English Barleywine (2025 Version) - Tasting Notes

This is my 12th version of an English Barley wine.  It was brewed on Memorial day 2025 and bottled it about 2 months ago now.

This was based on a historical recipe from the Shut Up About Barclay Perkins Blog: 1879 William Younger No. 1.  It is all base malt (Pilsner, Golden Promise, and Munich) and is fairly heavilly hopped and then was dry hopped in a 5 month secondary.  Also, I cultured brett dregs from Orval and pitched these in secondary - this is a very interesting fruity Brett which I was thinking could go well in an English Barleywine.

Lets see how I did

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Fruity ester character is pretty prominent (apple maybe).  Get some toasty and caramel malt character as well.  Some booze.  Maybe get some hop character in there as well.  It's fairly bold in aroma
• Appearance:
• Pours with only a thin wisp of carbonation.  Dark gold in color and very clear
• Flavor:
• Very fruity up front (a bit of an odd character - this is the contribution of the Brett harvested from Orval).  Caramel and toasty malt come next.  The finish has a fairly firm bitterness.  It's lightly sweet.  The slightly funky fruitiness lingers in the finish along with the hop bitterness.  Get some alcohol character.  Not picking up much in the way of hop flavor but it's complex beer with quite a bit going on that could overshadow the hop flavor on a beer that is already 9 months old
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied and only slightly sticky on the palate.  Drinks pretty smooth
• Overall:
• It's an interesting beer with it's fruit forward character - I think the Brett delivers a character very much in line with what you might expect from an English Barleywine.  The malt is nice but is pretty much overshadowed.  I like the level of bitterness in it.  I think it's a reasonably complex beer and it's pretty light and easy drinking for a ~10% ABV beer - hides the alcohol well and is a bit dryer than many I've made in the past.  Also, appearance is the least concern but I think the color is very nice on this beer - I don't think I got the priming sugar evenly distributed when bottling this batch so this one had little carbonation and I may have some surprises opening the later ones 

French Baguette

This is an attempt to make something resembling a classic French Baguette in my home.  These are fairly simple in terms of ingredients and technique I think but figuring out the right way to cook them to get the lovely crisp and chewy crust is a real challenge. 

I have tried making these a few times now and they've come out pretty well so far - I will likely continue to tweak the process and use this post as a record of what I've done.

Attempt #1:

I have chosen to start out with the recipe from King Author - Classic Baguettes.  With some minor adjustments.

This is a 70% hydration dough which is pretty easy to work with (hydration level is the ratio of water to flour) such that the shaping steps are pretty fun

Recipe Details:

• Preferment:
• 120 g of All Purpose Flour
• 120 g of room temperature Spring Water
• 1/8 g of Dry Instant Yeast
• Main dough:
• 420 g of Flour
• 255 g of room temperature Spring Water
• 1.5 tsp of Dry Instant Yeast
• 2 tsp of Table Salt

Process Details:

• Day 1:
• I mixed up the preferment and left it covered to ferment for 16 hours or so.  This is intended ot give the dough some extra fermented flavor as the main dough is a fairly short fermentation with a large amount of yeast

• Day 2:
• Added the main dough ingredients into the preferment and mixed until all the flour is wetted
• Covered and let the dough sit for 15 min before doing stretch and folds of the dough.  With this you pull up a side of the dough and fold it over on itself.  I did 4 of these.  It's all mixed in the container - it is best done with wet hands to minimize sticking.  It starts out pretty shaggy and then gets smoother over time

• Let it ferment for an hour and did another stretch and fold.  The dough becomes stretchier over time which you can tell from doing the stretch and fold.  The working of the dough is intended to make it stronger (although I'm not really sure that it does)
• I fermented it in the container until it had roughly doubled in size which was a few hours maybe (the temperature of the room will play a big part so I think this is a case by case variable)

