Slow Progress and Aging

A few minor updates. Last week I bottled the barleywine. It is a sweet, potent concoction, with an original gravity of 1.122 and a finishing gravity of 1.038. That puts it at a low level of attenuation (but better than expected), around 66% apparent. ABV is just over 11%. It used brown sugar and molasses in the boil, and fermented down to around 1.050 with an ale yeast strain. To "unstick" the fermentation I used champagne yeast and the long passage of time. I wasn't expecting it to get into the "30s", a high final gravity range but one that isn't atypical for big barleywines. I had added an ounce of leaf Cascade hops in the tertiary fermentation (more of a bulk aging and clarifying stage) as well as three ounces of oak chips soaked in a quality single barrel bourbon. I bottled with a small amount of brown sugar to prime, mostly in 12oz bottles. This one needs to sit for ages, honestly, but I think it'll be quite good. I hope to hang on to some bottles for many years.

I have not as yet moved either my Double IPA or the Honey Koelsch to secondary. I sampled the DIPA with a hydrometer last night, and was disappointed to find it around 1.040...it had better get down to the "20s" before I transfer it. The original gravity was fairly reasonable, 1.082. There is no reason it should get stuck at 1.040. The Koelsch, being fermented at a lower temperature, is still moving along, so who am I to impose a week-long limit on primary fermentation. I'll let it finish and then transfer it.

I am considering bottling my cider sooner rather than later. It's such a hodgepodge of ideas (apple cider, blackcurrant juice, cranberry juice, brown sugar!!) that I don't really feel the need to age it like a wine. The sample as I racked it to secondary was a little "hot" but not funky or off-tasting at all. Maybe I should exercise patience...but for right now I'll exercise laziness and wait til I've got more time to consider bottling. I might consider spiking it with further cranberry juice to add more "intensity" but that would require a tertiary transfer to a 6 gallon carboy.

I'm also working with an artist friend on the design of a logo or crest for labels. It'd be nice to add a little visual design to this site, for one thing, and also to publicly distributed samples. Wait, that sounds bad, like I'm handing alcohol out to kids on the street. Only to friends at this time. The fact that my last post had several dozens of lines of Shakespeare in it should make it clear that I am not marketing to minors.