English Barleywine Vertical Tasting - 2024

Every year since 2014, on Memorial Day, I brew an English Barleywine in a practice inspired by the Sierra Nevada vintages of the Big Foot Barleywine.  It is a malty, fruity, sweet, and high alcohol style of beer that is well suited for aging.  I typically drink half the batch in the year it is made and then save the other half for aging.

This will be tasting of the 10 beers I've made so far.  Read about the previous tastings here: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

I used to do these tastings vertically but as I've accumulated more it's become impossible to do a pure side by side tasting (and actually enjoy the beers).  I like to assess how the beer do while aging in terms of quality so I now do BJCP scoring of the beers and I taste them blind, one a day.  This is an interesting test of my palate, and maybe doesn't lead to a perfect comparison, but it's nice to evaluate a beer without all the pre-conceived notions you have when you know how it was made.

Anyhow, the purpose of making these beers and for aging them for all these years has been to enjoy a really delicious beer style (one that I am more and more convinced gets better with age).

Tasting Notes:

• 2021 Version (Beer A):

• 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 (41 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):
• Musty with some overripe fruit and wine-like character.  A bit of caramel and some alcohol.  Nice smells but fairly mild.
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Pours with a 1 finger head that lingers for about a minute and fades to a thin layer.  Reddish gold in color and very clear
• Flavor (17 of 20):
• Sweet and malty up front - toasted bread and a dark caramel character.  A bit fruity in the middle.  Maybe a bit of chocolate in there as well.  Some hop flavor as well - grassy and herbal.  Finishes with bit of bitterness but the balance is decidedly towards the sweet malty flavors.  Get a bit of alcohol flavor but it fits nicely.  Maybe even get something like a butterscotch character out of it.  This is a very nicely flavored beer with a lot of complexity
• Mouthfeel (5 of 5):
• Full bodied and drinks very smooth.  Leaves a stickiness on the palate.  Warming alcohol makes its presence known.
• Overall (9 of 10):
• This is a complex and very richly flavored Barleywine.  I think the combination of flavors and balance is quite nice (happy that it has hop bitterness left to it).  I think this would be a very good example of what the style is about and (speculation here) why one might age a strong sweet beer like this.

• 2018 Version (Beer B):

• 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 (35 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):
• Dark caramel and toasted bread up front along with some fruit character and alcohol.  The smell is pretty bold and is nice.
• Appearance (2 of 3):
• Pours with a 2 finger head that lingers.  Redish brown and just a little hazy on this pour
• Flavor (15 of 20):
• Sweet caramel malt up front followed by a fruity character.  Booze hits next - has a bit of a musty and aged character I would say.  Not much in the way of hop bitterness to this one.  The finish is malty but I'd say it get balanced a bit by the alcohol flavor.  Pretty complex with some interesting flavors
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):
• Medium bodied and only slight stickiness on the palate.  Drinks pretty smooth and has a warming character.
• Overall (7 of 10):
• It is a boldly flavored and pretty complex beer.  The malty character is nice but it isn't the primary profile.  The fruitiness is a bit odd and the booze character is interesting (has a softness to it which is not unplesent) and is probably the dominant character.   Has a lot of the character you would want and expect from an aged beer.

• 2015 Version (Beer C):

• 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 (40 of 50):
• Aroma (9 of 12):
• Sweet malty and caramel aromas  There is a honey-like character in there as well.  It has a fruit character and a bit of booze.  I think it's a really nice smell and pretty bold.
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Pours with a 1 finger head which lasts for a couple minutes before fading to a thin ring.  Red-gold in color and very clear
• Flavor (17 of 20):
• Sweet malt and caramel up front.  Has a bit of chocolate flavor as well.  There is a light fruit flavor in the middle.  Has a good amount of bitterness in the finish which balances against the sweet malt character.  Taste a bit of booze as well.  The flavors are good and pretty bold.
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):
• It is medium bodied and has just a slight stickiness on the palate.  Drinks pretty smooth.  It has a very noticeable alcohol warming effect
• Overall (7 of 20):
• This is a complex and very flavorable beer.  It has a nice set of malt flavors and a good amount of bitterness to balance it.  It is a nice sipping beer and seems like a strong beer from the heat although it hides the alcohol well in terms of flavor and aroma

• 2016 Version (Beer D):

