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
• 7/31/25 - Tasting Notes (2025):
• 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

English Barleywine Vertical Tasting - 2022

Since 2014 I have been brewing an English Barleywine on Memorial Day.  I've used quite a few different recipes for my 8 beers so far.  This is a wonderful style of beer for aging since they are typically strong and sweet which helps preserve them.  I have settled into a pattern where I drink half the batch the year it's brewed and then hold the second half for long term aging.  I will drink 1 beer each years a part of an annual vertical tasting to evaluate their development and to compare the various beers.  This post will detail my most recent tasting (read about my previous vertical tastings:  2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021)

I have 8 beers currently aging.  I started out tasting each beer at the same time but over the last couple years I've begun to really struggle to do that many beers justice in one sitting (these are, by design, heavy and strong beers after all).  Last year I even resorted to spitting out the beer so I didn't get really drunk in the process.  After that I realized the the primary purpose of the tastings, which is to enjoy these beers, had been lost in the shuffle.  This year I've decided to drink one of these a day blindly (with help from my wife), in a random order (thus, the letters), and evaluate them via the Beer Judge Certification Program scoring system.  I'm not a trained or experience beer judge by any any means but I feel like I did my beers pretty good justice in the scoring.

Anyway, this has been a very pleasant week savoring some really delicious beers.  Doing this Vertical Tasting justifies the work I'm doing with the beers and makes me excited to brew a new one this year.

Vertical Tasting:

• 2018 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, 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.
• Aged the beer on 2 oz of boiled and toasted oak
• Tasting Notes (36 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):
• Boozy aroma most prominent.   Has some caramel and some overripe fruit like yeast character.  Maybe get a bit of toasty bread in there too.  Has kind of a musty character.  Not picking up on any hops in it.  
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Pours with 1 finger head that fades down to a thin layer after a couple minutes.  Reddish brown and pretty clear.
• Flavor (15 of 20):
• Toasted bread and dark/burnt caramel flavors up front.  Get a wave of alcohol character in there up front too.  After that first wave a bit of fruit character comes through - apple maybe.  The finish is mostly dark toasty malt flavor with a bit of fruity malt.  There is a mild but fairly deep bitterness to it still on the finish as well.  It's pretty well balanced actually.
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):
• Medium bodied and slightly sweet.  Coats the mouth and leaves a sticky sensation.  Smooth drinking with a noticeable alcohol warming
• Overall: (7 of 10):
• This is fairly boldly flavored beer with a pretty good level of complexity.  It has a pleasant and rich malt character that I really like.  The fruity esters are more mild and a little strange but not bad at all.  It is pretty easy to drink with a fairly firm hop bitterness which balances the beer nicely - something that feels more like drinking than sipping.

• 2020 Version (Beer B):

• 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 (39 of 50):
• Aroma (8 of 12):
• Caramel, brown sugar, and toasted bread along with a musty and lightly fruity character.  Get a bit of alcohol coming through as well
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Pours with a 3 finger head that fades down to a thin layer after a few minutes.  Leaves lacing on the glass.  Dark reddish brown in color and pretty clear.
• Flavor (16 of 20):
• Rich, toasted bread and dark caramel malt flavors.  May have a note of chocolate in there too.  The malt flavor lingers into the finish with a bit of sweetness and is balanced by a medium-light bitterness.  There is a slight bit of fruity character in the lingering in the finish but pretty light.  I may be getting a bit of herbal hop flavor in there as well.  Alcohol is pretty well hidden.  Maybe some oak in there too as I get a bit of vanilla.
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):
• Medium-full bodied and slightly sticky sweet.  Drinks very smoothly
• Overall (8 of 10):
• This beer has a really lovely and rich malt character.  I think it's very complex and interesting to drink.  I like the kick of hop bitterness it has well which gives it a good balance and makes it easy drinking

• 2017 Version (Beer C):

