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| Pellicle after topping off. 3.5 months in the barrel and the Lactic Acid is pumping in this beer right now! We used some aggressive yeast and bacteria blends and it shows! Way better then any sour beer I have going in a carboy or bucket. |
Eight of the members of the Nordeast Brewers Barrel aging project came over to my place on Saturday and sampled the barrel and here are my thoughts on how it’s coming along. It tastes AMAZING and I couldn’t be happier with the direction it’s going. It feels really great to have so much time, consideration, and collaboration, all come together and turn into something amazing!
Tasting notes
Appearance – completely still because it’s pulled
from the barrel. Yellow color with a hint of brown that’s definitely a
contribution of the oak.
Aroma -belgian esters, bready malt, tartness, and slight oak is evident.
Flavor - Starts out and hits you with a nice lactic
tartness, the middle is slighty malty and the oak sneaks up on you after
a few sips. It’s hard to pull it out, but the oak is definitely
starting to come through. The finish is dry, yet it has an interesting
sweetness that hits you at the very end of the sip. Gravity is at
1.002 so we feel that the sweetness is most likely coming from the
sugars in the wood either from the oak itself, or from the Honeywine
that previously was in the oak, or both. Mouth waters and brings you
back for more! Tiny bit of acetic bite on the finish.
Mouthfeel - Tart, thin – medium body
Overall - Damn…this is a fucking fantastic beer
already! We are planning on letting it sit for another 3 months to get
some additional brett characteristics going, and to let it become more
intensely sour.
(PH: 3.4)
(PH: 3.4)
Were you expecting the beer to get so dry?
ReplyDeleteAnd that is good news to hear that the beer is turning out well.
Also how did you take your sample?
I did expect it to get really dry because of the yeast and bacteria we used. In addition to multiple strains of brett, lacto, and pedio, there is also some Saison yeast that is still probably alive. It took a while to get this low though which is interesting. We used 3rd generation roselare blend (which also had dregs from a dozen sour beers), and some ECY20. Some major diversity going on.
ReplyDeleteFor the sample, I have a Stainless steal screw towards the bottom of the barrel that I unscrewed and pull from the bottom of the barrel. I'd like to get a SS Nail, but can't find one. 8 of us sampled it so I pulled a couple liters out, and then topped it off when we were done.