Raspberry Wine (2021 Version) - Tasting Notes

 This was my third version of a Raspberry wine.  I made 5.5 gal of wine using 54 lbs of fruit and 13 lbs of sugar (there was no water added).  I ended up bottling this back in July 2022 so it's been in bottles for over three years now which is hard to believe.

These are tasty but I don't end up reaching for them very often.  I am excited to finally be capturing some tasting notes

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Jammy raspberry with booze and a bit of a funky yeast character
• Appearance:
• Dark red/purple.  Too dark to tell if it is clear
• Flavor:
• Strong raspberry flavor followed by booze.  It has a milt tartness and finishes slightly sweet
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium light bodied and a little sticky on the pallet
• Overall:
• This is a very flavorful and nice drinking wine.  The sweetness balances the fairly firm alcohol presence nicely

Palmier (French Cookie)

Palmier are sugar cookies made from puff pastry which have a really nice flaky, buttery, and caramel sugar flavor.  They are really easy to make and are a lighter and more elegant dessert snack than a typical cookie.  I am making this batch with cinnamon but they are just as good without it

Recipe Details:

• 1 sheet of puff pastery
• ~1/2 cup of sugar
• ~1 TBS of cinnamon 

Process Details:

• Thaw frozen puff pastry

• Roll puff pastry out maybe 25% larger than original proportions 

• Add half the sugar to the top and use rolling pin to press this into the dough

• Flip the dough and add the other half of the sugar - using the rolling pin again to press this into the dough
• Add the cinnamon

• Then fold or roll each half of the dough up at each end until it meets in the middle to form a log shape

• Move the dough log to the fridge for 30 min which will make the next step easier
• Cut the dough into 1/4 inch cookies

• Place the cookies on a parchment lined cookie pan

• Cook in a 425 F oven.  Flip after 8 min and then cook for another 8 min
• Let the cookies cool before eating.  They cool to a crunch texture with caramelized/burnt sugar being part of the flavor component

Coffee Liqueur

I very much enjoy Coffee Liqueur and my vehicle for consumption is a White Russian.  I like using Kahlua but it is expensive and it has come to my attention, through YouTube video's that it is quite simple to make your own.  This will be a post to evaluate a number of recopies over time to see if  one really can make something as good as Kalua and how various different recipes and ingredients do at replicating the flavors

The basic ingredients are Coffee, Sugar, and some type of spirit (rum for Kahlua).  Then additional flavorings like chocolate and vanilla can be added for extra complexity.  I look forward to exploring the various options.

Attempt #1:

Mine (L) and Kahlua (R)

For my first attempt, I amusing a recipe from the Savidge Kitchen YouTube Channel.  I am going to make something close to 1.75 ml to fill an old Kahlua bottle so this will be a double batch of their recipe.  This is:

• Recipe:
• 4 Cups of white sugar
• 2 cups of coffee 
• I used Folgers Classic which I drink every morning and like
• I make it strong with about 4-5 tbs for 2 cups
• 4 cups of my Oak aged everclear (which was diluted down to "barrel strength" of ~62%)
• 2 tbs of imitation vanilla extract
• Process:
• I combined the sugar and fresh brewed coffee in a 2 quart mason jar and swirled to dissolve the sugar - this got most of it
• I then added the 4 cups of alcohol and shook it to mix
• Vanilla was then added (I think the flavor contribution of this was pretty light compared with the coffee and whiskey flavors)
• I let this sit over night to mix and then transferred into the serving botte
• Flavor Notes:
• Aroma:
• Coffee is most prominent followed by a strong alcohol character and oak.  Some vanilla mixed in there as well
• Appearance:
• Dark reddish brown and clear.  Leaves legs on the glass
• Flavor:
• Sweet with a chocolatey and coffee flavor up front (no chocolate in this) then followed by a pretty strong boozy character.  The oaky bourbon is a very strong contributor here
• Mouthfeel:
• Full bodied and very sticky on the palate
• Overall:
• Rich and syrupy with a pretty nice coffee flavor.  It is very boozy and the bourbon flavor contributions are pretty profound
• Comparison to Kahlua:
• I think Kahlua has a much stronger coffee character both in aroma and flavor (also kind of a nicer and stronger chocolate-like component - almost like Hershey's syrup).  The Kahlua is a bit sweeter than mine but it is fairly close (even a small amount of either of these is difficult to drink on its own).  Mine is much more boozy and I think has a bit more going on in terms of complexity with the bourbon flavors.  I like them both but think the stronger coffee flavor makes the Kahlua better than this version I made (I didn't follow the recipe for use of coffee so this is no reflection on the original sorce).  This is a good data point for next time