• I turned the dough out onto a floured work surface and split it into 4 roughly equal pieces.  These make a loaf of the size I would consider to be the "classic" size.  Dividing into 6 equal pieces would make a "sandwich" sized loaf.  On another attempt I divided it up into 2 pieces and that was good too (although the crust to crumb ratio is better with the 4 loaves I think.
• I pre-shaped these by stretching and folding the dough balls into the middle in attempt to give the loaves some initial tension internally (plus gives an excuse to play with the nice dough a bit - it requires little flour and isn't very sticky at all).  I cover this with a towel and let relax and rise a bit while I prepare the oven.  I think you have quite a bit of flexibility at this stage where you can let them rest longer or shorter depending on when you want to bake

• I pre-heated the oven to 475 F and put in a pan of water to create a moist and steamy backing environment.  I believe this is an important step to get the nice chewy crust
• I did batches of two on each baking run.  I did the final shape on two of the loaves which involves folding them in half lengthwise and then rolling them in your hands until you get a long cylindrical piece
• Move the shaped loaves to a cookie sheet and let them do yet another rise for 30 min or so covered by another pan.  The proofing level you want can be tested by pushing a finger into the dough and then watching how the hole pushes back out.  You want it to fill back but do so "slowly"

• Once proofed I sliced the loaves to create the weak point for it to break during the rise

This is it after the 30 min rise - I considered this "proofed"

• I then put them into the oven for 10 min before opening it to turn the sheet (and let out a big wave of steam).  I gave it another 10 min before the color looked good.  I thought the bottom looked a little light so I flipped the loaves and gave them a couple more min

• Let them cool down to room temp before slicing into them

• They are chewy and crusty with a very good flavor.  I feel like I can do better with the crust though.  I plan to refine my process further and will post an Attempt #2 if/when I feel like I've improved on this writeup

Raspberry Wine (2022 Version) - Tasting Notes

This is my fourth version of Raspberry Wine.  For this one I have used 58 lbs of home-grown raspberries and 12 lbs of sugar to ferment which got me about 5 gal of 13% ABV wine.  I used campden tablets to ensure fermentation was halted and back sweetened the wine to 1.025 which balances out the alcohol and tartness of the fruit a bit. 

I bottled this back in January 2024.  I haven't consumed many of these yet even though I've had them for a while.  Excited to be capturing some notes finally. 

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Tart and jammy raspberry along with booze and some fermentation character
• Appearance:
• Dark red (almost purple) and fairly clear when you hold it up to a light
• Flavor:
• Rich fruit flavor up front and then booze hits - it is a fairly mellow alcohol flavor - not hot.  Tart on the finish with just a slight sweetness.  Has a bit of a bitter character as well
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied and only slightly sticky on the pallet.  Maybe a little astringent
• Overall:
• It is a boldly flavored wine with some nice complexity.  The tart and bitter flavors are quite a bit more pronounced than the sweetness on this one so I think it's a bit less drinkable than otherwise - a glass is nice but I can't see reaching for a second in a night

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 recipies over time to see if  one really can make something as good as Kahlua 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 (9-28-25):

Mine (L) and Kahlua (R)

For my first attempt, I am using 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 bottle
• Tasting 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 source).  This is a good data point for next time

Attempt #2 (1-1-26):

For the second attempt at this I'm am going to try to increase the coffee flavor which was a major difference between Attempt #1 and Kahlua.  To do this I'm going to use freeze dried coffee which can more easily be used to increase concentration than drip coffee.  I will use the same recipe otherwise

L to R:  Kahlua, Attempt #1, Attempt #2

• Recipe:
• 4 cups white sugar
• 20g of Freeze dried French Roast Coffee

• 2 cups of water
• 4 cups of Oak Aged Everclear (bourbon) at ~62% ABV
• 2 tbs of imitation vanilla extract
• Process:
• I combined the sugar, freeze dried coffee, and boiling water 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 bottle
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:
• Rich coffee then oaky and boozy bourbon
• Appearance:
• Dark brown and fairly clear.  Leaves legs on the glass
• Flavor:
• Strong coffee flavor with a very sweet and syrupy character.  Pretty boozy with the flavor of the bourbon clearly present
• Mouthfeel:
• Full bodied and sticky on the palate
• Overall:
• Rich and syrupy with a really nice coffee character.  It's fairly complex with the bourbon
• Comparison to Kahlua:
• The Kahlua has a richer coffee flavor and a chocolaty character which mine lacks (tastes a lot like Hersey's syrup actually).  As I noticed with the last one, Kahlua is a bit more syrupy than mine.  I think Attempt #2 has a lot more coffee flavor than Attempt #1 did and is better tasting and smelling

Attempt #3 (3/5/26):

For my third attempt I am going to try to get some chocolate flavor like I detect in the original.  I am going to be using Hershey's Chocolate Syrup for this.  I am also planning on increasing the amount of coffee in this one.

