains but are reported to have slightly different flavor profiles.  The recipe called for the 1099.  This might be a moot point since I'm adding Brett anyway but still fun to try different things.

Anyway, I'm very excited to be making another one of these beers (especially after my recent vertical tasting where the fruits of my labor could be enjoyed).  Cheers!

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 17 lbs Maris Otter
• 5 lbs Flaked Corn
• 2.5 lbs Invert #1
• 1 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 3 oz Willamette (Leaf, 5.5% AA) at 120 min
• 1 oz EKG (Pellet, 5.9% AA) at 90 min
• 1 oz EKG (Pellet, 5.9% AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz EKG (Pellet, 5.9% AA) at 30 min
• 1 oz EKG (Pellet, 5.9% AA) at 15 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1099 - Whitbread Ale Yeast
• WLP 640 - Brett Anomalus (Secondary)
• Water:
• 15 gal of spring water
• 2 tsp CaCl
• 2 tsp Gypsum
• 2 tsp Citric Acid
• 1 tsp Irish Moss
• Extras:
• 4 sticks of red wine soaked oak

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 149 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 180 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 70 F (Ambient Basement Temps)
• Primary Duration:
• 1 Month
• Secondary Duration:
• 5 months

Results:

• OG:
• 1.110 (Target 1.109)
• Efficiency:
• 70% (Target 68%)
• FG:
• 1.020 (Target 1.024)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 80% (Target 76%)
• ABV:
• 12% (Target 11.3%)

Brewing Notes:

• 5/28/22 - Made a yeast starter using 100 g of DME and 1 L of water.  My yeast expired back in November so this will be a test to see if it will do the job.  Set it up on the stir plate to propagate
• 5/29/22 - The yeast isn't really showing any life to speak of.  Tasted some of the wort and it's still fairly sweet.  Topped it up with some more wort and letting it propagate until tomorrow.

• 5/30/22 - Brewday - 8:45 AM to 2:45 PM - Including setup and cleanup
• Heated 9 gal of spring water up to 180 F
• Milled my grain.  Added 1 tsp of CaCl and 1 tsp of gypsum into the grain.  Added the other half of the salts to the brew kettle so I don't forget

• Moved 7 gal of water to the mash tun.  Cycled this through the RIMS and grant system until the temperature settled out to 165 F
• Stirred the grain into the mash tun making sure there were no dough balls.  Let this sit for 10 min
• Cycled the RIMS for 50 minutes at 149 F
• Heated 9 gal of spring water up to 185 F for the sparge
• Cooked up 2 lbs of invert #1 syrup
• Did a modified fly sparge until I'd collected about 6 gal.  I had started heating the kettle after collecting about 3 gal.  Had it up to a boil after a few more minutes.  Let the mash sit for 15 min to try to extract some more sugar.
• Did a second and third sparge until about 10 gal had been collected
• Continued to boil.  Had to adjust the heat level quite a bit to prevent boil over.  Shooting for a 3 hr boil.
• With 2 hrs left I added the bittering hops

• Added the 90 min hops
• Added the 30 min hops and the Invert #1

• At 15 min I added the last hops and Irish Moss
• Added the wort chiller at 5 min to sanitize
• Chilled down to about 75 F
• Transferred to the fermenter.  Let the wort fall a couple feet to aerate.  Pitched the yeast starter during the transfer.

• Measured the gravity as 1.118 (this is 27.2% sugar).  Collected 5.75 gal.  I'm going to water it down by 0.25 gal which makes the beer 1.110 (26.1% sugar)
• Set the beer up with the lid on loose at basement temperatures.  I didn't get a great sense that the starter was healthy.  I'll give this beer a couple days to get started and, if no signs of life are seen, I'll pitch my emergency packet of S04.
• 6/1/22 - I'm starting to see some signs of fermentation.  I'm not going to add the S04 today.  We'll see if signs of fermentation activity have increased by tomorrow and reconsider.