Raspberry Crop - 2025

My raspberry beds ended up getting overgrown with weeds this year to the point where almost all the plants (other than a few of the Nova Raspberry) were choked out.  I have dug out the weeds and applied a thick layer of mulch as a first step towards regaining control.  This seems like it's been fairly effective at stopping further weed growth in the beds

Mulched beds (the healthy plants in the front are peppers)

Last Nova Raspberry Plants

The gravel I put between the beds has been growing a lot of weeds itself which is a big surprise to me.  I'm thinking I would be better off moving back to lawn between the beds.

The beds themselves are starting to crack and break - I experimented with a tall concrete bed this year - I am thinking I will replace these beds with a similar build in the coming years

English Barleywine Vertical Tasting - 2025

I have brewed an English Barleywine every year, on Memorial Day, since 2014.  I drink half the batch the next year and then store the other half to be tasted once a year with the idea that these big, sweet, and complex beers will benefit from aging.  This will be a vertical tasting of the beers I've brewed so far to assess their progress as they've aged.

It has been very interesting to track the progress of the beers over the years (read about previous tastings:  2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024).  Most of the beers use different recipes and it is interesting how many are similar but have different levels of sweetness, fruitiness, and maltiness and how that changes the drinking experience.  I think they're all very nice tasting beers

When I had fewer beers I would taste them all in one sitting but it was limiting my enjoyment (which was the only point of any of this).  For the last few years I have been attempting to compare and rank them using tasting notes and scoring.  This is a fun way of doing things but drinking one beer a day it's tough to know for sure my scoring is consistent.  Even so, I've decided to continue this ranking exercise (thinking it might yield some meaningful data if continued over many years)

Results:

2019 Version (Beer A):

• Overview:
• Brewed using a historical recipe for Eldridge Pope's Hardy's Ale from the Shut Up about Barclay Perkins Blog
• Used a mix of 2 Row and Maris otter, 4.5 lbs of Flaked wheat, and 1.5 lb of crystal
• Used WLP 099 Super High Gravity which is supposed to be Eldridge Pope's house strain
• Fermented from 1.120 to 1.010 which is a crazy 16% ABV
• Hopped with 8.5 oz of Fuggle
• Aged with 1 oz Cabernet soaked Toasted Oak
• Tasting Notes (38 of 50)
• Aroma (7 of 12):
• Overripe fruit and a funky yeast character.  A bit of caramel and some aged alcohol notes.  Fairly mild but nice
• Appearance (2 of 3):
• Reddish brown and very clear.  Poured with 1 finger of head that dissipated immediately
• Flavor (17 of 20):
• Fruity up front with some nice dark malty flavors next.  Nice and rich flavor.  The finish is slightly sweet with some bitterness offering a hint of balance.  Alcohol is present in the flavor  It has a chocolate-like note in there as well.
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):
• Medium full bodied and fairly smooth.  It has noticeable alcohol warming
• Overall (8 of 10):
• This is a rich and complex beer.  It's strong but has a mellow alcohol character which I think I'll attribute to a long aging period.  I think the flavors are very nice and it drinks well

2015 Version (Beer B):

• Overview:
• Brewed with Maris Otter, Vienna Malt and down to 2 lbs of Crystal.  Was trying for a more pale beer but ended up darker.
• Used Wyeast 1968 London ESB Ale Yeast
• Beer fermented from 1.096 to 1.006 for 12-13% ABV
• Aged with 1 oz of pre-boiled oak cubes
• Tasting Notes (35 of 50):
• Aroma (8 of 12):
• Fruity, almost like a cider smell.  Also get a bit of toast malt from it.  A mild aged alcohol smell in there too
• Appearance (2 of 3):
• Reddish brown and very clear.  Poured with a 1 finger head the dissipated immediately
• Flavor (15 of 20):
• A little fruity up front followed by a bready malt character.  Slightly sweet on the finish with some bitterness.  There is a boozy character to it as well.  Has a pretty strong ester character on the finish
• Mouthfeel (3 of 5):
• Medium bodied and not that sticky on the palate.  Not exactly smooth drinking but not harsh either.  Detectable alcohol warming
• Overall (7 of 10):
• It has some bold flavors and a reasonably good amount of complexity.  I think it leans quite a bit on the ester character with malt coming in much less - tastes good and is an interesting beer but I think they're better with a bit more malt character than this

