Batch No. 55 - Theme from the Barrel No. 2

Theme from the Barrel No. 2

Brewed - June 3, 2012

Style - Imperial Porter

Ingredients:

• 11.0 lbs. American 2-Row
• 9.0 lbs. Maris Otter
• 5.0 lbs. Rauch Malt
• 3.0 lbs. Midnight Wheat
• 2.0 lbs. Crystal 60L
• 1.5 lbs. Sugar in the Raw
• 1.5 lbs. Chocolate
• 1.0 lbs. Crystal 90L

• 1.25 oz. Centennial (90)
• 0.75 oz. Cascade (90)
• 0.75 oz. Cascade (30)

• Safale US-05 Dry Yeast (3 packs / no starter)

OG - 1.092
Primary – 25 days
Barrel - ?? days
Secondary - ??? days

Transferred to the barrel -June 28, 2012

Kegged - ???

FG - 1.021
Attenuation - 77.2% 
ABV - 9.3%


Notes:

• Finally brewing one of my favorite styles, an Imperial Porter
• Fermented beer will be dumped into my 7.5-gallon Rye Whiskey Barrel from Woodinville Whiskey Company, which was recently emptied of the American Barleywine
• I'm hoping to get one more good turn out the "fresh" barrel and fuse the imperial porter with the rye whiskey notes; afterwards I will strip and clean the barrel to either use for a few fresh oak beers or turn it loose for sour beers 
• Barrel was rinsed with warm water after transferring out the barleywine and then I burned a sulfur stick in the barrel to prevent microbial growth while it sits for approximately 3 more weeks until the new imperial porter is ready; ideally I would have been more on top of this to have it ready closer to the emptying of the barrel, but I've been busy with NHC beers and the barrel flavors really took off into the barleywine the last 1.5 weeks before transferring it out
• Mash at 152° for 90 minutes
• Turbinado Sugar was added into the boil @ 30 mins to help bump ABV and fermentability
• 90 min boil
• First time using Midnight Wheat malt and the wort had a gorgeous chocolate cappuccino layer as it approached boiling
• I got a normal ~ 10 gallons with this batch, so unlike the barleywine where I used 100% for the barrel, I will have ~ 2.5 gallons of base beer to compare to the barrel-aged version

Updates:

• Hydrated the barrel with water for 2 days prior to transfer
• Transferred to the barrel on June 28, 2012
• Gravity at transfer was 1.021 for a 9.3% ABV
• Transfer to the barrel much easier the 2nd time around!!
• The barrel is definitely bigger than the listed 7.5 gallons; closer to 8.5 gallons and will measure it next time I clean it out