• 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 (31 of 50):
• Aroma (6 of 12):
• Fruit is most prominent on the nose - raisin maybe.  Has a bit of a musty character as well.  Can smell the booze.  Get a bit of bready malt character in there as well and maybe some caramel.  Smells a bit like BBQ sauce.
• Appearance (2 of 3):
• Dark gold in color and very clear.  Pours with a 2 finger head that quickly fades down to nothing
• Flavor (14 of 20):
• Fruity ester flavor up front.  A bit of bready malt in the finish along with a pretty firm bitter kick.  The ester also lingers into the finish a fair amount.  There is a definite bit of boozy character in there as well.  Maybe get a bit of chocolate in there as well.
• Mouthfeel (3 of 5);
• Medium bodied and slightly sweet.  Maybe a little bit astringent
• Overall (6 of 10):
• A very fruit ester forward beer - it is a bit of strange ester character.  Bold in character.  Not a lot of malt character comes through in the beer so I would say it's not all that complex.  The hop bitterness on the finish is nice - makes this easy to drink.

• 2021 Version (Beer D):

• 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 (39 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):
• Fruity with a sweet malty aroma.  Maybe a bit wine like.  Got a fair amount of alcohol on the nose
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Reddish gold in color.  Pours with a 1 finger head that fairly quickly fades down to nothing.  Very clear.
• Flavor (16 of 20):
• Sweet bread malt and caramel up front.  This is followed by a nice bit of fruity ester character.  The finish has a bit of bitter kick that provides some balance to go along with the sweet malty character.  There is a bit of alcohol in the flavor as well but it's not harsh at all.  I don't think I'm getting any hop flavor in this one.
• Mouthfeel (5 of 5):
• Medium-full bodied and fairly sweet.  Drinks very smoothly.  Has a bit of alcohol warming.
• Overall (8 of 10):
• A boldly flavored and fairly sweet Barleywine.  Has a fairly simple malt profile and a restrained fruity character so not the most complex beer.  I do think it's delicious and very drinkable

• 2014 Plain Version (Beer E):

• 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
• I aged half the beer on oak that had been soaked in Brandy.  I tasted the brandy one last year so this year I'll do the plain
• Tasting Notes (40 of 50):
• Aroma (9 of 12):
• Rich fruity aroma most prominent.  Smells a bit like a wine.  Also get some caramel and sweet malt in there along with brown sugar.  Some booze in the mix as well.  Don't really get any hops.  A very nice smelling beer.
• Appearance (2 of 3):
• Red in color and pretty clear.  Pours with a small amount of head that quickly fades to nothing.
• Flavor (17 of 20):
• Fruity flavor up front which fades into some toasty and bready malt along with caramel and maybe even a chocolate note.  The finish is fairly dry but has a nice crisp malty flavor.  There is a slight hop bitterness to it.
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):
• Medium bodied and fairly dry - just a bit of sweetness to it.  It's very smooth.  A bit of alcohol heat to it.
• Overall (8 of 10):
• This is a bold and complex beer.  It has a very nice fruit character (although I'm not sure exactly what fruit it resembles) and a really satisfying bold set of malt flavors.  It's fairly easy to drink but it's also a very nice sipping beer.

• 2019 Versions (Beer F):

• 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 (36 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):
• A bit boozy with an unusual fruity ester character.  Also get a fair bit of bready, toasty malt and caramel.  I think I also smell some oak in there.  I don't really pick out any hops here.
• Appearance (2 of 3):
• Dark red and very clear.  Pours with a 1 finger head that quickly dissipates to nothing
• Flavor (16 of 20);
• Sweet bready malt up front along with a dark caramel flavor.  In the middle I get a wave of booze along with some fruity ester character.  The finish has a fairly assertive bitterness which a bit more agressive than the malt flavors.  I may get a bit of herbal hop character in there as well
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):
• Medium-full bodied and slightly sweet.  Drinks with just a bit of astringency.  Has an alcohol warming effect
• Overall (7 of 10):
• This is strongly flavored beer with a nice level of complexity.  Has a slant towards strong malt character with a more restrained fruity ester character.  Quite a boozy beer which is nice in a Barleywine of course.  I really like the bitterness to it as well.