2023 Version (Beer C):

• Overview:
• This was a recipe somewhat inspired by Goose Island's famous King Henry
• Uses Golden Promise as the base and a mix of Munich, Caramel Wheat, and double roasted srystal for a darker English Barleywine
• Bittered with Target and Styrian Goldings
• Fermented with WLP005 British Ale
• The beer fermented from 1.1.00 to 1.032 for 9% ABV
• Tasting Notes (37 of 50):
• Aroma (9 of 12):
• Fruity yeast ester, toasted bread, and caramel.  I get a subtle hint of booze in there as well.  It has a very pleasing smell.
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Pours with a 2 finger head which dissipates down to a thin layer after a couple of minutes.  Copper colored and very clear
• Flavor (15 of 20):
• Caramel malt and light toasty flavor up front with light fruitiness.  The finish is only lightly sweet and it has a very mild bitterness which offers a fair amount of balance.  It has a slightly boozy flavor
• Mouthfeel (3 of 5):
• Medium bodied and only slightly sticky on the palate.  Not exactly smooth but not harsh either.
• Overall (7 of 10):
• This is a fairly dry version which is also fairly malt forward with fairly faint yeast ester character.  The flavors are nice but I wouldn't say it has that much going on.  It's pretty easy drinking with strength but a mellow alcohol character

2024 Version (Beer D):

• Overview:
• This was a rebrew of my first English Barleywine (2014).  A recipe I came up with
• This iteration uses Golden Promise rather than Marris Otter and a heftier dose of bittering hops based on my observation that these don't last long and the hope that more would sustain the bitterness a bit longer
• The beer was fermented with S04 and Nottingham like the first version but, this time, they only took it down to 1.034
• I aged this one with a lot of brandy soaked oak
• Tasting Notes (44 of 50):
• Aroma (10 of 12):
• Caramel and toasted bread along with a fruity ester character.  A little booze in there as well.  It is a nice smell and fairly bold
• Appearance (2 of 3):
• Pours with just a little foam.  It's copper colored and not quite clear
• Flavor (18 of 20):
• Caramel and toasted malt flavors up front along with a fruity character.  The finish is sweet but it has a bit of hop bitterness to it that balances things.  It has a chocolate-like flavor.  Only a hint of booze.
• Mouthfeel (5 of 5):
• Full bodied and a little sticky on the palate.  Drinks very smooth
• Overall (9 of 10):
• The flavors are very nice and it has a good amount of complexity.  I like the sweetness and that there is some bitterness there to balance it.  The malt flavors are the primary component here.  I really like it

2016 Version (Beer E):

• Overview:
• Brewed with Maris Otter, 3 lbs of Rye Malt, and 1.5 lbs Double Roasted Crystal 120 L
• Fermented with Wyeast 1335 British Ale II
• Beer went from 1.093 to 1.012 which is 10-11% ABV
• It ended up forming a pellicle during aging although I never really picked up any flavors I'd attribute to wild yeast or bacteria
• Tasting Notes (40 of 50)
• Aroma (8 of 12):
• Smells sweet.  Bready and caramel with a bit of fruit.  Has a musty smell as well
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Pours with a 1 finger head that quickly fades to nothing.  Dard redish brown and very clear
• Flavor (17 of 20):
• Dark malt flavor - caramel.  A little fruity ester character in there as well.  The finish is slightly sweet.  There is a mild bitterness to it.  You can taste the booze but it's pretty mellow.  Has an almost medicinal character to it - sort of reminds me of cherry.  The flavors are bold and quite nice
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):
• Medium-full bodied and a little sticky on the pallet.  It drinks very smoothly.
• Overall (8 of 10):
• This is a bold and characterful beer with a pretty nice complex set of flavors between malt and fruity ester character.  It is sweet and boozy like you'd want an English Barleywine to be

