I'd like 1 pack from STL W&B - I'll probably go the starter route too my 10 gallons

Put me down for 1 pack of the yeast.

I'll take two packs of the yeast. I'd rather buy a pack for each carboy than bother with making a starter.

On the recipe, can we use 2 row as the base malt, or are we expected to use the German Pilsener malt?

I drove out to the cooperage to pick up these barrels on Friday afternoon. On my way back I dropped them off at O'Fallon where they will be swelled/sanitized with ~170F water and filled later next month. I'll work with Brian on figuring out a fill date for the barrels but it'll be sometime later next month.

If you guys could bring the money for the barrels to Tuesday's meeting that would be great. I came out of pocket for $60 x2 and roughly $40 in gas. The barrels hold 59g so it'll cost $6.66/ea 5g donated.

Jeff/Scott: is this a situation where we could have the club cover the barrel expenses? There are a significant number of people brewing this beer and the club will gain 6+ kegs of this for festivals. To me it seems justified but it's not my decision.

Also I'll be hosting a Flanders brewday on Saturday, August 6th if anyone is interested is brewing at my place. I'd like to get started earlier rather than later since I have to DJ that night so maybe 9 or 10am.

As a reminder, I'm taking over 5 gallons of Tim H's allotment. (Thanks for making room for me, Tim.)
Also, I'm gonna need a packet of yeast. Can I get in on the STL Wine and Beer special order?

There is one small issue that I would like clarification on. The recipe is for 6 gallons. Am I only supposed to bring 5 gallons of it to add to the barrel and just bottle/drink the rest?

I will still take 2 packs of Roeselare. I will probably go ahead and make 20 gallons. 10 for the barrel and 10 to age at home myself or if we need some top up.

Wouldn't you need 4 packs for 20 gallons (one per 5 gallons)? Or are you going to build it up?

I'll take 2 packs.

I already have 2 packs in the fridge.

I have the slurry from my last batch for us.

Jamil formulates his recipes for 6 gallons at the end of boil. That way when you factor in losses from kettle to carboy and carboy to keg, you end up with a full 5 gallons of clean beer. If you can salvage that extra gallon into a drinkable beer, then you are more than welcome to package it up and enjoy. We just need a full 5 gallons to get the barrel filled as much as possible without a whole lot of head space.

Is anyone brewing an extract batch for this? Just curious.

Also, I'm heading over to STL W&B this afternoon to give Dave a heads up on the yeast order.

EDIT:
Order has been place for 7 smack packs. Dave didn't collect a deposit but he has your names on a list under GBS. He mentioned the order will be placed first thing Saturday morning so you'll need to update or cancel directly with him before then. He was a little cautious of ordering so much of a yeast that probably wouldn't move easily so do your best to make things right with him on this order.

If you want to be added to the order just call the store and ask to be included in the GBS order.

The yeast will be delivered next Thursday and be ready for pickup after UPS drops it off which is usually late morning. I suggest calling the store to confirm delivery before driving out to pick it up.

Jim - I've been sick this week and we're getting close to move date, so it's hectic as hell right now (not to mention stressful). Just let me know what I owe you for barrel/travel and I'll hook you up next time we see each other.

Also, how long are we going to be fermenting before we load up the barrel? I am trying to figure the best time to brew factoring in the move (not to mention finding the time to brew!). It might be a good idea to get a backup for me depending on timing.....the next 6-8 weeks are going to suck.

Jim

We're all brewing the first two weeks of August and we'll fill the barrel the last week of August or the first week of September. My last batch is doing just fine sitting in carboys and that was brewed nearly a month ago. We could easily add it to the barrel as your portion if you can't make it in time so don't count yourself out yet.

Alright cool. I'm going to try to get a few batches going over the next couple weeks, but we could just as easily move in 2 weeks and screw my brew plans up. We're in limbo on the water hookup until next week, but if they approve it on Monday, my house could be done by end of week.

I was reading Michael Tonsmeire's Mad Fermentationist blog post http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2008/10/plan-wine-barrel-flanders-red.html about when he did a 60 gallon wine barrel Flanders Red. He said that in addition to the already fermented beer that everyone contributed, they also added 5 gallons of unfermented wort to "provide some easily fermentable sugars to get the microbes moving".

Is that something that we should do/have thought about doing?

I hadn't read this, but honestly, I did have this thought in the back of my mind. I was considering asking if I could brew a bit later than everyone else and just add my fresh wort directly to the barrel. Jim, you're running this deal so read up and let me know what you think....if it works for the beer, it might work better for me too.

If we do want to go this way, let me know because I have a pack of roselare someone else can use.

This is kind of a random question, but was anyone who is brewing for this project planning to use a non-soured ale pail as a primary fermenter and essentially 'sacrifice/designate' that one for sour beer going forward? The reason I ask is that my buddy Matt and I just finished up a 12 gallon peach ale project today, and when bottling, noticed a white film on the surface of all of the peach beers. I immediately recognized it as a pelicle and upon sampling, sure enough, our beers were sour. I was already planning on sacrificing one of my buckets to the cause of fermenting sour beers, but he wasn't.

We have 4 reasonably new 6.5 gal ale pails (and a bottling bucket) with lids that may potentially be inoculated, that we would like to trade with anyone who has a non-soured bucket that they were going to sour anyway.

The good news is that I may now have something to enter in the COC next month!

The only issue I can see with this is the possibility of the yeast krausening up again and trying to work it's way out of the barrel. If you guys don't think it'll happen like that then I'm fine with it.

For those of you that ordered the Roeselare from STL W&B, the order is in. I grabbed mine this afternoon.

I brewed my beer today. Ended up with an O.G. of 1.063. I can't say the beer is particularly red, though. I had a hard time getting the wort chilled, I could only get it down to 78*. I even make a small chiller out of 20 feet of copper tubing and ran it through an ice bath before the main chiller. After $7 and four bags of ice, I decided 78* would have to do.

Anybody else get theirs brewed this weekend?

Yep. DBlue and I made our 20g. We ended up getting ours to ~80F and just threw it in my fermentation freezer until it hit 70F for pitching at 2am. We probably should have waited for it to hit 65F but I was drunk. I'm sure everything will be fine. RDWHAHB

Mine is currently fermenting at 76*. I disconnected one of the A/C vent from upstairs so I could get some cooling in that room. I've decided that when we get a new fridge, one the old ones is going to just be used for fermentation.

Who has brewed this already? So far I have Joey, Jerry (Spartan), dblue and myself. I want to say that Andrew (stolenricecakes) also brewed his but I'm not 100%. This is the last weekend we agreed upon to brew and so we could fill the barrels later this month. Is anyone facing an issue where they won't be able to have the beer ready to hit the barrel in 2-3 weeks? The ferment will take around 2 weeks if you can keep it in the mid 60s for the first week and ambient basement temps for the remaining week. Trust me, it will kick back into gear when you get into the low to mid 70s.

I will be brewing 10 gallons tomorrow morning. Depending on how time goes, maybe I can knock out another 5.

Mine's fermenting at 72. Still pretty active after 5 days. I was surprised to still see 2 inches of foam in the carboy at this point.