Give me back my barrel stand, jerk.

You can find it somewhere here:

Stop arguing and go play outside! - Mama Scespen




+1



Really? 86" circumference is under 27 1/2 in diameter. I would think it would be bigger around. Anyway, a truck would be better but I can get it with my Cherokee. I think I can get both in the back but at worst, one in the back and one on top strapped to the roof rack. We can whistle the theme song to Beverly Hillbillies all the way back. There better be someplace to get a beer when we get there.

Yes Jeff, I would like to get in on the Porter/Stout project.

AHEM!

I asked the owner of the place and he said we probably want to bring a truck just in case. Also, they serve O'Fallon's Deer Beer.

Depending on when we would need to pick the barrels up I may be able to pick em up.

If you need a pickup truck I have 2 that I can use (personnel and work). I also have a covered trailer. What ever you need. Tell me when and where.

Here is an update on where we are with the project and what I need from those who signed up:

- The barrels are ready for pickup so I need a volunteer to formally step up and drive out to the cooperage to pick these up and hold onto them until we establish a place to keep them long-term. You can get them anytime in the next couple weeks but I'll collect the money ($5 per 5G) at the next meeting and give it to you. If you are donating a portion to a festival I'll speak with the club officers to see if the club could cover the costs of that portion plus some silicone bungs for the barrels and airlocks (for the first couple weeks).

- I'm looking for someone who has experience sanitizing barrels to assist with prepping these for our project. Sure we're adding bugs to the barrel but we want to make sure the barrel has the bugs we want. Sulfer strips or hot water treatments are what I'd recommend but I'll leave that up to whoever signs up. I'm pretty sure O'Fallon has 170F in their boiler so perhaps we could handle this task up there.

- Establish brewday(s): Either the weekend of 7/31-8/1 or August 8/7-8/8 work for me. Since we are doing two barrels maybe we could just set the date to those two weekends. It is critical that we top these barrels off so if you can't brew on these dates you need to offer another date or bow out sooner rather than later. Regardless, we'll need appropriate notice if you cannot brew your portion so we can open it up to someone else. Don't be a dick and embarrass yourself by committing to brew then flake out at the last minute. Sure things come up and we understand which is why we are offering two weekends.

- Ferment regimen: We probably want to reconsider doing primary fermentation in the barrel since my carboys are going nuts from my batch of Flanders Red brewed over the weekend. Perhaps we wait a week after the brewday and then rack into the barrels?

- Place to keep the barrels for 12-18 months: I saw some volunteers in the list. Now that we've established the rough brew dates I'll need some type of commitment. Sorry, but my house is off limits this time and we'll need someone who has the self-control to not drink samples everyday. Brian has offered us storage for these barrels at O'Fallon Brewery but we'll need to purchase a barrel rack (~$100) and the ferment would need to be near done (not spewing everywhere). The last thing they want is a brett infection in the brewery but they are cool with it if the barrels are bunged/sealed.

I also want to put this out there:
If you are planning on using buckets to ferment this beer, go ahead and forget about using them for anything other than sour beer or for grain storage in the future. Same goes for any type of plastic tubing or racking canes, etc. It will be infected forever. I have a set of plastics that I use solely for sour beers and I recommend doing the same or borrowing someone's from the club on this project. Kegs should be ok if you completely disassemble them and clean/sanitize as normal after use. I plan on replacing all of the o-rings on my kegs but that's up to you.

Also, we won't be able to use a pump to pull the beer out of the barrel when it's done unless you want to buy someone a new plastic head since theirs will become infected. I recommend we take Brian up on his offer to house the beer at the brewery but we'll need to have another discussion with him to nail down specifics. He has a forklift there and could lift the barrels to appropriate racking height so a pump wouldn't be necessary. Plus, the brewery gets really warm in the summertime and bugs tend to like that. The only thing I'm unsure about is how the temp swings will affect the bugs and whether or not it's good for them. My assumption is that 60g of liquid isn't going to change temp very quickly so maybe it's not a big issue.

Ok, I'm done (for now).

I'm good with these brew dates, but am definitely hurting in the grain department. Does anyone have interest in doing a bulk ingredient buy - or just get the ingredients on our own?

August 7 works for me.