2017 Version (Beer F):

• Overview:
• Brewed with 2 Row and Golden Promise as base malt and 5 lbs of white wheat malt.  Only used 4 oz of Crystal.  This finally achieved my goal of a pale barleywine.
• Fermented with Wyeast 1335 British Ale II again
• I'd wanted to get a fairly sweet barleywine on my previous version but had kept on getting more attenuation than desired.  This time I finally got one to stop at 1.034 (from 1.098).  So this is an 8-9% ABV beer.
• The beer was aged with 15 oz of Rum soaked golden raisin along with 0.5 oz of oak
• Tasting Notes (43 of 50)
• Aroma (10 of 12):
• Overripe fruit and a musty aged aroma.  A bit of sweet malt in there too - caramel and toasted bread.
• Appearance (2 of 3):
• Dark gold and clear.  Poured with a finger of head that immediately faded to nothing
• Flavor (18 of 20):
• Fruity with caramel and toasty bread flavors.  The finish is slightly sweet.  There is no real bitterness to it.  The toasty and bready flavors linger on the palate. It's just a little boozy on the finish.
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):
• Medium-full bodied and a little sticky on the palate.  Drinks very smoothly
• Overall (9 of 10):
• I think this one is a nicely flavored beer.  The flavor and aroma are bold.  It also has a good amount of complexity between the malt and fruity ester flavors.  It's sweet and a bit boozy but is pretty easy to drink

2018 Version (Beer G):

• Overview:
• Brewed using a historical recipe for Eldridge Pope's Hardy's Ale from the Shut Up about Barclay Perkins Blog
• Used a mix of 2 Row and Maris otter, 3.5 lbs of Flaked wheat, and 1.5 lb of crystal
• Used Nottingham yeast and, per instruction, allowed it to ferment in the 70s.  It was an agressive fermentation which produced a very strong and estery aroma.  The beer didn't turn out to be overly estery fortunately.
• Fermented out to 1.030 from 1.105 for an ABV of 10-11%
• This was the most aggressively hopped beer so far (7.5 oz of low alpha acid English hop in the boil) with an IBU target of 84.  Was very bitter just after fermentation but this had settled to a nice balance after 6 months of aging.
• Tasting Notes (44 of 50)
• Aroma (9 of 12):
• Toasty and bready malt along with a mild fruity ester character and booze.  I think it's a very nice smelling barleywine
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Poured with a 1 finger head that lingered for a minute or so and then fades to a thin layer.  Reddish brown and very clear
• Flavor (18 of 20):
• Rich bready malt character - get some caramel as well.  A little fruit character in there as well.  The finish is sweet and there is a very mild bitter flavor in there as well.  Maybe get a hint of chocolate.  A bit of booze.
• Mouthfeel (5 of 5):
• Full bodied and sticky on the palate.  Drinks very smooth.  Warming alcohol is felt
• Overall (9 of 10):
• This is a very nice Barleywine with a rich malt forward character.  It has a good amount of complexity as well with the subtle fruity character.  It is smooth, sweet, and strong as well which are all nice characteristics

2022 Version (Beer H):

• Overview:
• Based on a historical recipe for 1954 Tennant's Gold Label.  This is the same recipe used for the 2021 version
• Used Marris Otter, 5 lbs of Corn (which is quite interesting) and 2.5 lbs of Invert #1
• Primary fermented with Whitbread Ale Yeast (Wyeast 1099) which is the Tennant strain
• Secondary ferment with Brett Anomalus (WLP 640) which is a "Yeast Vault" product which was isolated from historical English beers and thought to be prevalent in a beer meant to be aged (like this one)
• This started at 1.110 and ended at 1.020 (Brett took it down from 1.030) for an ABV of 12% ABV
• Tasting Notes (40 of 50)
• Aroma (11 of 12):
• Bold fruity aroma with a bit of caramel malt.  A little boozy.  Has a somewhat wine-like and oak character as well.
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Pours with 1 finger head that last a couple minutes.  Dark gold in color and very clear.
• Flavor (16 of 20):
• Fruity and malty.  It is an interesting and difficult to describe fruit character - maybe pineapple.  The finish is slightly sweet.  No real bitterness.  It has a pretty strong boozy character.
• Mouthfeel (3 of 5):
• Medium bodied and a little harsh on the palate - feel the alcohol
• Overall (7 of 10):
• It is a bold and characterful beer.  It is big and boozy as well.  The flavor is probably more towards fruity ester than it is malt and the malt is not that complex a character

