What to blend with this?

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simpleton
Piss Artist
Posts: 105
Joined: Wed Jul 10, 2013 10:14 am

What to blend with this?

Post by simpleton » Mon Apr 02, 2018 11:49 am

Morning,

Sometime ago my life was facing a period of instability (to say the least) and all my brewing gear had to go into storage. I had few of those 30 liter polykegs and figured at the time I should at least fill them with something that would benefit from extended ageing and then at least when I get them out of storage I would have potentially something nice to drink.

So I brewed a belgium strong and a RIS. The stout was oaked for a week with some of them bourbon barrell chunks from Malt Miller before going into the keg. They were soaked in bourbon for about a week and the whole lot went in. It went in at 10.2% and a OG of 1018 (roughly, I have lost the beersmith recipe due to my laptop going tits). The idea was to age them both for 6-12months.

Fast forward 3.5 years. Both of these kegs have been through quite a stressful existence. Multiple moves, storage in a wide range of temperatures. 2 summers in a shed. Exposed to winter temps down to -10c. They are poly kegs too so almost certainly some oxygen has got into them. But they held pressure the whole time. So i cracked them open last week. And bloody nora, they are not the same beers that went in those kegs.

The belgium strong is a write off. Its measured gravity was zero so something had carried on doing something in that keg. It was brutally strong on the pallete and had all sorts of undesirable funk going on. I suspect something had got into the keg. That went down the drain. I did try and blend it as a test with a belgium single I had made which was lacking something. Didn't work, so it went.

The RIS though was quite something. Certainly nowhere near a RIS anymore (it tasted excellent going into the keg, best RIS I had ever brewed for sure). Most of the roast malt flavour has died right down and now is dominated by a bretty old ale taste. Lots of oak. It is very complex, funky, slight tang to it. Finishes with a feint roast taste, nothing too heavy. Very nice but since it too has come down a few points, it also very strong. And half a wine glass of it is about my limit of drinking it. It is a mystery to as where the brett character had come from as I am fairly sure I only brewed with brett once and that was just after this was kegged. But it was sometime ago and my memory is hazy. Potentially the oak I guess but it is hard to say, might have left a bit in there by mistake. Might not actually be brett as the beer does still have some body. 3 years in a keg with bret presumably means a FG of zero. Mind you the kegs could well have frozen and defrosted at some point in their journey!

So I am going to blend it with something. My brew pal thinks its fairly close to his perfect beer. But what?

So far I am thinking 1) an english mild with a very fruity english yeast purposely brewed to finish quite high (1020ish). Windsor would seam a good shout for the yeast. Add a bit of the body back in to the beer and bring the ABV down to about 8-9% which is about my tolerance. Option 2 is another stout but not massively keen. And option 3 is to do number 1 to bring the ABV right down but also dump 1kg of cherry puree in there with a selection of bugs. And then put it a carboy for another year or so. Or perhaps something more experimental? Open to all ideas!

Cheers,
Si

jaroporter
Drunk as a Skunk
Posts: 996
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Re: What to blend with this?

Post by jaroporter » Mon Apr 02, 2018 1:43 pm

3 years in a keg with bret presumably means a FG of zero
not neccessarily.

sounds like a fun opportunity really. i'd definitely be tempted with further souring n all that jazz for some of it. then i'd probably just brew whatever milds/porters/pales i wanted to drink anyways and just blend a bit from the keg into the glass at serving time to see if it adds anything to any of them. could keep that up for a while and not risk ruining a whole batch of mild..
dazzled, doused in gin..

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