Oak Barrels

We three convened last night for three purposes.  First, we transferred the Sweet Brains from the primary fermenter into the oak barrel I purchased at the Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival.  The barrel has not been used to age any bourbon or other spirits despite my plans.  Really, it came down to me not wanting to buy five gallons of bourbon and then store it.  So it's been filled with water for the past month.  However, upon draining the barrel, I noticed something wonderful: the water smelled like oak, vanilla and all sorts of other great things.  This is very encouraging for a beer that has come in at 12.5% ABV.  Hopefully this will counteract any strong alcohol burn in the finish.  We are all really excited by this experiment which is now working its magic in Dan's closet.

Second, we needed to finally plan out our lager for the Pilsner Urquell competition in August.  We need to brew soon so we have time for a second version should the first one come out poorly.  This is a distinct possibility considering this is our first lager and it will be entered into a national competition.  We decided on a Pilsner Urquell clone with a slightly different yeast strain and some dry-hopping.  We're also using leaf hops instead of pellet hops for the first time!

I also decided on an amber alt ale for my end-of-the-year party beer.  This will be the lowest ABV beer we've made so far and hopefully the most accessible.  This little undertaking will happen after the lager is fermented.

Casey still has only one post.

Third, we drank beer.  Good times.