2020 Version (Beer I):

• Overview:
• Brewed using a historical recipe for 1940 Truman Stock 1 from Shut Up about Barclay Perkins Blog
• I ended up using Vienna and Melanoiden Malts with the idea of replacing the "high dried malt" called for (may have been way off base on these).  Recipe also used a lb of Invert #3
• Used 7.5 oz of Cluster and Fuggle in this batch
• Fermented with Wyeast 1028 London Ale which is supposed to be the Truman brewery's house strain
• Tasting Notes (42 of 50):
• Aroma (10 of 12):
• Toasted bread and caramel.  A little bit of fruity ester in there and a bit of booze.
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Dark reddish brown.  Pours with a 1 finger head that fades down to a thin layer around the glass over several minutes.  Very clear.
• Flavor (17 of 20):
• Toasty, bready, and caramel malt flavors dominate.  The finish is fairly sweet and there is a slight bitterness to balance.  Just get the slightest hint of fruity ester character.  A little booze in there as well.  Maybe get a bit of chocolate character as well
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):
• Medium-full bodied and a little sticky on the palate.  It's a smooth drinking beer
• Overall (8 of 10):
• This is a very tasty showcase of rich malt character.  It has a nice amount of complexity even without much of a fruity component.  It's sweet and boozy but still very drinkable

2021 Version (Beer J):

• Overview:
• Brewed using a historical recipe (1954 Tennant's Gold Label) from the Shut Up about Barclay Perkins Blog
• Kind of an unusual beer in that it uses a large amount of Corn (5 lbs).  Also uses 2 lbs of Invert Syrup which is the first time I've used it for one of these beers.
• Used Willamette hops for bittering and East Kent Goldings for flavor
• Aged the beer with 2 oz of brandy soaked oak
• Fermented with S04 while the beer called for Wyeast 1099 Whitbread strain.  I'd understood S04 was a Whitbread strain but may not be quite the same as 1099
• Tasting Notes (43 of 50)
• Aroma (8 of 12):
• Fruity ester character is prominent along with a boozy character
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Pours with a 1 finger head that settles to a ring around the glass in a few minutes.  Light reddish brown and very clear
• Flavor (18 of 20):
• Caramel malt and fruity ester character up front.  It is sweet on the finish.  Very faint hop bitterness.  Booze is there but it's in the background.  It's a bold flavor
• Mouthfeel (5 of 5):
• Full bodied and a bit sticky on the palate.  It's very smooth drinking.  Warming alcohol is present
• Overall (9 of 10):
• This is a very nice tasting beer with bold malt and fruit character.  It has very good amount of complexity.  It's quite sweet and boozy as well

2014 Version (Beer K):

• Overview:
• Brewed with Maris Otter and 3 lbs of assorted light crystal malts.  I was hoping for a light colored beer - got a bit darker than I'd hoped.
• Fermented with S04 and Nottingham
• The beer fermented all the way down to 1.016 from 1.101 which is 11-12% ABV
• Tasting Notes (38 of 50)
• Aroma (8 of 12):
• Malty and a little fruity.  Has a bit of a musty and aged smell to it.  A bit of booze
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Dark brown and very clear.  Pours with a 1 finger head that quickly dissipates down to nothing
• Flavor (16 of 20):
• Caramel and toasted bread.  A little fruit in there as well.  The finish is slightly sweet - no real bitterness to this one.  Has an aged alcohol flavor.
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):
• Medium-full bodied and a little sticky on the palate.  It's very smooth
• Overall (7 of 10):
• This tastes like an old beer.  Flavors are somewhat muted but nice.  It has a pretty good amount of complexity between malt and what I'm thinking are "aged flavors"

I drank all my beers at cellar temperature.  I chose not to refresh my memory on the details of these beers and made not attempt to guess which was which.  Except for the Brett beer, I didn't have a real guess for which was which during this tasting.