• 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 (38 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):
• Fruity and wine-like character along with some caramel malt.  A little booze in there.  It's a pleasant smell but fairly mild
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Pours with a 3 finger head that fairly quickly fades down to a thin ring around the glass.  It is red-brown and very clear
• Flavor (17 of 20):
• Dark caramel, toasted bread, and grahamcracker.  Maybe a bit of chocolate in there as well.  Just a slight fruity flavor in there as well.  The finish is mostly malt but it's not that sweet - it lingers in a nice way.  Get a fair bit of bitterness that balances the flavors in the finish somewhat.  Has some booze character in there as well but it's fairly well hidden.  I think this a really nicely and boldly flavored malty beer
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):
• Medium full bodied and just a little bit sticky on the palate.  I this is pretty smooth and some mild alcohol warming.
• Overall (7 of 10):
• I really like the malt character in this one.  It lacks a bit in complexity but definitely has enough going on to be worth savoring.  I think it drinks pretty easily for a strong sweet beer (doesn't feel like it needs to be a sipper)

• 2017 Version (Beer E):

• 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(34 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):
• Fruity with an almost cider-like aroma.  Maybe some honey in there as well.  Get a bit of malt in there as well.  It's a pretty mild aroma but nice
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Dark gold in color and very clear.  Pours with a 1 finger head that quickly fades to nothing.
• Flavor (15 of 20):
• Some fruity flavor up front with malt flavors in the mix as well.  The finish is fruity and malty.  There is no bitterness to speak of but it isn't all that sweet where it seems to particularly lack balance.  Alcohol is present in the flavor profile but not over whealming.  The flavors are nice here but it's somewhat mild and not a whole lot going on.
• Mouthfeel (3 of 5):
• Medium bodied and mildly sweet.  Drinks smooth.
• Overall (6 of 10):
• This is an interesting, fruit forward, barleywine.  It is tasty but not particularly complex.

• 2019 Version (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 (40 of 50):
• Aroma (8 of 12):
• Sweet caramel malt and a bit fruity.  Has a musty character and a bit of booze.  It is a nice smell and pretty distinct
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Pours with a 2 finger head that fades down to a thin ring over several minutes.  Red-brown in color and very clear
• Flavor (17 of 20):
• Sweet malty flavors up front - caramel and toasted bread.  Has a bit of fruitiness in the middle.  Maybe a slight bit of bitterness to it.  The finish of deep rich malt without a lot of sweetness.  The flavor lingers and is very nice.  The light bitterness gives it a bit of balance.  Alcohol comes though lightly.  This is very nicely and richly flavored beer
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):
• Medium-full bodied and only slightly sticky on the palate.  It drinks very smoothly.  Slight warming alcohol character
• Overall (8 of 10):
• I really like the flavor of this beer.  It is primarily malty but has enough other things going on to give it complexity.  The remaining bitterness really helps it I think even though it is fairly light.  I think the finish is very nice where there is a richness that isn't overwhelmed by sweetness.

• 2020 Version (Beer G):

• 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 (9 of 12):
• Caramel and toasted bread aroma most prominent along with a fruity character - raisin-like.  It is fairly strong and really nice
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Pours with a 3 finger head that lingers for a few minutes - leaves lacing on the grass.  Red brown in color and very clear
• Flavor (16 of 20):
• Sweet malt flavor up front - dark caramel and toasted bread.  A bit of fruit character in the middle.  The finish is the sweat dark caramel flavor which lingers.  Maybe a very slight bitterness to it - balance is strongly towards malt.  I get a hit of alcohol on the finish as well.  It's got nice flavors and they're fairly bold.
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):
• Medium full bodied and pretty sweet - sticky on the palate.  It drinks smooth with a little alcohol warming.
• Overall (7 of 10):
• A very malt forward beer.  The malt flavors are very nice and I like the strength and character of the caramel flavors on the finish.  Not the most complex beer with everything other than the malt being very much in the background.

• 2023 Version (Beer H):

• 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 (40 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):
• Malty (caramel mostly) with a bit of fruit.  Get a hint of alcohol as well.  Maybe a bit of hop in there too.  Nice smell but mild
• Appearance (3 of 3):
• Pours with a 1 finger  head that lingers.  Leaves lacing on the glass.  Red gold and very clear.
• Flavor (17 of 20):
• Malty with toasted bread and caramel flavors.  Get some fruity character in the middle - apple and maybe some raisin.  Net getting any hop bitterness.  The finish is mostly about the fruit character and is pretty sweet.  Get a hit of alcohol in the finish as well.  The flavors are bold and quite nice
• Mouthfeel (5 of 5):
• It is full bodied and very smooth.  It is only slightly sticky on the palate.  Has a bit of warming alcohol character
• Overall (8 of 10):
• I really like the fruity character of this beer.  It blends nicely with the malt and then takes over in a fairly subtle way (fruity but not extremely estery).  It is an interesting and complex drink