• 2016 Version (Beer G):

• 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 (9 of 12):
• Booze along with some sweet toasted malt and caramel.  A little bit of fruit in there as well.  Get a bit of wine-like character and some oak.  Maybe get a bit of herbal hop in there as well.
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Brownish red in color and very clear.  Pours with a 1 finger head that quickly fades to a thin ring.  Bubbles continue to cascade up
• Flavor (16 of 20):
• Boozy up front along with some dark caramel and toasted malt flavors.  Maybe get something like chocolate in there as well.  Slight bit of fruity ester in there.  There is a fairly assertive bitterness in the finish along with more booze and a nice lingering malt flavor.  Get a little bit of grassy and herbal hops in the mix as well.
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):
• Medium full bodied and slightly sweet.  There is a warming sensation on the palate.  A little bit of astringency that prickles the back of the throat.
• Overall (8 of 10):
• Big bold flavors in this one.  Quite boozy.  It's got a good amount of complexity - mostly focused on depth of malt flavor and not a whole lot of fruit.

• 2015 Version (Beer H):

• Overview:
• Brewed with Maris Otter, Vienna Malt and down to 2 lbs of Crystal.  Still 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 (38 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):
• Fruity ester along with a bit of booze most prominent.  Get a bit of bready malt in there as well along with some caramel.  Not picking up any hop.  Maybe get some oak as well.
• Appearance (2 of 3):
• Pours with a 1 finger head that quickly fades to nothing.  Reddish brown in color and clear
• Flavor (16 of 20):
• Some sweet malt up front - bready, toasty and caramel flavors.  This is followed by a hit of booze.  There is a fair amount of fruit in the middle.  The finish is fairly bitter.  This balances the sweet malt in the finish pretty nicely.  I get some herbal and grassy hop flavor in this one.
• Mouthfeel (5 of 5):
• Fully bodied and a bit sweet.  Got a pretty smooth mouthfeel and leaves a bit of a warming sensation
• Overall (8 of 10):
• This beer has bold aroma and flavor and a pretty nice level of complexity.  It is mostly malt focused but has a bit of fruitiness.  It seems very boozy which isn't a bad thing for a Barleywine.  I like the balance of it with some pretty good bitterness to go along with the fairly sweet beer.

I could have confidently guessed on some of these but, for the most part, I was largely unsure about what I was drinking.  I feel like doing these blindly enriched the experience quite a bit.

2022 Rankings:

• 2014 (40)
• 2016 (40)
• 2020 (39)
• 2021 (39)
• 2015 (38)
• 2018 (36)
• 2019 (36)
• 2017 (31)

So, compared with last year, I still think that the 2014 (my first attempt at the style) is a very good beer (tied for first) and that my odd experimental beer (2017) with pilsner, wheat, and rum raisin is the weakest of the group.  The other beers have shifted around in the order quite a bit but with all getting pretty good scores   The biggest mover of them all was the 2016 version featuring Double Roasted Crystal malt which went from second to last to tied for first.  I had no idea which one this was during the tasting.  I plan to repeat this tasting method next year and will be interested to see how things play out.

Raspberry Sour Blonde (2019) - Tasting Notes

This is my second attempt at a Raspberry Sour Blonde which is an attempt to create a Framboise Lambic.  I have a very large raspberry patch which gets me about 100 lbs of fruit per year.  Based on this, I can afford to be very heavy handed with Raspberries.  I aged this beer with 20 lbs of fruit.

This is a beer I blended up using 5 Sour Blonde which I'd been aging for various amounts of time (from 1-4 years at that point).  I have 12 fermentor (read about the tasting) and I chose the more mild beers to use in this blend to try to avoid an excessively sour product.  I also back sweetened and then bottle pasteurized to retain a bit of sweetness which balances the acidity.