L to R:  Kahlua, Attempt #2, and Attempt #3

• Recipe:
• 4 cups sugar
• 1 Cup Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

• 30g of Freeze dried French Roast Coffee
• 1 Cup water
• 4 cups of Oak Aged Everclear (bourbon) at ~62% ABV
• 2 tbs of imitation vanilla extract
• Process:
• Same as before.  Combined all the ingredients in a jar.  With just 1 cup of boiling water that sugar didn't dissolve all the way but I got most of it
• Transfered into an old Kahlua bottle for serving
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:
• Rich chocolate and coffee on the nose along with oaky whiskey character
• Appearance:
• It is very dark and murky.  It leaves a film on the glass
• Flavor:
• Chocolate and coffee flavor are bold.  It is quite sweet.  The booze is in there as well but it's  pretty far in the background comparitively
• MouthFeel:
• Thick and syrupy.  Very sticky on the pallat - not that great to drink by itself
• Overall:
• It's very syrupy and definately delivered the chocolate flavor - I think it's more chocolate than coffee which isn't really what I wanted.  I make a White Russian with this and the syrup sinks to the bottom and is resistant to mixing into the drink.  A little too thick I think.  I wouldn't use the chocolate syrup again - I'll try a cocoa powder next
• Comparison to Kahlua:
• The character isn't really any closer to Kahlua than the previous entries although it fails in new ways.  This new one has much more chocolate character than Kahlua and is much thicker.  I think the overall flavor profile of Kahlua is just much nicer - you want a bit of chocolate but nowhere near as much as I added to this one

Attempt #4 (7/2/26):

In my last attempt I added chocolate syrup which both overwelmed the coffee and created a much more syrupy final product.  I still thing chocolate is a helpful addition but will try a Dutch processed cocoa powder this time.  Also, I am going to increase the freeze dried coffee again

Kahlua Left and Attempt #4 Right

• Recipe:
• 4 cups sugar
• 40g Freeze Dried Coffee
• 20g Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder

• 2 Cup Water
• 4 Cups Oak Aged Everclear (Bourbon) at ~62% ABV 
• 2 tbs imitation Vanilla Extract
• Process details:
• Same as last time - dissolved sugar, coffee and chocolate in hot water in a ball jar and then added the alcohol once it had cooled
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:
• Strong coffee and chocolate aromas along with firm whiskey character
• Appearance:
• Dark brown.  Leaves a bit of a film on the glass
• Flavor:
• Rich coffee and chocolate flavor.  Very sweet.  The finish has a nice balance between chocolate and coffee - maybe a bit towards chocolate.  The alcohol comes through but it's "whisky character" is mostly hidden behind the other flavors
• Mouthfeel:
• Sticky.  Warming alcohol flavor
• Overall:
• This is the best one so far.  It is really rich with strong coffee element and chocolate giving it a bit of extra support.  It is syrupy but not so much that it is difficult to mix into a white russian.  I think it has a nice level of sweetness.
• Comparison to Kahlua:
• It has a different smell than Kahlua but I'd say the coffee character is roughtly on the same level of intensity.  Flavor wise, a similar story - flavors are slightly different, like different coffee types were used here, but the intensity of coffee flavor is very much on par with mine being maybe a bit bolder.  I think I prefer the flavor of mine - it's more complex.  The Kahlua has a lighter body than mine and seems slightly less sweet - consumed strait I think I prefer the level of sweetness in the Kahlua - maybe a bit less sugar next time but otherwise I feel like this is a very good recipe

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