Thursday, January 10, 2013

The Barrel Room

3 barrels and stand If you have more than one barrel and they are in a room, does that make it a Barrel Room?  This room is no where near the size of Avery or New Belgian’s but I’m going to nurture this baby and make it special.  This photo shows me filling the first barrel.

So what’s coming?

1. Leopold Brothers Peach Whiskey bbl with Belgian Blonde Ale.

2. Tonnellerie O French oak (Bordeaux) bbl with Belgian Blonde Ale.

3. Leopold Brothers Small Batch Whiskey with Porter.  Like last year, the first fill makes a beer we call Sherpa Prima.

The stand had to be assembled in place, as it barely fits in the space provided.  I built it extra high (can’t see in the photo) so that I can gravity fill kegs. (Plus the extra benefit that it stores some of my kegs underneath as well. Each one empty weighs about 100 lbs, each one contains approx 400lbs of beer, so 1500lb pounds are on this stand.  I hope my engineering and carpentry skills are good, because I just used 2x4, 2x6 and 4x4 to build this. 

I started a barrel-aging log as well, from the advice of Eric who used to work for Wynkoop Brewing Co. and started their barrel aging log book. Based on my experience, we might be able to taste the first fruits of these within two months, but I’m going to age the rest of it longer to see what other flavors develop.

Prost!

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