This is a beer that I blended in October 2019 and then bottled in May 2019.  I can't believe it's been so long ago now.  Happy to finally be getting around to a tasting.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Strong and rich raspberry aroma most prominent.  Get a bit of musty and earthy brett character in the background as well
• Appearance:
• Pours with a thin layer of foam that disappears almost immediately.  The beer is dark red (like a red wine) and seems to be pretty clear
• Flavor:
• Intense raspberry flavor up front along with a pretty assertive sourness.  These flavors linger into the finish together.  I also get some brett character although it's pretty far in the background.  Might be a little bit of malt like character in the finish as well.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium-light bodied and just slightly sweet.  The acidity of the beer prickles the palate
• Overall:
• Very intensely flavored fruit beer.  The raspberry is front and center here.  I make a Raspberry Wine, which I just drank a bottle of last night (so fresh in my mind), and would say this beer is much closer in character to that wine than to the Sour Blonde but that there is enough beer character that shines through to clearly make this a distinct product.  There is some brett character to to beer that gives it some nice extra complexity and it compliments the overall product. 

Cherry Sour Blonde (2019) - Tasting Notes

Here is a long overdue set of tasting notes for my 2019 version of a Cherry Sour Blonde.  I blended this beer from 5 Sour Blonde's (based on a sampling of my beers) that had been aging for several years at that point and which had complex flavor profiles but fairly low levels of acidity (as the fruit contribute quite a bit of acidity themselves).  This is my second attempt at this style (read about the first attempt here)

I aged this beer with 11 lbs of sour cherries and 8 lbs of sweet cherry, that I picked from a local orchard, for 8 months.  I bottled with 1.5 lbs of homemade invert #2 syrup and pasteurized once the beer had carbonated in the hopes of preserving a bit of sweetness to enhance the fruit flavor.

The beer how now been in bottles for nearly 2 year which is incredible.  I'm going to be blending up some new Sour Blonde here in the next couple weeks so it's time to get some tasting notes in the record-book to maybe help me make decisions in the next round

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Musty, earthy, and leathery brett character. Also get a well integrated cherry aroma - tart and overripe fruit
• Appearance:
• Pours with a thin layer of foam that quickly disappears completely.  Light reddish brown in color and a bit murky (I ended up pouring in some of the dregs which didn't help this)
• Flavor:
• Up front the beer is quite tart.  Once the initial wave of acidity clears I get a strong cherry flavor, almost candy-like in character.  The cherry flavor lingers into the finish.  Also in the finish I get some brett character - earthy and leathery.  I also get a bit of what seems like bready malt.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium-light bodied and pretty dry.  The acidity prickles the palate slightly and lingers for quite some time which calls on  you to take another sip
• Overall:
• This is a pretty boldly flavored fruit beer.  It has a pleasing and prevalent cherry character to it but it has a lot of the brett character that is able to cut through and give it a fairly distinct Lambic-style character.  It is pretty sour but in a way that compliments the acidic fruit and seems like it could be the natural tartness of the sour cherries.  I find it to be very drinkable and quite refreshing.

Raspberry Crop - 2022

It has now been 5 years since I planted my Raspberry beds - we're now headed into the sixth growing season (read about the 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 crops).  The plants have emerged from another winter and are producing a lot of growth here in April (like normal).  Some initial status/thoughts on my 4 varieties:

• Prelude:
• These plants didn't put out a whole lot of new growth last year which left several bare patches in the beds.  I decided to buy 10 more bare root plants to fill in the gaps this year.  They were planted in the first week of April
• Joan J:
• Starting the season pretty strong already - these are a summer variety that I've been treating like a spring variety (leaving the old growth to fruit in the spring).  They do quite well treated this way.
• TulaMagic:
• These produce some very long canes full of pretty nasty thorns.  I neglected these last year and had quite a bit of deadwood to cut out this spring.  The new growth starts pretty slowly on the lower parts of the cane.  They may be getting a bit weaker year to year.  Will be interesting to see how full the bed is with viable 1 year canes this year - if it is a weak growing season I'm contemplating replacing these with some new variety.  The fruit from these plants taste good (big and sweet berries) but the volume isn't that strong - not strong enough to justify both the maintenance difficulty and need to be replaced.
• Nova:
• These guys are very strong growers here in spring.  Get a lot of early growth from these on practically all the 1 year canes and there is strong coverage through the whole bed.  These produce tall canes but they are pretty much naturally hanging over the top wire of the beds without any need for tying.  They are very easy to grow and produce a lot of fruit - it tends to be a fairly tart fruit when ripe (less sweet than the other three) 