The rankings this year:

• 2018 (44)
• 2024 (44)
• 2017 (43)
• 2021 (43)
• 2020 (42)
• 2016 (40)
• 2022 (40)
• 2014 (38)
• 2019 (38)
• 2023 (37)
• 2015 (35)

Sour Cherry Crop - 2025

I can't believe it but this is the sixth season for my sour cherry trees.  They have grown up to 10 feet high and close to 10 feet wide and produced a lot of fruit for me this year.  Read about previous seasons (Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4 and Season 5) 

These are North Star Cherries which have a dark fleshed fruit which have a flavor similar to a sweet cherry but with a higher level of acidity and lower levels of sweetness.  I enjoy eating them but will use most of them in my beer

6/28/25

6/4/25

5/3/25

4/20/25

Growing Notes:

• 6/3/25 - I have a large amount of fruit that is ripening.  I wait until the fruit is a purple color before picking

• 6/20/25 - I have been picking for the last couple weeks, twice a day, and even though there is some fruit high up in the branches I am calling it good. I've gotten 37 lbs of fruit this year
• 6/22/25 - I did some pruning of the lower branches which were making it difficult to mow under the tree
  

English Barleywine (2024 Version) - Tasting Notes

This was my Eleventh attempt at the English Barleywine style.  I brewed this on Memorial Day in 2024, fermented for a month or so and then let it bulk age for what turned out to be close to 10 months.  I would like to think that a high alcohol beer like this one can benefit quite a bit from that kind of mellowing time (but maybe I'm just justifying my own laziness)

I am going do drink half the batch this year and then will leave the remaining 24 bottles to be consumed once a year in a vertical tasting with my growing collection of Barleywine.  This is a big, sweet beer (10% ABV and finished at 1.034) so I believe it will age very nicely (I'm lucky enough to have a cool and dark basement in which to store it).  It already has a great complexity and I expect some age will add to that

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Fruity ester character (apple) along with caramel and toasted bread.  I get an oak aroma along with a wine like character along with a mild alcohol aroma. 
• Appearance:
• Light brown and quite cloudy.  It pours with virtually no foam (just a flurry of bubbles which is soon gone.
• Flavor:
• Caramel and lightly toasted bread up front which then fades into some fruity character.  It has a fairly strong oak flavor in the mix as well.  The finish has a bit of bitterness and then is mostly rich and sweet malt flavor - I think I get something like chocolate in the finish as well.  The alcohol is slightly present in the flavor but well in the background
• Mouthfeel:
• Full bodied and pretty sticky on the palate.  It drinks with a slight bit of astringency with some alcohol warming character.
• Overall:
• This is a boldly flavored and very complex beer.  It has very nice malt and yeast derived flavors.  I oaked it generously and it contributes a nice element to the overall flavor - gives it an extra bit of richness which melds well with the other flavors

English Barleywine XII

As per my yearly Memorial Day tradition, I will be making an English Barleywine today.  I haven't brewed in something like 10 months so very good to be getting back to it.

I have brewed one of these every year since 2014 (read about 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024).  It is a complex style of beer that features a combination of malt, hop, yeast, and alcohol flavors in varying degrees and it ages well with it's high ABV, high hopping rates, and residual sweetness

I brew a different recipe each year for the most part.  This year I'll be making one based on a historical recipe from the Shut Up About Barclay Perkins Blog:  1879 William Younger No. 1.  It is an interesting recipe as it uses all base malt.  It also has a heavy dose of bittering hops and quite a bit of flavoring hops.  I like the simplicity and weirdness of these old recipes and they typically make a really nice beer

These beers would have been aged historically before consumption and Brettanomyces would likely have been present.  I am going to try to replicate a historical Brett character in this beer through the use of Orval Dregs in Secondary (a beer that is reported to contain a couple strains of wild yeast).  I will age the beer at least through December before bottling.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 10 lb 12 oz Pilsner
• 7 lbs 4 oz Golden Promise
• 4 lb Munich
• Hops:
• 6 oz Cluster (Pellet, 7.4% AA) at 180 min
• 2 oz Hallertauer Mittelfruher (Pellet, 2% AA) at 30 min
• 1 oz East Kent Golding (Pellet, 4.3% AA) at 0 min
• 1 oz East Kent Golding (Pellet, 4.3% AA) as Dryhop
• Yeast:
• 2 packets Windsor
• Orval Brett Culture in Secondary
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 5 gal tap water
• 2 tsp Gypsum
• 2 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp citric acid
• 1 tsp Irish Moss (15 min)