If you need sacks on the quick, I received an e-mail that STL W&B will be making bulk grain orders every 2 weeks.

The two weekend time frame will work for me.

Heard there may be room for 5 gal. Count me in if there's room. (This is the second try to post this)

Sure, what's your first name?

If someone else shows interest in joining let me know and I'll skip out on my 5g festival donation. I'm sure we can have others do the same if there is more than one person wanting to get in on this.

Also, this afternoon I dropped by O'Fallon to speak with Brian. He has room for these barrels as long as we're done with primary fermentation so I'll work with him to coordinate the times/dates that we will fill these up, that is of course if you guys are cool with keeping these at the brewery.

As far as barrel racks go, Stroup hooked us up with a craigslist post with someone trying to get rid of two 3-barrel racks. I'm going by there this afternoon to pick these up for $20/each. EDIT: Racks have been purchased.

Brian was very excited that we could get these and is more than happy to be doing this for us. Next time you see Brian or anyone else from the brewery please be sure to thank them for supporting our club.

Great! Bulldog is Bob Brandt

Is the Consecration clone still in the mix? If so, we're talking about brewing twice (assuming we're still talking two recipes) and you want one of each, otherwise it's a single brew session.

Historically, Stone hasn't had a problem sharing hints or recipes (see BYO, 12/08)

I think the first two barrels will be the Flanders.

I am more than willing to give up 5 or 10 gallons of my festival donation to anyone wanting to get in on the project. I think we will have plenty to donate. I do want 10 gallons for myself though.

They are pretty open to giving out recipes and information. They have a few can you brew it clones on the BN. The only thing they don't give out info on is Arrogant Bastard.

Fermentation update:
The carboys on my personal batch of Flanders went absolutely crazy. They didn't need blowoff tubes during the primary ferment but after that the bugs started cranking once the temp ramped to 75 and my airlocks were filling with yeast and bacteria. 13 days in and there are gigantic air bubbles forming in the krausen, which seems like the early stage of pellicle formation. I think we should wait at least 2 weeks after brewing to fill the barrels based on my experience.

Also, I plan on picking up the barrels tomorrow. There's a possiblity I could escape from the office for a few hours to run up there to pick them up. When I got the barrel racks last week they laid down flat in my Explorer so I'm sure a couple barrels would fit in that space.

I also have a pickup if you need to make a run and if Critchdog has to work when you want to go. Has there been a decision on the yeast of choice? Seems there was some talk of a couple of options.

The yeast will be 100% Rosaelare blend from Wyeast. We will not be doing Cal Ale first then switching to the Rosaelare mid-ferment.

Rosaelare is available by special order and I strongly suggest you to order it sooner than later. If you want to get some from STL Wine and Beer, I can ask Dave to place an order in advance and let him know we will need quite a few packs so they will be at the store ready for pickup. In fact, if you plan on buying the yeast local, post in this thread so I can get an idea for Dave's big order. Starters will not be necessary with this yeast unless you are propagating enough for more than 5g.

I assume I am doing 20 gallons still? Does anyone else not signed up want to get in on this?

I will take two packs from STL W & B if I am doing 20. If I am only doing 10 then I already have two packs of the Roeselare that are a few months old that would probably require starters

Jim, what did you end up doing with your starter? Were you able to decant or just pitch the whole thing in.

I'm still under the impression that we are brewing enough for 2 wine barrels. Actually I wanted to mention since these barrels are ~3-3.5 hours away (round trip), would you guys be nice enough to pitch in on fuel costs as well?

For my starter I made 5.5L for 10g out of a single pack that was around 3 months old. It was done a few days in advance so I could have time to crash and decant it. The aroma coming out of the flask was awesome and there was plenty of yeast there to kick off activity in 3 hours. I was really shocked that it started that quick since I was underpitching per Mr. Malty's yeast calculator. From what I've read, one single pack of Rosaelare is enough to pitch into 5g which totally contradicts his calculator. It seems the desire for the ale yeast portion of the blend to attenuate the beer just a little bit before the bugs take over have a lot to do with it.

Right now there are ping pong ball sized air bubbles in the 3" or so of "krausen" which seems to be the start of the pellical formation. Not much activity is happening anymore so this weekend I'll siphon out as much trub and yeast possible from the two carboys and rinse it for my next 15g batch.