Sunday, October 02, 2005

Making Beer: Altbier & Barleywine

Here we go again! I decided to put my most recent batch behind me. I keep tasting it every now and then hoping that it really isn't that bad and....well, it is that bad. Time to pitch it. You know what they say, "On to bigger, bitter and better beer." Okay, so I made that one up...heheh :-) On Thursday night John, Tim, Jeremy and Bryan came over and we brewed the Black Alt. I don't know what a Black Altbier is, but, that's what I'll call it for now. Things went so well Thursday night that we decided to brew a batch that I had been sitting on for a long time, the Barleywine. Bryan, Matt, Jeremy and Jackie were there to take part in the process. I can always blame them if the beer sucks...heheh ;-) Will it be strong? You bet, we used almost 14 pounds of malt extract! Is it hoppy? Yeah I'd say so. Bryan calculated the IBUs at almost 92! So, is there a downside to this barleywine? The only thing that is a bit disappointing is that it will require some patience. Barleywine is supposed to be bottle conditioned from 6 to 12 months as I understand it. Good thing I can look forward to the Black Alt in a few weeks. Both nights were perfect. We were outside in the cool autumn weather taking it all in :-)

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