Process details:

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

Results:

•     OG:
• 1.106 (Target 1.100)
• Efficiency:
• 78% (Target 74%)
• FG:
• TBD (Target 1.025)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• TBD (Target 73%)
• ABV:
• TBD (Target 10.9%)

Brewing Notes:

• 5-26-25 - Brewday - 12 PM to 6:30 PM - including setup and cleanup
• Measured and milled my grain.  Added half the CaCl and gypsum to the grain and the other half to the boil kettle just so I wouldn't forget.  Also added the Citric Acid to the malt
• Heated 8 gal of strike water to 185 F
• Moved 7 gal of strike water to the mash tun and cycled it through the RIMS until the temperature had settled at 166 F
• Added the grain to the mash tun and stirred well to eliminate doughballs.  Let the mash sit for 10 min prior to starting the RIMS cycle
• Cycled the RIMS for 60 more minutes
• Heated 10 gal of sparge water up to 185 F
• Slowly fly sparged - started heating the kettle after collecting 3 gal.  Had it near a boil after collecting 8 gal or so.  I ended up collecting 12 gal of wort which will make this a 3 hr boil

• Added the bittering hops once the hot break had cleared
• Boiled for 3 hrs

• Rehydraded my yeast in room temperature spring water
• Added flavoring hops at 30 min
• Added Irish Moss at 15 min
• Put in the wort chiller with 5 min to go to sanitize
• Added the flame out hops
• Chilled to 75 F
• Drained into the fermenter - let the wort fall a foot or so to aerate.  Pitched the yeast during this transfer

• Got 6 gal and measured gravity as 1.106 which is a little high but close enough
• Set the fermenter in my utility sink in anticipation of a mess
• 5-27-25 - The beer was fermenting agressively by the next morning and pushing krausen up and out of the airlock
• 5-30-25 - I cleaned up the airlock a couple days ago.  No more airlock activity today
• 7-26-25 - Transferred the beer to secondary.  Added the 1 oz of dry hops and 2 cups of a malt starter I inoculated with Orval dregs a couple months ago - this beer is sour and quite fruity which should be very interesting.  I measured the gravity of the beer as 1.044 at transfer

Smoked Corned Beef

I purchased some inexpensive corned beef at the supermarket after St Patrick's Day and thought it might be fun to experiment some more with Cold Smoking.  This is a technique where meat is smoked at a temperature low enough where the meat isn't cooked (below 90 F is the typical limit).  My hope is that this makes a nice meat for use in sandwiches

I have purchased 2 corned beefs for this.  They are about 3 lbs each.  It is very high in salt so I will plan to limit my consumption of it - I will package it in 4 pieces after the smoke but before braising.

I think I will try doing the salting of the meat myself when I try this again

Process details:

• 4/6/25:
• Removed the meat from the package and rinsed with cold water to wash away excess salt
• Covered the meat with pepper and garlic powder

• Moved the meat to the fridge on a wire rack to dry out a bit before the smoking
• 4/8/25 - Smoking the meat - this was a night where it was supposed to get to freezing so the meat should stay relatively cold through the cooking process which helps keep pathogens at bay.  Setup the smoker with hickory chips and smoked the meat for 10 hrs over night

• 4/9/25 - Cut the meat into 4 pieces.  Froze 3 and let one chill in the fridge for a near term meal

• 4/10/25 - Braised one of the pieces over night in beer

• 4/11/25 - Cooled the meat the next day and had a nice sandwich.  The meat is very tender and has a pretty firm smokey flavor even after the braising.  It doesn't have an overly salty flavor - I think the braise ends up pulling a lot of salt out of the meet.  I got 3 sandwiches out of this piece of meat