• 2014 Version (Beer I):

• 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 (32 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):
• A bit of malt and then a fruity and wine like character - maybe some raisin in there.  Has a bit of alcohol in the aroma as well.  Interesting aroma but fairly mild
• Appearance (2 of 3):
• Pours with only a thin layer of foam.  Redish brown and clear
• Flavor (15 of 20):
• Malty up front with toasted bread being the primary characteristic.  A bit of a fruity character next but it is faint.  No bitterness.  The finish is the toasty bready malt character.  Alcohol comes through in the end as well.  The flavor lingers for some time after the sip.  Flavor is fairly mild.
• Mouthfeel (3 of 5):
• Medium bodied and pretty smooth - not really sticky on the palate.  Maybe has a bit of prickliness.
• Overall (5 of 10):
• It is a relatively dry barleywine and not that boldly flavor or complex.  I wonder if there could have been some oxidation here.  Not a bad beer but definitely not as nice as most of the others

• 2022 Version (Beer J):

• 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 (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

The rankings this year are:

• 2021 (41)
• 2015 (40)
• 2019 (40)
• 2022 (40)
• 2023 (40)
• 2020 (39)
• 2016 (38)
• 2018 (35)
• 2017 (34)
• 2014 (32)

My scoring this year had a big mover for 2014 from high in the rankings to the bottom.  It was very dark and tasted muted - I think it's possible I had a bad bottle (if so, the score should be improved next year).  Also, 2017 which was the surprise winner last time dropped back to the bottom here.  

I somehow didn't detect bitterness in my newest beer so my palate may not be a scientific grade instrument.  Tasting the beers blind is a very good way of eliminating the BS from tasting notes.

This is the only real way I can compare the beers given how many I have and maybe I'm collecting some real data with these scores rather than just noise (something that will only start to become clear after many more tastings in all likelihood).  I look forward to many more years of doing these :)

English Barleywine (2023 Version) - Tasting Notes

This is my tenth version of an English Barleywine - it was brewed on Memorial Day 2023.  This is the first time I've brewed this recipe.  It appealed to me based on the Malt Bill which was partially inspired by Goose Island's King Henry.

I hopped it fairly aggressively to get a beer that would continue to be bitter through quite a bit of aging.  I think a firm hop bitterness is nice in the style to offer some balance the malt character

The beer bulk aged for 9 months and is a pretty smooth product for being close to 10% alcohol.  It finished at 1.032 (I was targeting 1.025).  It has been in the bottle for a couple weeks now and is nicely carbonated.  Time for my first tasting.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Caramel and bready malt character along with a bit of fruit.  Has a bit of herbal hop character and some alcohol aroma
• Appearance:
• Dark Reddish Gold and fairly clear.  Pours with about 1 finger of head with an aggressive pour - this fades to nothing after less than a minute 
• Taste:
• Toasted bread and dark caramel flavors up front (maybe a bit of chocolate even).  Get a bit of hop character in the middle and then a medium bitterness into the finish along with some sweet malt.  The balance is slightly towards the malt.  There is a bit of fruit in the flavor profile but definitely takes the back seat to the malt and hops.  It hides it's strengh well
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied and fairly sweet - a bit sticky on the palate.  Fairly smooth drinking with a bit of warming alcohol
• Overall:
• Bold flavors and a good deal of complexity in this one.  Very rich malty character here that is providing the bulk of the complexity.  I like the balance of the sweetness with the hops - makes for a fairly easy drinker - I could have two of these without palate fatigue (although would be unwise as strong as it is).

Raspberry Sour Blonde (2024)

This will be my Raspberry version of Sour Blonde for this round.  Raspberries are a traditional ingredient with a lambic style beer and go very nicely with it.  In my last version (2019) I used 20 lbs of fruit which made a very strong fruit forward beer.  This time (even though I have at 50 lbs of frozen fruit available) I'm going to back that down to 15 lbs to give some differences to compare as I make these over time.

Raspberries are very tart on their own so I tend to choose more mildly flavored beer blends for these fruit beers.  I will use my tasting notes from last year to guide the selection of beers (will also shoot to use up beer from every one of my batches as art of that to make room to top up all my batches with fresh beer)

I'll give the beers a few months to absorb fruit flavors and ferment down to a stable level.  I'll bottle with extra sugar for backsweetening and then pasteurize.

