English Barleywine (2022 Version) - Tasting Notes

These are tasting notes from my ninth attempt at an English Barleywine.  I brewed this on Memorial Day 2022 based on a historical recipe from the Shut Up About Barclay Perkins Blog.  This beer underwent a a 9 month secondary fermentation with WLP 640 - Brett Anomalus which was isolated from English beers and thought to be a contributor to the original beer this recipe was based on (Tennant's Gold Label).  My 2021 batch used this recipe as well but without the Brett so it will be interesting to see how the two compare.

It has been in the bottle for about a month and a half now and tasting great.  Time to do an official testing.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• A fruity character is most prominent - it is a sort of musty and maybe somewhat tropical fruit flavor - very interesting.  This is the Brett based on the smell of the culture at pitching.  In the background I get a bit of caramel and bready malt.  Maybe a bit of booze in there as well.  Also so oak character.
• Appearance:
• Pours with 1 finger of head that quickly disappears down to nothing.  It is a dark copper color and is pretty clear.
• Flavor:
• Up front there is a fruit-like flavor this fades into a bready caramel flavor.  There is a bit of herbal hop flavor in there as well as an oaky and wine like character (some of it is sort of reminiscent of coconut even).  The finish has a medium-light bitterness that offers some balance to the slightly sweet malty flavors - these linger quite some time after the sip.  A bit of booze flavor in there as well but it's hidden behind the other flavors
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied and slightly sticky on the palate.  A little bit of astringency on the palate and a slight alcohol warming effect
• Overall:
• 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

Sour Cherry Crop - 2023

 This post will track the continued maturation of my 4 North Star Dwarf Sour Cherry trees over their 4th season (read about Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3).  I've never felt like I was very good with plants so it has been a real pleasure to watch these trees grow from twigs to be 8-10 feet tall on my watch.

I got about about 2 lbs of fruit last year - enough to get a good sense for the quality of the fruit.  They are very dark and seem to me to have quite a bit more rich cherry flavor than the more famous Montmorency Sour Cherry.  Here in the fourth year I stand to get a lot more than that (maybe enough to make a beer out of).  I didn't do any trimming this winter - I'll have to keep my eye out with any problematic growth

They should continue to grow stronger this year if I treat them right - looking forward to watching this happen.

6/2/23

5/20/23

4/17/23

Growing Notes:

• 4/16/23:  Cleared away the weeds from the trunks of the trees.  Have a lot of flowers this year.  Even without fruit the trees are worth having for how they make for a very beautify yard picture:

• 6/7/23 - I've been picking for the last few days and there is a lot more to go
• 6/30/23 - The fruit is just about done.  Ended up collecting 8 1 gal freezer bags worth which weigh 39 lbs

Raspberry Crop - 2023

We are headed into the seventh growing season for my large raspberry beds (read about the 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 crops).  The plants have been putting a lot of growth over the last few weeks and (as of Mid-April) are off to a strong start.

Last year was a bit of a down year in terms of volume (only got 50lb rather than the 80-100 I had previously).  This was largely due to one of the rows (Prelude) not having as many runners as previous years.  I put in some new canes and these look much stronger this year.

I'm excited to see how they do this year and am still very much enjoying this project (even though I have more fruit than I have the time to use).

I will post a photo update every couple week to a month to record my progress:

6/2/23

5/20/23

4/16/23

Raspberry Picking Tracker:

• 6/7 - 1 lb 1 oz
• 6/8 - 1 lb 2 oz
• 6/9 - 1 lb 2 oz
• 6/10 - 1 lb 1 oz
• 6/11 - 14 oz
• 6/13 - 1 lb 8 oz
• 6/14 - 1 lb
• 6/15 - 1 lb 6 oz
• 6/16 - 1 lb 11 oz
• 6/17 - 1 lb 6 oz
• 6/18 - 1 lb 2 oz
• 6/19 - 1 lb
• 6/20 - 14 oz
• 6/22 - 1 lb 6 oz
• 6/24 - 2 lb 15 oz
• 6/26 - 2 lb 2 oz
• 6/27 - 1 lb
• 6/28 - 14 oz
• 6/30 - 1 lb 1 oz
• 7/1 - 13 oz
• 7/6 - 5 oz

• Total:  25 lb 11 oz