I've been consistently getting more fruit than I can use from these raspberries which is a pretty good problem to have.  I'm out of freezer space so I'll need to use a good amount of fruit coming up here in May to make room for another 90-100 lbs.  I need to find something new to do with these rather than save them for beer (thinking I'll try some more ice cream/sorbet using fresh berries) - may have to give some away this year

Anyway, hoping to keep these plants growing strong this year.  I've been pretty lazy so have quite a bit of weeding and other plant care to do here this spring.  These plants are a fair amount of work even once a good setup is in place but I think it's well worth it.

I'll be posting monthly status through the year as well as daily fruit harvest weights for the sake of trending:

7/11/22

6/6/22

5/15/22

4/22/22

Raspberry Picking Tracker:

• 6/12/22 - 1 lb 1 oz
• 6/13/22 - 15 oz
• 6/14/22 - 1 lb 3 oz
• 6/15/22 - 1 lb 8 oz
• 6/16/22 - 1 lb 4 oz
• 6/17/22 - 1 lb 15 oz
• 6/18/22 - 1 lb 12 oz
• 6/19/22 - 1 lb 11 oz
• 6/20/22 - 1 lb 12 oz
• 6/21/22 - 1 lb 14 oz
• 6/22/22 - 2 lbs 1 oz
• 6/23/22 - 1 lb 10 oz
• 6/24/22 - 2 lb 12 oz
• 6/25/22 - 2 lb 13 oz
• 6/26/22 - 3 lb 6 oz
• 6/27/22 - 1 lb 11 oz
• 6/28/22 - 3 lb 14 oz
• 6/29/22 - 3 lb 6 oz
• 6/30/22 - 3 lb 14 oz
• 7/1/22 - 15 oz
• 7/2/22 - 2 lb 6 oz
• 7/3/22 - 1 lb 10 oz
• 7/4/22 - 10 oz
• 7/5/22 - 9 oz
• 7/6/22 - 9 oz
• 7/7/22 - 6 oz
• 7/10/22 - 10 oz
• 7/17/22 - 9 oz
• 
  
• 9/10/22 - 4 oz
• 9/13/22 - 5 oz
• 9/15/22 - 6 oz
• 9/27/22 - 5 oz
• 10/10/22 - 6 oz

• Running Total - 50 lbs 4 oz

Growing Notes:

• 5/15/22
• The plants are doing pretty well.  I have a lot of growth on the old canes and quite a bit of new growth coming up from the roots as well.  This is true of all 4 beds
• I've been spending a lot of time in this last couple weeks weeding the beds (and the gravel around the beds) as well as applying Blood and Bone Meal and top dressing with compost.  So far, I've just about finished this on 2 of the beds.
• We have lots of buds forming on the plants but no flowers yet
• It's been a rainy couple of weeks so I haven't had to water yet
• 6/6/22 - I'm starting to see a bit of ripe fruit on the plans.  Probably another week or two before picking really begins.
• 7/4/22 -  I've been picking for most of the month now and the fruit is starting to wind down.  I'm quiete a ways off my average this year with 46 lbs of fruit.  My Prelude were pretty weak to start out with which was likely part of this.  We haven't had a lot of rain this last couple weeks.  I noticed that the ripe fruit is drying out on the Nova raspberry which is likely due to insufficient water.  I did water the plants this weekend but it seems I waited too long.  46 lbs is still a lot of fruit and a lower yield year will help me make more room in the freezer for next year.