For the blend this year I will go with:

• Fermenter #3:
• Overview:
• Aged with Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend
• Includes beer that has undergone a lacto fermentation
• Mix of Pilsner and Flaked wheat malt
• Very lightly hopped
• Aged in glass carboy with 1 gal of head space
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Has a lactic sour kind of small along with some earthy Brett character and a bit of fruit (something like a lemon character off this one)
• Appearance:  Light gold in color and slightly hazy
• Flavor:  Lightly sour with something reminiscent of bready sweetness in the middle which is quite nice.  Has a bit of earthy flavor in there as well.  Has a little bit of fruit character.  The finish is a balance of acidity and that bready-like flavor
• Mouthfeel:  Medium-light bodied and dry.  The acidity prickles the back of the throat a bit
• Overview:  The flavors are slightly mild but it has some interesting flavors that give it a pretty good level of complexity.  I like the acidity in this one as well as that odd bready flavor in the middle.
• Volume:
• 2 gal

• Fermenter #4:
• Overview:
• Aged with Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend
• Includes some beer that underwent a fermentation with lacto
• Mix of Pilsner and Flaked wheat malt
• Very lightly hopped
• Aged in glass carboy with vented silicone bung
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Overripe fruit (peach maybe) and a bit of earthy brett character.  Kind of smells like cider
• Appearance:  Light gold in color and pretty cloudy
• Flavor:  Lightly sour with a fruity flavor.  There is a bit of brett character in there as well - earthy and maybe leathery along with a mineral like character.  The finish is acidity along with the fruity character - gives the slight impression of sweetness although there really isn't any.  Get a slight bit of bready malt character to this on as well
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and dry.  It has a prickling sort of acidity that hits in the back of the throat
• Overview:  This is a fairly mildly flavored beer.  Has a fairly nice level of complexity - get quite a few flavors out of it even though they are all subtle.  A good level of acidity to this beer.
• Volume:
• 2 gal

• Fermenter #6:
• Overview:
• Aged with  ECY 34 Dirty Dozen
• Includes beer that underwent lacto fermentation
• Pilsner and Flaked Wheat Malt bill
• No hops in this batch
• Aged in a glass carboy with vented silicone bung
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Overripe fruit and some earthy and leathery brett character pretty strong.  Also get a mineral character
• Appearance:  Gold in color and very clear
• Flavor:  Lightly sour with a strong fruit character up front.  This is followed by an earthy brett character as well as a bandaid like flavor.  The finish is a balance of acid and brett.  Has a bit of a bready character as well
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and dry.  Very slight prickling of acidity on the back of the throat.
• Overview:  This is a boldly flavored beer with a pretty good level of complexity.  Got a fairly subdued level of sourness to it
• Volume:
• 1 gal

Blending Notes:

•     5/5/24:
• Weighed out 15 lbs of raspberries
• Measured out 2 gal fermenter #3

• Measured 2 gal from fermenter #4
• Measured 1 gal from fermenter #6
• Setup the fermenter to age in my cool basement

Raspberry Crop - 2024

This will be my eighth season for my backyard Raspberry Beds (read about 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023).  I have 4 varieties (Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova) each in a 2x30 foot bed.  I'm coming off of a bit of a decline year for the raspberries where I got 25 lbs of fruit and not starting with that many canes from last year.  I get busy on other projects and the beds end up getting overgrown with weeds which then stifle next year's growth.  I'm going to work to keep the weeds a bit more contained this year.  If this year doesn't help regain the strength then I may have to purchase some new stock for next year to replenish the beds.

Even so, 25 lbs of fruit is still a lot and I still have much of the fruit from previous years around to use in my brewing and cooking.  I will track the status of the fruit over the year for the record

7/14/24

4/18/24

Growing Notes:

• 5/27/24 - This has been a weak growing year.  I've decided to just eat the fruit rather than go through the effort of picking and logging what seems like will be less than 10 lbs even.  The grass has become a major chore to deal with.  I find that the first row I weed becomes overgrown before I've finished weeding the last one
• 7/14/24 - This has been a very disappointing year for the raspberry bed project.  I've been unable to keep up with the weeding.  Weeds have taken over the beds as well as the space between the beds.  I think this is going to severely limit the amount of growth coming out of this year..  I'm considering digging up the beds and starting from scratch next year at this point.