• 6/2/22 - Have a good amount of krausen formed on the beer this afternoon which is giving me confidence the beer will ferment out as expected.  I'm not going to pitch the S04

• 6/19/22 - Prepared a yeast starter for the Brett several days ago.  It is showing a good amount of activity.  I will add this to the beer when it is transferred to secondary next week

• 6/26/22 - Transferred the beer to a glass carboy for bulk aging.  Measured the gravity as 1.030 at this point.  Added oak to the beer at this point and also added the brett starter.  I'll let this age for 6 months or so.
• The beer has a pretty strong fruit ester character along with bready and caramel malt character along with noticeable alcohol presence - also has a good bit of hop character in the mix and is firmly bitter
• The Brett A yeast is very interesting.  Historical reports were that it provides a Pineapple-like character.  I'd say that's pretty accurate for the ester character it brings.  It tastes somewhat like the Brett Clausenii I had used previously but I think is more fruit forward and more intense in flavor.  I am excited to see how it performs.

• 3/11/23 - Bottling day - This beer has been sitting in a dark corner of the basement for 9 months undisturbed.  I measure the gravity as 1.020 - this is down 10 points from the start of the aging - and has an ABV of 12%.  It is a golden brown in color and very clear.  It has a fruity and oaky aroma and the flavor is a mix of booze, fruity ester, light bready malt, and a fairly firm bitter kick.  Bottled with 5 oz of priming sugar and a rehydrated pack of Red Star Premier Cuvee yeast.  Got 60 bottles.  I'll give these a couple weeks to carbonate before trying the first one
• 4/20/23 - Tasting Notes - This is a rich, boldly flavored, and complex beer.  The fruit character is different than any I've gotten from a traditional English yeast.  The yeast and malt flavors get along very nicely in this beer.  It is a strong beer but it's easy to drink due to the balance provided by the hop bitterness that remains almost a year after brewing
• 5/28/23 - Tasting Notes (2023):
• Tasting Notes (39 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):  Fruity ester character is dominant.  I'd say it's kind of tropical fruit and maybe peach.  I get a bit of caramel in the background.  Maybe a bit of oak in there too.  Some booze as well and maybe some hop character
• Appearance (2 of 3):  Copper color and very clear.  Pours with a 2 finger head that fades down to a thin ring pretty quickly
• Flavor (17 of 20):  Fruity ester character followed by nice caramel malt and lightly toasted bread.  There is an herbal hop flavor in there as well.  The finish has a medium bitterness which is balanced by rich malt flavor with a light sweetness.  A bit of alcohol character to it but it hides it pretty well
• Mouthfeel (5 of 5):  Medium bodied and only a little bit sticky on the palate.  It drinks very smoothly.  Noticeable alcohol warming.
• Overall (8 of 10):  Rich and bold flavors in this beer.  I has a great deal of complexity between yeast, malt, and hop character.  I really like the fairly firm bitterness in this one and the balance it achieves.
• 6/1/24 - Tasting Notes (2024):
• Tasting Notes (40 of 50):
• Aroma (9 of 12):  Very fruity on the nose - tropical almost.  I get a bit of bready malt character in there as well in the background.  Also get a bit of alcohol.  Nice bold aroma in this one
• Appearance (3 of 3):  Pours with a 1 finger head that quickly fades to nothing.  Very clear and dark gold in color.
• Flavor (16 of 20):  Tropical fruit flavor up front transitions to a caramel and bready malt character.  There is a light bitterness in the finish but the balance is towards a slightly sweet malty character.  Get some booze in the finish as well.  It has a bold flavor and tastes nice
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):  Medium full bodied and slightly sticky on the palate.  Drinks pretty smooth.  Light alcohol warming character.
• Overall (8 of 10):  The fruit flavor in this beer is very interesting and I like it.  Malt flavor is very nice as well.  I also really like the bitterness in this one - even fairly light it helps the complexity