Barrel Era

Cabernet Sauvignon Barrel From Pollack Vinyards

        So I finally took the plunge and bought a barrel.  I was going down to Charlottesville, VA for what turned out to be Midsummer's ( a weekend where a lot of UVA kids go back to Charlottesville between two summer school sessions) so I went on the Virginia Wine Exchange to see if any used barrels were being sold. I found an advertisement for clean neutral barrels from a winery just outside of Charlottesville at a decent price and decided it was a good a time as any to officially start barrel aging. The following Sunday Kelly (girlfriend) went out to Pollack Vineyards about 25 minutes west of Charlottesville to pick up the Cabernet Sauvignon barrel they had reserved for me.  The winery is beautiful and the staff was extremely helpful in discussing sanitation techniques and allowing me to look around and sniff the barrels available. I'm not very experienced with sniffing bungs but it smelled intensely of wine with no real vinegary or moldy scents.There was a hint of frustration/ disappointment from the staff that the barrel would eventually be inoculated with the very yeast and bacteria they worked so hard to keep out of the barrel during their stewardship. After loading the barrel into the car, Kelly and I did a  wine tasting, sat on the porch for a while just taking in the view, made a quick trip to Devil's Backbone for a flight and nachos, and then finally headed back to DC in the late afternoon.  I'll post my plan for the barrel once I've got it firmly established.

The Winery is in a valley surrounded by the
blue ridge mountains. This photo really doesn't give it justice

Back On The Bull

I've always wondered if anyone has ever tried riding a bull in the same sense that horses are ridden. Obviously there are serious limitations to the actual use of a bull as steed and companion and the amount of danger involved with training a bull would far outweigh the benefits, but humans have been far more stubborn, in achieving far less meaningful or cool things, so I should probably look into this more.

Weekend at the Dogfish Brewery and Brewpub.
The Easternshore is a great drive when snow covered.

This speculation came up through attempting to explain why I haven't been blogging and how I'm going to get back on it.  Basically, I'm not getting back on a horse, getting kicked off is more explainable, the attempt of remounting more daunting (not really), and the purpose far more formidable.

In reality, I've been brewing a fair amount and writing a lot of notes that are thorough enough just to scattered and segmented to be blogged about. I've found just dumping everything in Evernote is a lot easier and realistic way of processing beer information.  The reason why I've decided to keep up this blog is as a reference point for friends so I don't break into 30 minute explanations of the beer I've been brewing.  In moving forward with this blog I'm going to drop an intensive recording of every brew, and go with more thematic posts and digging into certain beers that I learned a lot from and were particularly interesting.

To sum up what I should have posted:

I have tasting notes on Saison 1.0, Celleach Beta, Saison 2.0, and American Saison.  Saison 1.0 beat out some pretty impressive saisons in a blind tasting. also got a basic understanding of the differences between Wyeast 3724 and 3711.  Ceallach Beta also turned out well.  Saison 2.0 and American Saison were perfectly good.

Amarillo Wheat Ale was a spur of the moment brew which was very amarillo forward. perfectly drinkable but not exciting.

The Hopfen-Weisse Clone turned out extremely well.  Unfortunately, after the 4th month or so it became over carbonated.  no sign of infection though.

the Two Hearted Ale Clone was my first all-grain attempt.  ended up mashing 2-3 degrees low.  My attempt was pretty close a little drier and you could tell my yeast profile was a bit more expressive as well as different then Bell's proprietary strain.

The rest of the beers I will have more competent tasting notes on and will save for later. I also just organized all my recipes and brew day notes, and should be getting them up under the beers section over the next month or so.