Sour Cherry Crop - 2024

This will be the fifth season for my 4 North Star Sour Cherry trees (read about Season 1, Season 2, Season 3 and Season 4).  The trees are probably about 9 feet tall now and 6 feet in diameter.  I got 39 lbs of fruit last year which more than has met my needs for brewing.  I expect we'll get a similar amount this year based on the flowering so far.

These are a dark fleshed variety of Sour Cherries which, although sour, also have a pretty strong cherry flavor like the sweeter cherry varieties.  I've just made my first Sour Beer with them and look forward to backfilling my stock of fruit to make some more.

It will be interesting to watch how they grow thicker and stronger this year:

7/14/24

6/3/24

5/27/24

4-18-24

Growing Notes:

• 5/27/24 - A good amount of fruit is forming and is starting to ripen
• 6/3/24 - Tried to pick fruit when it a very dark red

• 6/12/24 - Picking has lasted a couple weeks and I got 21 lbs.  I could have gotten at least another 5 lbs of fruit if I'd been willing to spend a bit more time but I already have so much fruit saved up from last year I didn't feel it was worth the energy

Bresaola - Dry Cured Meat

I've very much enjoyed my previous two attempts at Dry Curing Meat (Spanish Lomo and Capicola).  I don't have any special equipment or drying chamber but, in the case of the Capicola, was able to make something as good as the commercially available product.

My previous two projects were pork but this one, Bresaola, is beef Eye of Round.  It's not a cut of meat I cook with typically but it's very inexpensive ($5/lb for a 6 lb roast) and I expect to appreciate this use of it.  Like the last two I will be curing it using the equilibrium method where you apply a specific amount of salt (3% by weight in my case) and give it as much time as needed to absorb it (this is as opposed to providing much more salt than is needed and then properly timing the salting time which can over-salt the meat).  I'm using salt only here which is okay for whole muscle curing.

Post curing, I'll cover the meat with Pepper, garlic, and spicy paprika.

I will wrap the meat in dry aging wraps like last time and hang it in my basement which is in the mid 50s and fairly dry.  The drying was fairly gentle in these conditions and I didn't get much of a dry ring on the outside (we'll see how that goes now that we're in spring).  I'll plan on a 40% reduction in weight on the meat which should take something like 6 weeks.

I finished up my Capicola this week and am missing having it to snack on.  I'll need to find a better way to time the availability of these projects going forward.

Ingredients:

• 2359 g Eye of Round Beef Roast (with most fat trimmed
• 71 g of Salt
• Spice mix of equal parts covering the meat:
• Spicy Paprika
• Black Pepper\
• Garlic Powder

Process Details:

• 3/16/24 - Initial Preparation
• Trimmed my roast - removed some of the thick hard fat.  Left on a thin layer in a few places.  This is a big roast (nearly 6 lbs)

• Weighed the meat in grams and then calculated 3% salt.
• Moved to a 1 gal bag and added the salt as evenly as I could.  Sealed the bag with as little air as possible and moved to the back of the fridge

• The meat expelled juices and then reabsorbed them over the next couple weeks.  I flipped the meat every day for the most part.  Still has some free juices after 2 weeks so I'll plan to give it 3 or 4.
• 4/5/24 - Drying preparation:
• The meat had re-absorbed most of the moisture so I decided to proceed to drying

• Covered the meat with 2 tsp each of Black Pepper, Garlic Powder, and Spicy Paprika.  It took it all with a medium level of coverage

• Wrapped the meat in a dry curing wrap
• Trussed up the meat to hold it's shape
• Put this in a few muslin sacks and tied a few more times including with a place for hanging

• Hung the meat down in the basement where it is now about 60 F and 50% humidity
• It weighs 2454 g after the salting and with the wrapping.  I am shooting for a 40% weight loss which would be a loss of about 950g from the original weight - this is a target weight of 1500g
• 4/18/24 - The meat has been air drying almost 2 weeks now and is down to 1846g (25%).  This is consistent with the percentage of weight loss for my Capicola at this stage
• 5/4/24 - The meat dried down to 1488g in the last 2 weeks.  This is quite a bit faster than previous meats.  It is done at this weight.
• The dry curing meat wrap had been applied a bit too heavily and was very difficult to remove.  I ended up having to scrub the meat with a brush and still couldn't get it all off.  Ended up leaving a lot on there to be eaten (this ultimately didn't make much difference, but I was irritated about it at the time).  Sliced the meat down the middle - it is very red and very shiny with just a very minor amount of dry ring around the edges.  The basement is running about 50% humidity now which probably helped a lot (but getting into the mid-60s which is higher than ideal.