Raspberry Wine (2020 Version) Tasting Notes

This was my second attempt at a Raspberry Wine.  This time I increased to 52 lbs of raspberries and 10 lbs of sugar which got me 5.5 gal of wine at 12.5% ABV.  I oaked this version lightly (2 sticks of oak I had soaked in port).  I back sweetened it to 1.021 and then killed the yeast with campden tablets before bottling.  This was successful as the wine has been stable in the bottle for over 3 years now

I don't drink these very often but they are quite tasty.  It is high time I captures some notes on it

Tasting Notes:

•  Aroma:
• Rich and strong raspberry character.  Quite pungent.  I has a bit of a yeast character to it as well and you can smell the alcohol in it.  It smells quite a bit like a typical grape-based wine
• Appearance:
• Dark red and a little murky (got some of the junk from the bottle into the glass)
• Flavor:
• Rich fruity character with a very light sweetness.  Quite different than eating a fruit as the flavors seem so much more concentrated.  A little tart on the finish.  Has a fairly firm but nice booze character to it - alcohol is in the background compared with the fruit character.  I feel like there is some yeast character in this as well - a bit of a estery and slightly funky note.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied and a little sticky on the palate.  It has a bit of astringency.
• Overall:
• Very tasty.  The fruit character is very nice, it has a pleasant level of sweetness and booziness to it, and the balance is quite pleasant.  I think it is quite complex to sip and actually is fairly refreshing with the tartness.

Raspberry Wine (2019 Version) - Tasting Notes

This was my first attempt at a raspberry wine - made back in 2019.  I used 40lbs of raspberries and 10 lbs of sugar to make 5 gal of this raspberry wine.  It was fermented with wine yearst and got up to 13% ABV.  I then backsweetened this up to 1.022 prior to killing the yeast with Campden Tablets

This has been aging down in my cellar for almost 5 years now.  I had missed that I didn't a do a tasting of this version long ago - better late than never.  This version made me excited about making more of these - which I have done in the years since.  Time to capture some notes

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Strong, concentrated, raspberry character along with a boozy and yeasty note
• Appearance:
• Dark red pretty clear
• Flavor:
• Concentrated raspberry flavor up front.  It is slightly tart up front and then a bit of a sour bite.  There is a mild sweetness to it.  There is fairly firm alcohol presence in the finish along with some yeast ester character.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied with a slightly sticky character on the pallet.  It's got some astringency
• Overall:
• This has a strong flavor.  It is quite a bit different than the experience of easting a raspberry in that the flavor is quite a bit more intense.  I'd say it's of a similar level of fruit character to a grape-based wine.  It has a nice level of sweetness that counters the acidity and the alcohol character.  I think this works nicely as a desert wine

Chicken Salad From Scratch

This is a recipe that my mother has been making me since I was a kid (and was also made by her mother) for a Chicken Salad I very much enjoy.  I have trying to cut down on the sodium in my diet and so I'm converting this into a scratch recipe for better control.  I've tried a couple variations on this now and feel like I have something worth capturing for posterity.

We use the chicken salad for sandwiches typically.  It stays good for about a week so it make sense to make many sandwich's worth (continues to improve with a bit of aging as the flavors meld better).  I think this recipe I'm about to lay out is enough for a couple people to have a sandwiches several times over the week - I've tried making larger amounts which are tough to finish.  This was just about enough

As you'll see below the main actions being taken here to reduce the salt are cooking my own chicken breast (as canned chicken has quite a bit of salt for preservation) and making my own mayonnaise which is actually pretty easy.  Other than this, it is basically my mother's recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken Breasts (about 800g)
• 2 Celery stalks
• 6 Green Onion
• 1/2 Yellow Onion
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp Celery salt
• 1.5 Cups Mayonnaise
• 1 large egg
• 4 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1.5 cup vegetable oil

Process:

• Cooked the chicken breast with a Sous Vide water bath to 142 F.  This makes for a moist chicken breast.  Let this cool before chopping into one half to quarter inch squares
• Finely chopped the vegetable ingredients and mixed the meat and chicken well

• Mixed the mayonnaise in my blender.  Added all ingredients other than the oil.  Turned on the blender and slowly drizzled in all the oil.  The mayonnaise comes together very well.  Used the whole batch for this

• Mixed the mayonnaise and spices into the meat and vegetables