• Sliced it thin to sample.  I'd never had this before to compare the real thing with.  It has a concentrated beefy flavor as you would expect and struck me as having an iron flavor.  The flavor is quite different than the pork.  I ended up washing away much of the spices with the effort to clean off the wrapping so not much of that flavor.  The texture is a bit chewy - definitely a bit tougher than the Capicola.

• I put it in a ziplock bag in the fridge with the plan eat it all here in the near term
• 6/9/24 - I have eaten about 75% of the meat at this point.  I really like it.  It is plenty tender even if not as tender as the pork and has a strong flavor which I find to be very pleasant.  I definitely will make this again - hopefully without the stupid mistakes I made this time.  
• I've been reading quite a bit about curing meats since making this and learning that I was largely ignorant of the theory behind this practice of curing meat.  The potential for pathogens with cured meat wasn't something I fully appreciated. A big part of the salting protects meat by helping the surface dry out and stay dry (as it drives moisture to be retained inside the meat when you transition to the air-drying phase).  A dry surface is much less likely to allow harmful bacteria to develop.  The bacteria are active between 40 F and 140F.  Drying between 50-60 F, along with the dry surface and protection provided by salt, helps limit the chances of something bad growing on the meat as it starts drying out.  I feel I was a bit cavalier with this meat in attempting to dry in the basement above 60 F.  I plan to use my temperature/humidity-controlled dorm fridge for the air-drying stage in the warmer months going forward

Sour Cherry Blonde (2024)

This will be Sour Blonde Beer using home grown Sour Cherries from my crop last year.  These are a dark fleshed variety like those used for Kreik Lambic in Belgium.  They are sour but also have a fairly rich cherry flavor to go along with that (unlike the lighter fleshed Montmorency variety).  I am using about 13.5 lbs of fruit in this batch (they've been frozen which will help them expel their juice better).

I'll use about 5 gal of beer in this batch.  I'm shooting for a blend with a fairly mild flavor and light sourness as the fruit will likely dominate at this ratio.  I'll choose beers based on a recent tasting of my 13 fermenters

I have chosen the following beers:

• Fermenter #5:
• Overview:
• Aged with ECY01 Bug Farm
• Includes beer fermented with lacto
• Mix of Pilsner and Raw Wheat malt bill
• Lightly hopped
• Aged in glass carboy with silicone bung
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Strong overripe fruit and a bit of almost medicine smelling brett character
• Appearance:  Light gold and very clear
• Flavor:  Lightly sour with a fruity character.  Get a bit of earthy and mineral like flavors as well.  The finish is a balance of acidity and fruit flavors.  I also get a bit of bready character in there.
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and very dry.  Had a mild bit of prickliness on the back of the throat as well
• Overview:  This a boldly flavored beer with a pretty nice level of complexity.  The acidity is at a nice balanced level in this one as well
• Volume:
• 2 gal
• Fermenter #9:
• Overview:
• Aged with ECY 34 Dirty Dozen.  This is the second pitch
• Includes beer that has been lacto fermented
• Grainbill is a mix of Pilsner and Raw Wheat
• No hops in this batch
• Aged in a bucket fermenter with a vented silicone bung
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Musty and earthy along with a bit of fruit
• Appearance:  Light gold and a little bit cloudy
• Flavor:  Lightly sour up front.  Has a fruity flavor (citrus like) and a bit of a musty character.  Also get a bready like character and some mineral flavor. 
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and dry.  Has a fairly sharp acid bite on the back of the throat on the swallow
• Overview:  Pretty bold with a nice fruity character.  Not the most complex beer but it has enough other things going on to make for an interesting beer to drink
• Volume:
• 2 gal
• Fermenter #12:
• Overview:
• Brewed with Bootleg Biology Funk Weapon #3
• Grainbill was a mix of Pilsner and Raw Wheat.  To attempt to better simulate a cereal mash I drew off a quart of very starchy wort from the cereal mash and added this to the boil
• Includes beer which fermented with lacto
• No hops in this batch
• Aged in a bucket with a solid bung
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Fruity and slightly musty smelling
• Appearance:  Golden and quite cloudy
• Flavor:  Very lightly sour with a citrus like character and a bit of mineral flavor
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied with a light prickliness
• Overview:  Fairly mild in flavor without a whole lot in the way of complexity
• Volume:
• 1 gal

I plan to let this beer sit on the cherries for a few months before bottling

Blending Notes:

• 2/25/24:
• Added the cherries to the fermenter
• Siphoned the 3 beers onto the cherries

• Setup the fermenter with an airlock